Texas Democratic Convention Follow-up

Talk about a tale of two conventions. A decade ago I boarded a bus to be an Obama delegate during the Great Obama-Hillary War of 2008. I sat on the back of the bus with a lot of other then young people supporting Obama and we were loud, obnoxious and drank a lot of beer on the way to the convention. There were only a handful of seniors on the bus.

This time the bus was mostly seniors and I sat in the front of the bus. Although there was still quite a bit of beer consumed.

Last time it was really ugly in the El Paso delegation. People were yelling and screaming at each other. There were a bunch of lawyers involved, the Hillary people broke every rule they could find to try to screw the Obama delegation over, until we got to the state convention were they got a taste of their own medicine.

Things got so ugly 8 years ago that they had to call in constables to come break us up. It was really ugly.

The only good thing about that convention was watching Hillary conceded that weekend and watching the El Paso Hillary delegates cry. That seriously gave me a lot of joy because they were such asses to us.

This convention was totally different. It ran smoothly. Our delegation didn't fight. Hell I don't think Pee Wee Mier even cussed anyone out in public this time! This was seriously the most civil convention I've seen (within the delegation).

I write about that because its a sign of major progress. A lot of our delegation are the old guard folks who have been pretty tied to the power structures of the past and opposed to almost all of the new and younger leadership within El Paso politics. But Beto is a rock star at the state level. The energy and buzz around him is significant.

And its more than that artificial sweetener buzz around Wendy Davis. Beto really has captured lightening in a bottle here and to watch a bunch of old guarders that used to be rabid Reyes supporters  all wearing their Beto buttons and vigorously cheer for him was a big deal.

I've been around long enough, and now have enough gray hair to prove it, to have seen the evolution of party politics over the last decade.

I've seen how ugly the old guard can get. Serious vitriol.

A madre.

But I have also grown to understand it. Many of them came up in local politics at a time when all the elected officials weren't brown. When there were very few women in office. When raza didn't run the party at the state level, hell they didn't even run it at the local level.

So their loyalty - which is the coin of the realm in politics - was to those old school Chicano leaders. Those leaders were trail blazers. And those leaders, after long careers, started to lose races.

Many of the supporters of those leaders weren't ready to see them go. That loyalty toward their leaders that was solidified through adversity congealed into a seething white-hot anger at the new class of leaders. They not only hated losing, they hated the young leaders for beating the people they were so loyal to. They opposed them no matter how right the new young people might be on an issue.

Hell they were so bad about it that they were willing to support a wealthy, white, Republican woman over a Chicana Democrat in the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats endorsement!

I don't agree with it.

But I understand where it comes from.

You know how petty they used to be? They used to make fun of Beto's name by purposely mispronouncing it. Remember Norma Chavez was NOTORIOUS for that shit.

And now, I heard some of them correct other people on how to say it. That my friends is a small thing that says a lot.

Don't get be wrong, we still have a lot of work to do. There are some old guarders that need to realize that its time for some other voices to have their say and represent El Paso. We had someone go to the rules committee that had a personal beef to settle and it makes El Paso look bad. We need people who will stand up for issues and causes, not personalities and bruised egos.

But we have still come a long way.
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El Paso has arrived on the state scene. Several of our elected officials were featured in the video vignettes that were played during the convention, which looked more like a DNC convention. Senator Rodriguez had a great speaking time during the convention and received a loud reception. He gave a stirring speech and got the crowd going.

Reps Blanco and Moody were in the video vignettes of Texas leaders.

Noticeably absent were Congresswoman-Elect Veronica Escobar, CD 23 Nominee Gina Ortiz-Jones,  and State Rep Mary Gonzalez. You'd figure they would've been highlighted at some point but really weren't.

I think the party missed the shot on that one.

But the statewide candidates were all really good. That is the first time I can ever recall saying that and actually meaning it.

This was one of my favorite candidates. Stole the show if ya ask me.