The Texas Democratic Convention took place at the Austin Convention Center from June 5th to the 7th. It was an all out hatefest but I guess that is to be expected from Texas.
I was an alternate delegate for Obama for Texas Senatorial District 17. My friend was a regular delegate for Obama. The moment we entered the convention on Friday morning we were instantly struck by how totally disorganization, and poorly managed the convention was.
It took some time to find the meeting place for our Senatorial District because not a single convention official knew where it was. When we did find the meeting place we were again stunned by what we found. There were a large number of different Senatorial Districts lined up side by side and back to back each with its own public address system. It was almost a complete fiasco with each Senatorial District trying to out volume the others so that their participating delegates could hear the important information being disseminated. As one Senatorial District turned up the volume the next turned up the volume even more until there was an almost constant blare of feedback.
Miraculously we were able to finish the opening business however there were many rules violates because the people in charge of our Senatorial District 17 were almost completely incompetent.
Next all the Senatorial Districts came together in a massive, flat, convention space for the opening ceremonies. There was a very, very, very long invocation that was one huge Christian proselytizing extravaganza but again I guess that is to be expected from Texas.
Next was a bunch of unity speeches given by various Democrats and one very noticeable thing was that every time someone spoke the word “unity” the Hillary Clinton people lowered their Hillary posters. Then there was the Chelsea Clinton speech.
Chelsea Clinton told the crown that her mother was going to suspend her Presidential campaign and indorse Barack Obama. It was as if the Hillary people had heard this for the first time. It was as if the Hillary people realized for the very first time that it was over. A huge number of the Hillary delegates left right after Chelsea Clintons speech and never came back to finish their delegate duties.
During the unity speeches there were a group of white delegates directly in front of me and of course since this it Texas many of the speech givers spoke some Spanish to pander to the large Hispanic caucus. Each and every time this was done these white folks would make very racist remarks about Hispanics and it was at this point I realized the Texas Democratic Convention was full of racist, bigots, homophobes and misogynists delegates. It was just an all out hatefest and they were all Democrats.
My mother told me she felt that there were a lot of misogynists in the Democratic Party and I sort of blew that off because I was not a Hillary supporter and I am not a misogynist. I assumed that she felt this way because she was a Hillary supporter and she was blaming the misogynist for Hillary’s loss. Well I can tell you with firsthand knowledge she was right. I was stunned at the level of misogyny within the Texas Democratic Party but it was, for the most part, limited to the older white men and the seemingly large number of South Asian male participants. I saw one Pakistani man that was an official in my Senatorial District using inappropriate language and very strong intimidation against woman that challenged his rules decisions. In each case the women were right but the Pakistani man threaded to have the woman physically removed and arrested for pressing their case. In one instance the rule violation was appealed to the Rules Committee and the Pakistani male official was ruled incompetent. This level of misogyny was rampant within the Texas Democratic Party.
There was another hatefest going on within the very large Hispanic caucus. There was practically an all out brawl during their Saturday meeting. A large number of the delegates that made up the Hispanic caucus were making racially divisive remarks about African Americans. The majority were openly stating that they would never vote for a black man, any black man. I actually heard several of them state out loud that they would never vote for a nigger. I hear all the political talking heads on television say Barack Obama has a problem reaching Hispanic voters but I say that Hispanic voters have an overt hatred for black people and there is nothing Barack Obama can do to overcome that.
The hatefest rolls on. There are a large number of new African American delegates and they bring with them their own hastfest. Many of not most were overtly hostile to gay, lesbians and transgendered delegates. I asked a group of black female delegates to vote for a gay man who was running for national delegate. They all, almost in unison, made a prune face and told me they could never vote for a gay person.
I was a victim of a rules violation and I took my case to the Rules Committee. As I was waiting my turn to be heard there was a gay man who told an account of an all out hatefest against gay people within his own Senatorial District. It seems that this hated of gay people was pervasive within the Texas Democratic Party.
It seems to me that every delegate at the Texas Democratic Convention had a group they outright hated. The blacks hate the gays. The white gays hate the blacks. The Hispanics hate the blacks. The South Asians hate woman and gays. The white men hate everyone including women. The only group of people immune from the hatefest was the disabled. I had the opportunity to interact with several who were petitioning the Rules Committee to add more disabled Democrats to the various committees. I never heard a disparaging word from the disabled towards any group of people and I never heard a disparaging word against the disabled.
If there is a silver lining to all this hate it is that all these different people were in one place as delegates to the Texas Democratic Convention. I guarantee you will not find this much diversity in the Republican Party of Texas.
I think you can blame George W. Bush on the Texas Democrats. It was the failure of the Texas Democratic Party to rally behind Ann Richards that lead to George W. Bush being elected as the Governor of Texas. We all know what a nightmare it has been ever since.
I may continue to vote Democratic but I doubt I will ever put myself through another hatefest with the Texas Democratic Party.
Gary A. Giddings
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