Precinct 34 - Let's Go Vote!

 Dear Voters,

If you have not yet voted, now is the time to vote.  Today is Thursday 10/31.  The last two days of early voting are Thursday 10/31 and Friday 11/1, from 7 am to 7 pm.  Here is a link to the early voting locations.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5 and here is a link to a list of the Election Day voting sites.

Here is a tip:  after you read your printed ballot, you read it to make sure it is what you expect.  Next, if you want to double check the bar code markings to see if they match the printed names:  you can put your marked ballot back into the ballot marking device, called an Express Vote, and read the display of your voting choices.  This way you can check the bar code markings for accuracy.

For people who really want to test the system, you can record the number printed on your ballot, on the back.  It is possible to file a request for your ballot image and you can see what was actually recorded, but you need your ballot number to find your ballot.  If you bring in a printed sample ballot, you mark it as you planned to vote, and then you write the ballot number on your sample ballot and you can compare the ballot image that is stored to your sample ballot to confirm that what is in the system is what you intended.  Most people won't do this, but a few people might.  Here is a link to my previous post about how to find your sample ballot.

Short List of Recommendations

Federal
For President:  Donald Trump                  
For Senator:  Ted Cruz
For Congress:  Keith Self           

State
Justice, Supreme Court, Place 4:  John Devine
Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals: David Schenck,
Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 7:  Gina Parker
Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 8:  Lee Finley
For State Board of Education:  Pam Little

County
Sheriff:  Jim Skinner
Tax Assessor:  Scott Grigg

You really want to vote for these people.  Most Republicans go down the whole list and vote for every Republican.  If you don't do that, maybe because so many are unopposed, then make sure you vote for these people.

Sample Ballots for the Nov 5 Election

 Friends and Neighbors,

You can find a sample ballot for the November 5, 2024 election at this website:  https://www.collincountytx.gov/Elections/sample-ballots?electionID=63

There are many ballot styles.  Find the search window and enter your precinct number.

This worked well for me.

Thank you for voting,

Robert

Counterpoint on School Choice

 Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024 I posted this article:  Why the negative vote against school choice?  (https://voteforcanright.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-negative-vote-against-school-choice.html)

There were many responses, but one was particularly well said. It was from a Republican activist, who gave me permission to share it.  Here it is:

As a homeschooling parent, what I don’t get is how they don’t see you can just refuse the money. Many of us need either our property taxes abolished (fat chance) or to get this ESA (Education Savings Account) money to afford religious schooling for our kids. It’s not fair for us to pay public school taxes AND private school tuition when we don’t use public schools. I have relatives in Texas forced to send their kids to public school because it [school choice in the legislature] didn’t pass yet and already are seeing corrupting effects on their kids. It’s terrible. Also they are naive if they think somehow not taking the money makes them immune to government interference. California has proven this is not true as they don’t give any money but can still heavily interfere with homeschooling. 

Also there is power in numbers. If the majority of public school students go to private schools then the teachers unions will die (they are arguably the greatest threat to the republic), and policymakers will also start to prioritize listening to groups lobbying for home school rights and private school rights more.

Basically right now, the word of the leftist teacher’s unions goes farther in Austin than the conservative Homeschool Association, pass school choice and that flips. A large religious private school association might even form to fight elections to win more rights and a bigger piece of the pie against the teacher’s unions, once all the new funding comes their way.

We need a counterforce against the teacher’s unions and school choice would create that. If we lose a few SCOTUS slots in the coming years they may very well rule California can ban homeschooling despite home schoolers not taking any money. A leftist judge cares not for such distinctions. Besides this doesn’t give any money directly to schools, it gives it to a parental bank account, an “education savings account” that they can then use on schools. Many parents ALREADY do this, you ALREADY can open an Texas ESA and self fund it for a tax free investment account which grows over time and you can use on private schools. So if it were going to magically create strings it’d have done so many years ago.

I hope you find this viewpoint helpful.

Robert

Let us reason together

 Dear Friends and Neighbors,

You might recognize the Bible quote, Isaiah 1:18, where God speaks to Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD...."  Reason and logic are some of the attributes God gave us when He made us in His own image.  We should use reason and logic when we debate issues, especially when precinct chairs (PCs) speak for or against resolutions, motions, and rules in the Executive Committee (EC), or when there are discussions on Facebook.  But as fallible humans, we make mistakes.  There are entire books that catalog standard logical fallacies, like "the red herring", "the straw-man", and the "Ad Hominem" attack.  Here is a short list that you can download for free:Valid Arguments and Logical Fallacies.  

