So I wouldn't be bored?
If you were wondering what my Constitution Party was up to, wonder no more.
The growing pains of a small party are sometimes amusing, so this is why I’m writing this post. Anyone who can have a convention at an Embassy Suites Hotel seems to me on par with my old friends at the Maryland Republican Party, except this is the Constitution Party’s national “issues conference” convention in the St. Louis area. Wonder if any of my extended family will show up?
But there were three names on the playbill that jumped out at me for various reasons. One is Joe Miller, the Alaskan who won the GOP nomination for Senate in 2010, only to lose the general election because RINO Lisa Murkowski wouldn’t take “no” for an answer from Alaska Republicans and won in a (Democrat-aided) write-in campaign. The next time he ran (2016) as a Libertarian, which places him in the same ballpark as the CP, anyway.
The next name up is General Michael Flynn, who was the National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump for about a week before he was railroaded out of office. Now, as Wikipedia intones, “Flynn has since become a prominent leader in a Christian nationalist movement, organizing and recruiting for what he characterizes as a spiritual and political war.” And as PBS chimes in, “He has drawn together election deniers, mask and vaccine opponents, insurrectionists, Proud Boys, and elected officials and leaders in state and local Republican parties. Along the way, the AP and ‘Frontline’ documented, Flynn and his companies have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for his efforts.” Nice work if you can get it, but since I take their assessment with a grain of salt, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I just hope the CP isn’t paying him money they should be using to secure ballot access.
Lastly among those who jumped out at me is someone I’ve actually met briefly at a local meeting of the long-defunct Maryland Society of Patriots at a long-demolished local restaurant over a decade ago. Here’s part of what I said about Bradlee Dean, who was touring as one of the Sons of Liberty at the time:
In his presentation, Bradlee Dean bemoaned a nation which had seen a "decline since the Supreme Court said no to God" back in 1962. What we are now seeing is "the fruit of a nation which turns its back on God."
Turns out that meeting was 11 years ago - as I said, a lifetime ago when the MSOP group disbanded not that long afterward and the meeting place was torn down to build a used car lot.
I recall Bradlee had an interesting and Christian perspective on events, and was one of those who was sort of podcasting before podcasting was a thing. Anyone who can be a subject of Right Wing Watch is probably a friend of liberty.
One other interesting point: in the Party’s October, 2019 equivalent to the “issues” conference, Don Blankenship was one of the featured speakers and he announced his run for the 2020 CP nomination there. Could history repeat itself?
And finally, what is the over/under on how many Feds will be there trying to fit in?
Interesting. With the Democrats and Republicans becoming one party we need other choices.