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The GOP Establishment has been able to keep movement conservatives out of positions of power since the Reagan Revolution – until now. This weekend a meeting of Ron Paul grassroots leaders and leaders of conservative causes has joined forces to create the Liberty Values Coalition.

It looks like the majority of delegates of the state convention are part of the new group of activists, the question is – will they show up and stand together. If they do, it means that the old guard is going to lose control of the state GOP.

Gary Jones has taken time out from watching the McMahan impeachment to make sure McCain is not embarrassed by the Oklahoma delegation. The GOP establishment has been changing the rules of the national delegate selection process to insure that only those with “inside information” will be able to meet the eligibility requirements.

Case and point – the new rule that requires every delegate to submit a packet to the executive committee before they can be nominated from the floor at the convention. Why? The party elites like to nominate their own slate of delegates to the national convention, so they have a committee screen candidates and they send their recommendations to the state convention. In years past, if you didn’t like the slate or one of the members, you could amend the slate and insert another person. Not this year.

Why the new rules and concerns? Could it be the new group of activists from the Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee campaigns that have suddenly started attending GOP meetings? According to some insiders, Ron Paul supporters dominated three of the 5 congressional district meetings and managed to get their people elected as delegates to the national GOP convention. Without the rule changes, more of the national delegates would have been Liberty Values Coalition supporters.

What do these new activists want? All indications are that they want the GOP to actually stand for something. The limited government message that these activists have put into the platform actually sounds like Reagan in 1976, but because of McCain’s voting record and the reckless spending of the last six years by Bush and congress this message may be embarrassing to some GOP leaders who prefer not to be reminded just how big government has gotten lately.

What could really make the split between the Liberty Values Coalition and the GOP establishments even bigger are the Friday night pre-convention activities. Rumors persist that Rep. Ron Paul himself will be in Tulsa on Friday night to rally the troops. At the same time, the establishment will be meeting with V. President Dick Cheney. Both sides should be pumped for the Saturday convention.

The Liberty Values Coalition is historic in that it brings together libertarians with conservative/traditional values Republicans to effectively take over the party. If this coalition holds together in Tulsa on May 3 at the Oklahoma GOP Convention, it could become a new model for supporters of limited government to begin to make change.

Also see: Ron Paul's Missouri supporters take charge of weekend county caucuses

Labels: Decision '08, GOP, Ron Paul

Posted at 4/15/2008 07:35:00 AM