I have discovered two logical fallacies that are not in the catalogs by listening closely in the EC and  watching pro and con arguments in Facebook (FB) comments.  I will name these errors (1) "false priority" and (2) "inversion."  As volunteers you can watch some of the "debates" on this page:  CollinGOP - Discussion Group.  It's a private group, so you have to ask to join, but since there are already 1,900 members, you should be able to tell the administrator that you are a reliable Republican voter and that they can check on that.

As a simple example of "false priority", imagine that you are 8 years old again, and when you get to the park with your friends and your football, some older kid tells you, "I was here first.  You take your toys and go home."  If that has not happened in your childhood, I am happy for you.  This also happened in the Bible.  In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verses 38 to 40, the disciples complained to Jesus that an outsider was casting out demons, the disciples tried to stop him, and failed.  “Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. For whoever is not against us is for us.

This is a common human failing, believing that because you got there first, you own the playground, or the miracles, or the Republican Party -- this is a false sense of priority.  I just saw this in the "CollinGOP - Discussion Group", where someone says something like "she's only been here 5 minutes and she thinks she can run the party."  When volunteers join the party as PCs and want to improve our community, they are told, as I once was, "be quiet, sit down, and do as I tell you."  This kind of arrogance comes from a false sense of priority, from getting to the playground first.  But if we recognize that this is a logical fallacy, and a common human failing, then we can work together better.

Now I will give you two examples of the logical error that I call "inversion."  In the first example, a person inverts cause and effect.  A friend told me in conversation that a rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) causes inflation.   This backwards.  The rise in CPI is one way inflation is measured; it is an effect of inflation, but not the cause.  Milton Friedman has explained that the government printing too much money causes inflation, so that is the cause, and the increase in CPI is how we notice its effect.

Flipping cause and effect is a simple type of logical inversion, but there is another type of logical inversion that is not so obvious, but has huge consequences for our society:  the logical inversion of duties and responsibilities.

In our system of government, we the people vote for our representatives, and then they have a duty to obey the will of the people.  If they let us down, then we replace them in the next election (unless the election is rigged).  The logical inversion that we experience here is when people believe that it is their duty to obey their elected officials.  Yes, many people feel good when they are obedient to someone perceived as their leader.

I am reading a history book now that looks at English political struggles between Tories and Whigs in England in the 1600's.  The author describes the Tories as "authoritarian and servile." Here is a definition of Authoritarian: favoring strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.  A local example is when CC GOP leadership tried a bait-and-switch trick to sneak someone into the role of party chair.  Some of the PCs were outraged, but some of the PCs were happy to obey.  The PCs who objected to the bait and switch are following the Whig tradition, while the PCs who don't mind are following the Tory tradition.

Remember your history.  The Tories in America during the American Revolution supported the King of England.  The rebels were following the Whig tradition.  The Republican Party was created by Whigs. In our political tradition, our leaders are supposed to serve the people.  The logical inversion happens when the people believe that they are supposed to serve their leaders.  Probably this logical inversion is related to personality types and emotional needs.  Sometimes it is hard to separate logic from emotion, which is why political conflicts sometimes turn into emotional expressions.

I believe that I am seeing friction and hostility by some people who have fallen into the logical errors of "false priority" and "inversion."  I hope that by identifying these logical errors, the different groups within the CC GOP can understand each other better, have better discussions, and better conduct our business.

Thank you for your patience with this complex topic.

Robert

 

 

Shelby's terrible management plan

 Dear Friends,

Shelby Williams has distributed something that he calls his "315 DAY PLAN".  It is a badly flawed document because he does not appear to understand the Collin County Executive Committee (EC),  how it works, and its history.

At the bottom of this email I reproduce the portion of his plan where he proposes changing the party leadership. He says that he wants to "create additional leadership roles."  You need to understand that we have run across this thinking before.  Chairman Mark Reid, in the past, proposed changing the structure of the party in order to create a team of vice presidents that would help him run the party.  The party chair cannot change the structure of the party without the Rules Committee proposing changes to the rules and bylaws in order to implement the changes, and then the EC has to vote to approve the changes.

