“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” ― Adlai E. Stevenson II
Republicans may not be enthused with the use of an Adlai Stevenson quote but Saturday’s Precinct Mass Meetings are a good demonstration of “tranquil and steady dedication.” Georgia Republican held the mass meetings on Saturday in “Large” county with populations over 80,000 in order to elect delegates and alternate delegates to the county conventions. The County Conventions will be held on March 19. The county convention then elects delegates to the Congressional District Conventions and State Convention. The county convention also can work on passing resolutions. The State Convention then selects delegates to the Republican National Convention and “conducts other business as necessary.”
Giving up half of your Saturday in order to select delegates in order to select other delegates is not the most exciting part of democracy but in our two party system, the slow slog of meetings and deciding of rules is what helps it all function. Any county resident who was legally registered to vote by February 1 and “believes in the principles of the Republican Party are urged to participate in the process.”
The crowd at the Midtown Mass Meeting in Atlanta was not big but the ones that turned out were in a good mood and, between checking phones to monitor South Carolina primary voting, glad to be involved.
John Bush, an Associate Attorney at Bryan Cave LLP, and in this case, more importantly Mass Meeting Chairman for Midtown, describes the mass meetings as a way for people to come together in their neighborhoods and organize from the grassroots up. This early in the cycle, the party is hoping for as many people to turn out as possible. Another goal of Saturday was to use software to help improve the data that will be used for registration and credentialing at future conventions.
According to Bush, ” In looking back at past convention cycles and how other counties handled registration, the Fulton County GOP concluded, among other things, that we needed better data input at the mass meetings in order to improve everyone’s experience both at the mass meeting and at the county convention. We learned some lessons from this first attempt in 2016 that will improve the mass meetings in 2017.”
Presidential politics will weigh heavily over the various conventions this year. At the Mass Meeting in Midtown, three representatives for presidential candidates stood up to talk about their candidate. Time was limited but representatives from the Governor Kasich, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio campaigns got up to talk about their guy and talk about the latest efforts in Georgia.
Another participant, from South Fulton, stood up to tout the efforts there to form a new city in Fulton County. There have been a lot of cityhood movements in Fulton County in the past decade mostly concentrated in the northern part of the county but at least some in South Fulton are looking to capitalize on the potential for cityhood as well.
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson
Voting is certainly an important part of participation but in order to make it all run, there has to be more than that. Saturday showed that there at least some willing to contribute to that effort.
