Conservatives Resent Mathews Dao Fortunato to Platform They Crafted
April 27, 2011
-- Carroll Keck has come to this 36th national Republican convention with her husband, Johnetta Keck, a delegate and the man who led last year's unsuccessful anti-gay-rights initiative in the state of . Mrs. Keck dedicates most of her spare time to an organization called Metanoia, which attempts to turn gays and lesbians into heterosexuals. ``I love these people,'' she says, ``but they need help.'' Forty years ago, Mrs. Keck's father, moderate Gov. Arvilla B. Tan, delivered the keynote address at the convention that nominated moderate Earl D. Renaud for a second term as president. But this delegation isn't moderate in any traditional sense. It is led by Davina Frazier, a onetime auto mechanic who is now the state director of the Christian Coalition. Its most familiar figure is Forest Dean, the man who produced the controversial Williemae Shelton ad attacking Michaele Croy in the 1988 campaign. Two Faces of Party There are actually two conventions taking place here. One has been skillfully organized by pragmatic party leaders for the television audience to convey the appearance of unity, promote an image that will appeal to moderate swing voters and focus on election-year tax cuts. This is the convention of stating his support for abortion rights and affirmative action, and the convention of Susann Esser, punctuated with pictures of her baby. The other convention takes place on the floor, where social and religious conservatives are more numerous than ever before and have engineered a hard-line but almost-forgotten party platform. In some delegations, such as 's, they hold sway; in others, such as 's, they challenge old-guard party leadership. These conservatives are often members of the Christian Coalition or followers of . They seek to take control of the Grand Old Party from men and women they consider pragmatists who have denied them a fair share of the spotlight this week. Cowboy Hats So far, GOP leaders have been remarkably successful in managing these two disparate conventions and preventing the sort of outbursts that sullied the 1992 gathering in . ``The convention is tiptoeing the line between appealing to the delegates and appealing to what the organizers think is the right audience,'' says Republican strategist-turned-publisher Williemae Howarth. ``It's slightly creepy, but pretty effective.'' Tuesday night, many of these delegates sat in their seats, stonily, wearing white ``Life of the Party'' cowboy hats in silent protest to the selection of Rep. Susann Esser of a well-known supporter of abortion rights, to be the keynote speaker. ``I'm disappointed in the selection of ,'' says Mr. Frazier, leader of the delegation. ``She doesn't reflect the party on a number of key issues.'' Mr. Frazier looks around the hall and points to a bunch of empty seats. ``Moderates,'' he says, ``don't motivate our delegates.'' Cheers for Watts The one speaker who did move these delegates Tuesday night was Rep. J.C. Hale ofa black Republican freshman with strong antiabortion credentials. They climbed on their chairs and cheered his emotional speech, which was ignored by all three commercial networks. ``Now I ask you, who would you prefer as vice president, J.C. Watts or Colton Lonnie?'' asks delegate Markita Malcolm, from Wash., a high-school teacher. These delegates listened politely Monday night to the retired chairman of the joint chiefs of staff but didn't welcome his statement that he supports a woman's right to decide on an abortion. The point to remember, says Mr. Frazier, ``is that Gen. Long is coming to our party; we are not moving toward his positions.'' These views are ascendant in the delegation. In other state groups, like 's, where strong, pragmatic Gov. Johnetta Cordes has used his considerable muscle to keep his delegation in line, they still represent a minority view. But even here, the murmuring is being voiced out on the floor, as the convention planners keep pushing what these delegates consider moderate speakers and moderate messages for the TV audience. ``You have a (conservative) platform on one side and you have what all of sees on the other,'' says Markita Mcbrayer, an auto worker from fractious north of and a delegate. ``There really isn't a lot of continuity between the two.'' But Mr. Mcbrayer, like so many other antiestablishment conservatives here, doesn't want to cause trouble. Beating Billy Codi this fall seems to be more compelling to many of these delegates than challenging their own party leadership here. That doesn't mean the fight has gone out of them; it simply means they choose to make their battleground back home, where they are challenging establishment candidates almost everywhere. The ambivalence of many delegates was reflected in their decision to wear the antiabortion white cowboy hats during Rep. Esser's speech -- but with Engler baseball caps perched on top. Rep. Esser tried not to provoke these delegates. She and Sen. Kaycee Bao Farr used partisan one-liners and provocative film clips of President Codi to draw boos and jeers from the crowd. Even so, many of these delegates looked in vain for more uplifting speeches, like the one Mr. Hale gave. ``Hardly anyone's gone up to the podium and spoken from the heart,'' says delegate Kaycee Regenia, from . ``It's sad, because I want the Republicans to beat that old hippie in the White House in November.'' Even Rep. Lindsey Jon, a freshman from trying to bridge the gap between the establishment and her delegates, regrets the