When Chairman Mark Reid wanted to "create additional leadership roles," the Rules Committee refused to recommend those changes.  I heard the chairman tell the Rules Committee that he would not permit the EC to meet until he got the rule changes that he wanted.  He would not call a meeting.  He broke the party.  We had a big conflict that resulted in his resigning as party chair.  We know that Shelby's plan is terrible because we have seen it happen before, and it broke the party.

We have a recurring problem within the Collin County Republican Party where the party chair gets "full of himself,"  declares that "I can do what I want because I'm the Chairman," and then starts to fight with the EC.  We had the same problem with former chairman Abraham George when he decided to side with the SREC Committeeman against the EC and our work towards endorsing in municipal elections.  The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) supports endorsements in municipal elections.  Mr. George delayed the EC from endorsing candidates in the Princeton municipal elections by not letting us meet for 3 months.  He had to quit for us to endorse!

In the SREC (State Republican Executive Committee), Rolando Garcia is Chairman of the Local Government Committee.  Mr. Garcia has written that Mr. George, "attended an SREC meeting last year for the sole purpose of urging us to stop endorsing conservatives in school board and city council races."   Here's a link to the full story:  https://twitter.com/rdgarcia03/status/1781439071060914478

I am telling you this because I believe that Shelby Williams, if elected party chair, will follow in the footsteps of Mark Reid and Abraham George in  trying to get the EC to bend to his will, and then picking fights with the EC when he does not get his way.  His "315 day plan" is full of ridiculous nonsense.  If you are outside the EC, or new to the EC, then you do not know our history and do not realize that the proposal for "additional leadership roles" is a disaster waiting to happen.

Voting Shelby Williams into the position of party chair would be like giving a loaded gun to a child -- it would lead to much grief.

Thank you for our time on this important issue.

Robert

Excerpt from the 315 day plan

(available in full here:  https://shelbyhwilliams.com/collin-county-gop-chair-my-first-315-day-plan/)

Expand the leadership base to bring additional people to the table. I want to work with the Executive Committee to create additional leadership roles–roles of real responsibility and accountability, not ceremonial titles, and bring people from the various factions to those roles to work together to advance our shared goals. This also necessitates a distinction between committees and teams. We don’t need more committees. We have enough, and they serve a specific and vital purpose. Committees are for focused deliberation, but by their very nature, they’re not action-oriented. Once the Executive Committee approves a course of action, a team, not a committee, is needed to take actual action. I always want to get people doing what they’re best at and what they’re most passionate about. That’s how we unleash organizational potential. We need specific roles for Legislative Action, which Brandon Burden of North Texas Conservatives did phenomenally last session, as well as Community Outreach, which Jessica Bartnick, President of Collin County Conservative Republicans, would be a natural for. We need leaders for Precinct Chair training and development, Toolkit Development, Recruitment, etc.

If you do not have Twitter (aka X), then here is a screenshot of Rolando's post.

Does the Collin County GOP need marriage counseling?

Friends and Neighbors,

Here is a copy of a letter I sent to my fellow precinct chairs.

Fellow Chairs,
Some volunteers have attended the CC GOP executive committee (EC) meetings and have been surprised at the conflict during the meetings.  They talk to me about it.  A visitor cannot begin to understand what is happening or why it is happening.  Some of the precinct chairs (PCs) in attendance, who do not understand Roberts Rules of Order, do not understand what is happening or why.  The meetings have taken on the appearance of a postal chess game, where the moves are complex but happen slowly.  First, I am going to give some "big picture" background by analogy to begin to explain what is happening and why.  Then I will explain some details of what has happened.  Be patient with me, please.

The analogy I am making is based on the Protestant Reformation.  You see, Martin Luther read the Bible and discovered that people are saved by their faith in Christ and not by the power of the church establishment, the Roman Catholic Church at that time.  This understanding of the Bible led to the Protestant Reformation, which led to the Scientific Revolution, which led to the Industrial Revolution,   Huge changes, you see, came about from reading and understanding.

Many volunteers were drawn to the Republican Party by Trump.  In our training we were told that we precinct chairs are essentially free block walkers for candidates.  But some of us read the rules of the CC GOP, and we read Roberts Rules of Order, and we read the Texas Election Code, and we discovered that the county party chair is not our boss.  We discovered that we PCs in the EC are a deliberative body that makes decisions and sets policy.  The Trump activists want to win elections.  The EC voted to create a Candidate's Committee in order to evaluate and endorse candidates in municipal elections because the city charters do not permit us to have a Republican Primary in city elections. By endorsing candidates, voters have suggestions from the party on who to vote for.  The Democratic Party was endorsing their candidates and we wanted to do the same.  I have heard new voters yell during municipal elections, "Where are the Rs"?   We wanted to help our voters with suggestions.  We have new precinct chairs and they need to hear our history, so be patient if you know all of this.

