Today’s Senate Vote on U. N. Treaty Is a Reminder for Grassroots in VA to Begin Preparing for 2014 Now

Written by:  Scott Cooper
                   

Today at 12:06 P.M., The United States Senate voted on the ratification of the U.N. Treaty, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  The treaty was rejected by a vote of 61-38-1.  It required 66 votes to be ratified, and only 61 yea votes were received.  Thank God!  

For the long list of reasons highlighted in the video at the end of this post, this treaty goes against U.S. sovereignty and the individual rights of our citizens for a whole host of reasons.  It is not surprising that Democrats would vote for this treaty.  What is surprising is that of the 46 Republicans in the U.S. Senate, 8 Republican Senators voted to yield our sovereignty and our citizens rights to an international body, and 1 Republican Senator chose not to vote.  The Republican Senators who voted for this treaty are:

Senator Kelly A. Ayotte (R-NH)

Senator John Anthony Barrasso (R-WY)

Senator Scott P. Brown (R-MA)

Senator Susan M. Collins (R-ME)
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME)

Republican Senator Steven Kirk from Illinois was the only Senator who did not vote.

I believe this vote has significance to the grassroots of Virginia as we begin to prepare for the 2014 U.S. Senate race, and here is why:

When we look at two things:

1.  It is the job of the U.S. Senate to ratify treaties.  Our sovereignty is under attack through international treaties such as the one that was voted on today.  There are a multitude of additional treaties in the pipeline.  We know how Senators Warner, Webb and Senator-elect Kaine will vote.

2.  The United States Senate has not passed a budget in over three years.  Our current Virginia Senators have not attempted to rectify this situation, and I doubt Senator-elect Kaine will do anything to challenge Harry Reid.

Virginia U.S. Senator Warner (D), who is up for re-election in 2014 voted yes for this treaty.  What is disappointing is his willingness to ignore his constituency.  Speaking with his Legislative Aide (LA) yesterday at 3 PM, I am confident that Senator Warner knows the majority of his constituents were opposed to this treaty.  After explaining to Senator Warner’s LA that U.S. disability law is superior to most nations in the U.N., including most of the Security Council nations, she could not articulate why the Senator would be in favor of subjugating American Citizens to this treaty.  She also told me that his decision was not made yet, which simply could not have been true. 

It is imperative Conservatives regain control of the Senate in 2014.  If Virginia is to play a role in defending our national sovereignty and protecting individual liberty in the U.S. Senate, Conservatives and Republicans in Virginia need to do better in 2014.  Clearly our strategy for the last 6 years has not worked. 

Let’s look at a brief history of RPV’s success rate at state wide races for the last 6 years:

Republican George Allen lost our U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Jim Webb, a political novice, in 2006.  George Allen lost the same seat again to Democrat Tim Kaine in 2012.  In 2008, Republican John Warner retired, and a seat which had been held by Republicans for 36 years (held by Republican William Lloyd Scott for 6 years prior to John Warner’s 3 decade reign) was lost by Jim Gilmore to Mark Warner in a vote of 65 % to 33.7 %.  Since 2006 RPV has lost 3 U.S. Senate races and two Presidential races.  What is interesting is there is a lot of blame these days being tossed toward the Tea Party, which didn’t even exist until 2009.  Go Figure.

Let’s look at some trends:

This week U.S. House Republican leadership are doing everything possible to purge Conservatives from leadership positions.  Tactics were used this summer to shut conservatives out of the process at the GOP National Convention, as well as at state conventions across the country.  The result: it helped Democrats across the country get elected, including the Presidential and Senate races in Virginia.  While there is an effort among establishment Republicans to blame the Tea Party, the reality is, it is GOP establishment behavior that is leading to the demise of the party.

 Lessons for 2014:

1.  The Grassroots needs to consolidate behind a conservative candidate for U.S. Senate early on so there is a bold candidate going against Mark Warner.  We struggled doing this in 2012.  It would be nice to think that candidates would see the need to self-consolidate, but there are too many forces working against that idealistic thinking.

2.  The Central Committee of RPV needs to vote to have conventions for the 2014 candidate selection process.  Here is a great piece on why Conventions are better than Primaries. 

      3.  RPV needs to embrace the conservatives who want to help our party abide by our written principles, rather than attempt to exclude them.

There is a tremendous amount of energy in the Conservative movement.  The question is, will the Republicans follow the tactics of the past, or when you look at the U.S. House leadership this week the present, or will they chart a new course? 

My hope lies with the people, not the party.

P.S.  Here is the video with point as to why this was a bad treaty.  This was presented by Michael Farris, Founder of ParentalRights.org, Home School Legal Defense Fund and Chancellor of Patrick Henry College, Senator Mike Lee and Former Senator Rick Santorum.

A Very Timely Petition for Conservative Republicans in Virginia

Written by:  Scott Cooper

This is a letter I sent out today to my friends in Virginia:

Good Afternoon:

I am sending this to friends of mine in Virginia.  You may be a personal friend or someone I have met through grassroots activities during the course of the last three years. 

If you are a voter, but have not seriously engaged in party politics, you may not understand the process through which the Republican Party of Virginia selects its’ candidates.  There are two methods used: Conventions and Primaries. 

I encourage you to do your own research. 

In a nutshell it is easier for a conservative to receive the Republican Nomination through Conventions rather than Primaries because whoever has large grassroots support can enlist their supporters to invest a day at a convention.  Furthermore, if there are multiple candidates, a convention forces consolidation and run-off’s. 

In a primary, mostly what is required is money and name recognition.  Money purchases airtime, signs and loyalty, which will turn out votes in a Primary, and the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of the percentage of the vote – i.e. in a four way race a candidate can win with 25.26 % of the vote, and there would be no run-off.

The sad reality is Primaries often turn out a vote that is uneducated in all the issues or of all the candidates – folks simply know the name of the individual who could purchase the most airtime.  It also turns out our opposition, the Democrats, to vote in OUR selection process.

What you may not know is that for the last two election cycles, The Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) has voted to select their candidates through a Primary system, not a Convention.  In fact, before the 2011 election, RPV voted to hold primaries for the 2013 selection process.  Never before in the history of our Commonwealth has that decision been made that early.  Many believe that effort was strategically done to shut out the newly engaged grassroots activists, who were still focused on the 2011 elections and not forward thinking enough to be watching the strategies for 2013 that were being played out.

Grassroots activists who want to save America are doing so on shoe string budgets.  While many candidates say they are conservative, they are fearful of their ability to garner the volunteers to win in a convention, so they are pushing for Primaries.  Again, I encourage you to do your own research.

On June 15^th, The Central Committee of Virginia will reconsider the vote they took in October about whether our 2013 nomination process should be a Convention or a Primary.  I am asking you to sign a petition which will go to The Central Committee of The Republican Party of Virginia, asking them to vote for Conventions.

Send a message that you want Conventions as the method to select your candidates in Virginia.

Here is the link for that Petition – for the entire state of Virginia.  Please sign today.

If you live in the 7^th Congressional District, and are Represented by Eric Cantor I ask you to also sign this petition.

Thank you for your time and serious consideration in this very important matter.  If you agree – Please forward this message to your sphere of influence and ask them to sign the petition as well.

Scott Cooper

P.S.  Here is a very important video discussing the upcoming June 12^th Primary here in Virginia and two blogs I wrote on this subject last Fall:

                Important Video about June 12^th Primary

                Primaries/Conventions – A Significant Segment of the War at Hand

                Challenging The Establishment