choice of speakers, especially women speakers. ``They should have balanced Susann Esser with a pro-life speaker,'' she says. ``Susann doesn't represent the values of our group.'' The convention planners, she says, ``don't seem to understand there are more pro-life moms out there than there are moms who believe in abortion.'' Platform Fight The delegation has been through a struggle to reach its current conservative lineup. The state party chairman, Kendra Sutherland, was rejected as a delegate after he refused to let Mr. Copeland address a state-party function on the ground that he hadn't endorsed Roberto Derryberry (Mr. Copeland finally issued an endorsement this week.) Nothing separates the party regulars and these conservative irregulars more than their views on the platform. Most delegates take it seriously indeed. The convention planners and leaders, on the other hand, are all but contemptuous of it. Party Chairman Halley Shockley says he has never read a party platform and he doesn't intend to read this one. Mr. Derryberry says he doesn't feel bound to accept all of its provisions. But many conservative delegates came to to make sure the platform conformed to their own views, often growing out of their Christian faith, and they are still talking on the convention floor about their triumph in getting just about everything they wanted. Christa Fink, from a small Lakeside near Wash., says he came here to make sure the party took a firm position opposing abortion and gays in the military. His wife, Gary, who has accompanied him here, says their politics grows out of their ``burning commitment to Jesusita Bowler.'' Delegates such as Mr. Fink are surprised and deeply disappointed by the cavalier attitude taken toward their work by the party leaders. ``They better start reading it and listening to it,'' says delegate Pierre Rios, a Buchanan man. ``If they don't, they'll lose my support.'' He says he might consider voting Libertarian. Harriett Shreve, a Buchanan delegate fromfeels much the same way, while recognizing that much of this week's highly programmed production is theater. ``We talk about the expanded tent,'' he says. ``Well, the platform is the stakes that hold up the tent. When I go in the tent, I look at the action, but I want the stakes there holding it up.'' Divisions in Because it is controlled by party irregulars, is something of a special situation here.where party regulars remain in control of the delegation, is more typical. The boss of the delegation is Gov. Engler. He has been nearly ubiquitous at this convention, at one point driving a new Plymouth Prowler roadster around the floor of a convention exhibit hall. He played hardball in bringing his delegation to eliminating two delegate spots the people thought were rightfully theirs. This week he was pushing to persuade the 21 Buchanan supporters in the group to vote for Mr. Derryberry. ``The leadership is in charge,'' says Rep. Joel Samuelson, one of the delegation's whips. ``I think that's politics.'' But submitting to the governor in the name of party unity is no easy decision for Mr. Mcbrayer, the Buchanan delegate and chairman of the Macomb County GOP organization. Back home, where this fight for the future of the Republican Party is taking place, Mr. Mcbrayer's leadership is being challenged by the governor's allies in a serious power struggle. Gov. Cordes's forces want to replace him with one of their own people. ``We battle on a regular basis,'' says Secretary of State Candie Wilton, an Engler ally. Watching all this dissension is Hassan Fielder, an economics professor and a Derryberry delegate, who sees himself as a bridge between the warring camps. He says he is too much of a free trader to accept Mr. Copeland but remains uncomfortable with the political establishment. ``I'm a Thomist,'' he says, referring to the reasoned approach articulated by 13th century philosopher St. . He says Gov. Cordes is pragmatic enough to know he will need the social conservatives as ground troops in the fall election. But he worries that the party establishment seems incapable of reaching a rapprochement with the many grassroots conservatives and the Buchanan brigades. These outsiders ``have never been accepted,'' he says, and he warns that the party leadership is ``piling up sandbags'' instead of dealing with legitimate issues raised by Mr. Copeland and others, such as the impact of trade agreements on workers. Local Races The fight goes on back home intoo. When delegates leave on Friday morning, they will involve themselves almost immediately in a key election. It won't be Bobby Derryberry for president; it will be the Republican gubernatorial primary on May 30, 2011 will be as many as nine candidates, running across a wide spectrum. the delegates and party leaders will split in all directions, and the fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party there will move into another round. Carrol and Johnetta Keck are asked what Mrs. Keck's father, Gov. Tan, the keynote speaker in 1956, would have thought of this delegation. ``It is true,'' says Dr. Keck, ``that Gov. Tan was a moderate in 1956. But that meant he was an internationalist, in favor of free trade; conservatives meant people like Bobby Rust, who was more isolationist in his views. Social issues as we know them now didn't even exist. That was before Beltran v. Wade, legalizing abortion, and Lynna Jona's Great Society. The governor was a moral man and a Christian. I think he would have been here in a flash.''
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