Then EC voted to create a GOTV (Get Out the Vote) committee to help our endorsed candidates in the municipal elections.  The GOTV committee, during last year's election for the Collin College Board of Trustees, made a motion that was passed by the EC to provide "in kind" support for our two candidates in that runoff election, and we won the runoff in a landslide.  Notice that it was a GOTV committee member who made the motion, then the EC that passed the motion that led us to victory.  The EC made the decision and directed the party chair to carry out that decision which led to victory in this race.

The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) also endorses candidates in municipal elections, but the RPT waits for a request from the county party before endorsing.  In our case, a local person in the Republican Party who holds the position of SD8 SREC Committeeman used a new rule to veto our request for endorsements, and the municipal elections in May 2023 were probably the worst in the history of the CC GOP.   

The EC expressed its displeasure with the SD8 SREC Committeeman for vetoing our request for an RPT endorsement, and in the June 12, 2023, meeting, a motion was passed that asked the SD8 SREC Committeeman to resign, which he refused to do.  Was it  just a coincidence that the following EC meeting on July 10, 2023 was shut down by the county chair, Abraham George?  Much work that was planned for the meeting was called “out of order,” and then the meeting was dismissed abruptly by the chair, without a motion to adjourn.  It seemed as though the chair was punishing the EC for asking the SD8 SREC Committeeman to resign.

The EC members went back to read the rule books and discovered that if the party chair wrongly calls our business "out of order", then we can challenge the ruling of the chair.  When the EC members in the August 7, 2023 meeting challenged the ruling of the chair, the party chair became hostile, at one point Abraham George yelled at a lady, "You cannot out bully a bully!"  That was shocking.  The chair actually described himself as a bully.  This meeting was very disorderly because the chair seemed to be losing his temper and improperly used secret ballots to run the clock out on the meeting.  For the 2nd month in a row, the party chair prevented us from accomplishing our work

Then in the next month, in September, the party chairman cancelled the meeting for that month.  Now that the EC learned that it could challenge the ruling of the chair, it seemed as though the party chair was creating an Abraham faction within the party that would vote to support his rulings regardless of the issues.  People were coming up to me and saying, "I stand with Abraham."  It was very strange.  Meanwhile, we had been waiting for months to vote to endorse Republican candidates in the Princeton municipal elections.  

Finally, in the Monday October 9, 2023 EC meeting, Abraham George resigns to run for office, for HD89, and we finally get a chance to vote to endorse the Republicans in the Princeton races.   Later, the EC members from Princeton who got the CC GOP and the RPT endorsements reported that voters came into the polls carrying slate cards that showed the CC GOP and the RPT endorsement logos.  They believed the endorsements helped them win their races in Princeton.

There did seem to be a conflict between the EC on one hand, which wanted to be more competitive with the Democrats, and the party chair and the SD8 SREC Committeeman on the other hand, who did not want us to be endorsing in local elections.

Abraham George was a decent party chair until that month in which the EC asked the SD8 SREC Committeeman to resign.  After that, the party chair appeared to wage war against the EC until he resigned.  The party has been fractured ever since.

Perhaps some of the PCs are sore at the changes made by the newcomers.  The creation of new committees and changes to local elections might not sit well with some people.  Maybe the party does need to bring in someone like a marriage counselor to help the two sides talk to each other and patch up the differences.

Akira Kurosawa made a film named "Rashomon" where the audience is shown an event.  Then that event is seen through the eyes of all the people present, and we discover that they all had different recollections of what they saw.  You might very well remember the events differently than I remember them, but I did run my recollections past a few people to double check my memory.

There is more to say, like improvements to how the two sides interact during the EC meetings, but this email is long enough.  That is a subject for another email.  I hope that this email sheds some light on what has been happening in the CC GOP.  I hope that we can eventually patch things up and work together.

The important take-away is that we have people dedicated to helping the CC GOP win elections and willing to work hard to make that happen.  Whatever divide we have in the party, there are good people on each side of the divide.

Thank you for your patience.  The details go back almost a year.  I hope this explanation is helpful as a starting point for working together in a better fashion.

Robert

Current Revolt spills the beans on Shelby Williams

 Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I subscribe to Current Revolt, an online political periodical.  You usually have to be a subscriber to read their newsletter, so it cannot be forwarded.  You should be aware of a recent issue, which came out Tuesday 4/9/2024.

Here's a quote from the article by Current Revolt about a letter from the Secretary of State's office to the office of the Attorney General.

         In the letter, it alleges that Williams, who is a candidate for Collin County GOP Chair, “engaged in actions aimed at coercing and bribing his runoff opponent Ellen Loveless to withdraw” from her race.

       The letter goes on to state that this offense would qualify as a Class A misdemeanor, and potentially a felony in the third degree. It goes on to ask that a criminal investigation be opened by the Texas AG.

You can download the image of the letter mentioned in the article if you have a subscription.  Assuming you don't, I'll attach a copy for you to read.

Here is the background to the story.  To a room full of precinct chairs (PCs), Shelby Williams explained that he offered Ellen Loveless an honored position in the party if she would quit the race.  He told the PCs that he made the proposition twice, before and after the primary race and he seemed kind of whiny that she refused the offer.

Then after this meeting, we all heard the new temporary party chair take the oath of office, which says that the party chair did not did not offer anything to anybody in the race.  A whole bunch of us thought to ourselves, "Shelby will have to perjure himself if he wins and takes the oath."

My understanding is that someone asked the State of Texas about the potential for perjury with the oath, and the response was that there were more serious issues than perjury with an oath.  The result was a letter sending the matter to the office of the Attorney General, which Current Revolt has spread far and wide.

As much as I personally like Shelby Williams, I've made my position clear that I believe Shelby Williams not only cannot do the job, but he would be a disaster for the party, making really big mistakes.

It looks like Shelby has exceeded my fears even before the primary runoff.  Felony or misdemeanor?   This is just the prelude to the disaster that would befall the party if the leadership role fell into his hands.

Robert

Click on the image of the letter to see a larger version, which you can download.

Why the nickname Backdoor Shelby

I have been asked why Shelby Williams, candidate for the Collin County GOP Chair, has the nickname of Backdoor Shelby.   It is because Shelby Williams tried to slip into the Chairmanship behind everyone's backs.  Here's the background.  When Abraham George resigned as Chair, the Executive Committee had a vote to pick a temporary Chairman until the 2024 Primary.  The candidates were John Myers and Cyndi Darland.  Shelby Williams could have run, but he did not.  John won the election, said he would lead us to victory in November, and asked for party unity.  Wanting to be a united party, we grassroots activists did not ask Cyndi to file to run against John Myers on the ballot.  We in the grassroots were willing to support John Myers.

Then on the last day to file, in the last hour to file for the ballot, we discovered a bait and switch.  John Myers did not run and did not tell anyone except Shelby Williams.  John Myers should have made a public announcement, but he kept it a secret.  The grassroots precinct chairs raced to headquarters and asked, "who is willing to run for chair?"  Howard Powers and Ellen Loveless both filed so that we would have a choice.  One of Shelby's supporters asked why we blame Shelby when it was John who seemed to plan the bait-and-switch.  One could say that Shelby shares the guilt of deception by being an accomplice.  Shelby went along with the plan.  It comes down to personal judgment regarding what behavior is acceptable.

If you have never heard of bait-and-switch, let me remind you of how in the book of Genesis Jacob made a deal with Laban for the hand of Rachel.  After 7 years of labor for the hand of Rachel, Jacob wakes up after the wedding night and discovers that Leah had been substituted for Rachel.  Jacob was married to Leah instead of Rachel in a classic bait-and-switch. 

Sometimes politicians pick up nicknames.  Richard Nixon had the nickname "Tricky Dick."  Shelby Williams has the nickname "Backdoor Shelby." 

President LBJ had the nickname "Landslide Lyndon" from stuffing ballot boxes in close elections.  Here's an article on that:  https://robertcanrightsblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/lbj-did-steal-election.html.

Mr.Williams failed to win the primary election on March 5, 2024. For the sake of the party, he needs to be defeated in the runoff.

These are my opinions on current political events.

 

Why the negative vote against school choice?

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We recently had 13 propositions on the Republican Primary ballot.  If you look at the results of the votes on these 13 propositions, you can say that the Democrats pushed the "no" vote high on issues that Democrats care about.  For example, the largest "No" vote was against having closed primaries (number 9).  The Democrats like to vote in our primaries to "mess with you", as one Democrat told me.

Democrats would definitely be against school choice (proposition #11) because they want all children in public schools, from which the atheists have removed prayer and the Bible.  So you might think that the "no" vote against school choice was all Democrats, but you would be wrong.  Proposition #11 had the fourth highest negative vote (23% said no in Collin County).  There are Republicans who voted against it.  I know this because I have heard home school folks speak against "school choice", where funding follows the child.

At the 2-20-24 Plano Republican Women meeting, Evelyn Brooks, SBOE 14 (we are in 12), spoke against the school choice proposition. She had printed an article to distribute to explain the concerns some people have about strings that could be attached to any money that comes from the state.  It was a lengthy article, but very informative.

The article is Vouchers: “School Choice” Trap by Alex Newman

available for your viewing here in PDF format

https://thenewamerican.com/print/vouchers-school-choice-trap/_pdf/

Here are a few paragraphs from pages 7 & 8 from  the article.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, offered vouchers for Christian and private schools. However, they came with hundreds of regulations attached, including a prohibition on requiring Bible classes or chapel for voucher students. Similarly, Alaska introduced a program to offer financial assistance to homeschooling families that ended up being used by most homeschool families in the state. The only catch: No religious material or curricula allowed.  

Prominent conservative attorney William Olson was recently commissioned by Moore’s organization to write a legal report on this issue. Headlined “Government-Funded Vouchers Endanger Biblically Faithful Christian Education,” the report cites a “long trail of cases” in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that even where government could not directly regulate private institutions, it could do so by imposing requirements and “strings” attached to public funding.

Olson first fell in love with the voucher idea after reading Milton Friedman in college. Working in the Nixon administration, he was enthusiastic about trying it out in New Hampshire, only to have the plan quashed by government-school forces, he explained to The New American. Then he read Education, Christianity and the State by J. Gresham Machen and spoke with prominent conservatives, and radically changed his view.

“I came to be more concerned about protecting Christian education from the control of the state, than getting a piece of the pie for Christian schools,” Olson said.

You might already know that Hillsdale College does not accept any Federal money.  They do not even take money borrowed by students from Federal loans.  The college rejects Federal money to avoid the Federal government from interfering with their school, which is the reason some home schoolers don't want school choice money coming to them from the state.

Public education is becoming a threat to our liberties and the morality of our country because Marxists have been pushing a godless agenda into our schools for over 100 years.  The author Alex Newman has written a short but informative book that describes how public schools have always had the intention of removing God from the schools.  The history of the anti-God movement is well described in a small book by Alex Newman:  Indoctrinating Our Children to Death

https://www.amazon.com/Indoctrinating-Our-Children-Death-Government/dp/B0CSLW85TL/

 You can hear famous filmmaker Curtis Bowers interview Alex Newman about  his book on this Rumble podcast:  Indoctrinating Our Children to Death with Alex Newman, the CurtisBowersAGENDA podcast.  It is 40 minutes long but worth your time.

https://rumble.com/v4f0o58-indoctrinating-our-children-to-death-with-alex-newman.html

I was very impressed that Evelyn Brooks spent the time and money to print many copies of the 9 page article for the attendees of the PRW meeting.  It was an important topic and worth your time to consider. 

Evelyn Brooks said something unexpected.  She raised up a small book, None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen, and recommended it to everyone.  Yes, it is an excellent book. It is well researched and correlates well with many other books I have read.

https://www.amazon.com/None-Dare-Call-Conspiracy-Allen/dp/B0CLFLKJB3/

I try hard to keep you informed.  I hope this article is of value to you.

Robert Canright

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Why I Support Ellen Loveless for CC GOP Chair

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

You might know that I endorse Ellen Loveless for party chair.  I have been asked to offer reasons why I take this position.  First, I will tell you that I spent hours talking with Howard Powers and Ellen Loveless.  They are both great people.  I sent a check to each of them at the beginning.  Finally, I decided Ellen would be the better choice.  To begin with, here are notes I took from a Candidate's Forum hosted by Collin County Patriots, 1-9-2024, Tuesday night at Collin College.

	Ellen Loveless	Howard Powers	Shelby Williams
Should it be possible to remove a bad County Chair?	Yes	Pass	No
Should we have closed primaries?	Yes	No	Yes
Should the Republican Party decide who can be on its ballot?	Yes	No	No
Should the CC GOP endorse in municipal elections?	Yes	Yes	No

I thought that these were important questions so I took notes and compared them to other people's notes, trying to be accurate.  I liked Ellen's answers to these questions.

I believe that our executive committee meetings will be more productive under Ellen.  Our productivity problems, from my observation, come from having the county party chair fight with the executive committee (EC).  The conflict has come from the chair trying to thwart the will of the executive committee.  Is the role of the chair to be a dictator or a facilitator?  We members of the executive committee, who are grassroots activists and citizens of Collin County, are educated, successful and independent minded people who won't be pushed around.

Quite a lot of men confuse leadership with bullying.  Two of our party chairs have tried to bully me, and I think that is why they were poor leaders, because they resorted too quickly to bullying others.  I do not believe Ellen Loveless will try and bully anyone.  Furthermore, I do not believe that she will allow herself to be bullied by others.  She has backbone.  She is feisty.

Our party chairs have, in my opinion, bent under pressure.  Most recently, Chair Abraham George, after the EC voted to ask Jim Pikl to resign as SD8 Committeeman, started working against the EC.  After the Pikl vote, we were not allowed to conduct business for 3 months.  That was a 3 month delay in endorsing the Republicans in the Princeton election for city council and ISD.  Voters were seen at the polls in Princeton holding push cards that showed our endorsement.  The work we do matters and we should not have a party chair that fights us.  I believe after the Pikl vote that pressure was applied to our chairman and he bent under the pressure.  That has to stop.  I believe Ellen will not bend under pressure because she has no ambitions for higher office. 

Moving beyond political reasons for supporting Ellen, there are qualitative reasons for supporting her.  I think she has a good heart.  She is chair of the prayer team.  She is a devout Christian, and I believe we need God's blessings in these difficult times.  Besides the American flag, her house flies the "Appeal to Heaven" flag.

That means something to me.  You can read about it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Flag

Furthermore, she is supported by people I respect.  I was privileged to sit at her table at the Lincoln Day dinner, along with Sharron Albertson, Karl Voigtsberger, and Bunny Pounds.

There are a number of reasons, both political and personal, that led me to support Ellen Loveless for party chair.

She will be forward looking as the party chair, she will be cooperative instead of combative, and we will become more productive as a party.  I will be voting for her and I encourage you to join me in voting for Ellen Loveless for GOP chair.

Thank you for your time,

Robert Canright

Consider attending the Texas State GOP Convention

 

Do please consider attending the Texas Republican State Convention in San Antonio on May 23 to 25.  You will want to attend as a delegate so you can have voting privileges.

As a delegate you can vote for:

planks to the Texas GOP party platform,

members to the State Republican Executive Committee,

the Texas delegates to the National GOP Convention,

the Texas representatives to the Republican National Committee (RNC), 

the Texas members of the Electoral College,

the Chair and Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Texas.

This is important.  We are defining the purpose and leadership of our party.  This is particularly special because it is a Presidential election year.

I will mention that I am running for a spot on the State Republican Executive Committee, running against an incumbent.  I hope to gain your vote for this position, SREC SD8 Committeeman.  You cannot vote for me unless you attend.  I'll tell you more about this in a later email.

Be patient while I explain the process of becoming a delegate. You are elected to be a delegate to the state convention at an earlier convention, an SD convention.  The Senate District (SD) conventions are held on March 23, 2024 Saturday.  Almost all of you will be in SD8, Angela Paxton's district.  A few of you might be in SD2, Bob Hall's District, or SD30, Drew Springer's district.

At a precinct  convention, to be held on March 9, 2024 Saturday, after the primary election, you apply to be a delegate to the RPT State Convention.  To attend your precinct convention you should vote in the Republican primary.  The Collin County GOP will tell you the location of the precinct conventions and the SD conventions later, but for now you know the date is March 9, which is shortly after the March 5 primary election.

You need to know your precinct number, which is on your registration card.  You just show up at the precinct convention, which is a number of people from your precinct huddled around in a circle of chairs.  At the precinct convention you will apply to be delegates to the State Convention.  That is the most important part of attending your precinct convention.

At your precinct convention you can propose planks for our party platform that will be considered at the SD convention.  Additional proposals for party planks can be made at the SD convention.   You will vote at the SD convention for which planks you want to recommend to the state convention.  Also at the SD convention you will vote on who will be delegates to the state convention.

In a nutshell, to attend the state convention you (1) vote in the primary election, (2) attend the precinct convention, and (3) attend the SD convention.  The precinct convention and SD conventions are short.  The precinct convention is a couple of hours long.  The SD convention might be all day, 8 am to 5 pm.  The State convention is 3 days long, but you can go earlier if you want to testify at committee hearings.

Here is the home page for the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) state convention:

https://texasgop.org/2024-state-convention/

Here is more info on the precinct conventions

https://texasgop.org/precinct-conventions/

Here is more info on the SD conventions

https://texasgop.org/countysenatorial-district-convention/

Here is an overview of the process

https://texasgop.org/rpt-conventions/

Don't feel overwhelmed.  If you just show up at the precinct and SD conventions, people will help you through it.  If you do become a delegate to the state convention, I could host some zoom meetings to help you understand the state convention.

Based on past experience, there will be informative films for you. 

Here's a story of how we make a difference.  A neighbor went to the precinct convention and proposed a plank, also called a resolution.  It was rejected at the SD convention, but she went to the state convention, gave testimony, and her proposed plank was merged in with another plank so that her efforts improved our party platform.  You can make a difference.  That's what the grassroots is all about, us making a difference.

At the state convention we picked eight (8) planks to make priorities for our legislators and then we watched the legislators and nudged them to get them to listen to us.  And when they don't listen to us, then we have a reason to remove them from office.

This is what grassroots politics is all about: us making our voices heard.

Do please mark these dates on your calendar:

March 9, 2024 Saturday is when we have our precinct conventions
March 23, 2024 Saturday is when we have our SD conventions
May 23 – 25, 2024, is the Texas State Republican Convention at the
Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio, located on the River Walk

Republican Primary Propositions Listed

 

Here is a rundown of the 13 propositions Republican voters in the Lone Star State can vote on: 

1) Property Tax 

“Texas should eliminate all property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden.” 

2) Manpower for Border Protection 

“Texas should create a Border Protection Unit and deploy additional state law enforcement and military forces to seal the border, to use physical force to prevent illegal entry and trafficking, and to deport illegal aliens to Mexico or to their nations of origin.” 

3) Expanding Mandatory Use of E-Verify 

“The Texas Legislature should require the use of E-Verify by all employers in Texas to protect jobs for legal workers by preventing the hiring of illegal aliens.” 

Currently, Texas law only requires that “state agencies, institutions of higher education, and sexually oriented businesses,” as well as entities looking to qualify for certain public contracts, use E-Verify to verify the legal status of employees. 

4) Taxpayer Funds for Unlawful Migrants’ Education 

“The Texas Legislature should end all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens.” 

5) Cutting Pathways for Unlawful Migrants to Become Lawful 

“Texas urges the United States Congress not to grant any form of amnesty or a pathway to legalization for illegal aliens.” 

6) Texas National Guard Deployment Abroad 

“The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war.” 

7) Move Toward a Texas Gold-Backed Digital Currency 

“The Texas Legislature should establish authority within the Texas State Comptroller’s office to administer access to gold and silver through the Texas Bullion Depository for use as legal tender.” 

Although stalled in committee, SB 2334 was put forward this spring as a way to curb nationwide inflation by establishing a new digital currency based on deposits of gold and silver that the state would hold in trust. This proposition appears related to this initiative by Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola). 

8) Curbing Mandatory Vaccination Initiatives 

“The State of Texas should ensure that Texans are free to give or to withhold consent for any vaccine without coercion.” 

9) Republican Primaries for Republicans Only 

“The Republican Party of Texas should restrict voting in the Republican primary to only registered Republicans.” 

Texas’ primaries are currently open, meaning anyone can vote in any party’s primaries regardless of their registration status. 

10) Prosecuting Election Crimes 

“The Texas Constitution should be amended to restore authority to the Texas Attorney General to prosecute election crimes.” 

11) School Choice 

“Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.” 

12) No Vote Without Proof of Citizenship 

“The Texas Constitution should be amended to require proof of citizenship before any individual can be registered to vote.” 

13) Land Sale Ban 

“Texas should ban the sale of Texas land to citizens, governments, and entities from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.”