The Way Politics Really Works

1st Person Testimony | 14 Nov 2018 | LTC.Ret

[LTC.Ret]

By the summer of 2010 I had had enough. I had been to the Tea Party rallies and gatherings, but nothing seemed to be happening to change the political situation. In fact, it appeared that the Republican establishment, the GOPe, was actively fighting the conservative members of their own party. Something had to be done. Someone had to do something. So, as an "unashamed Republican Tea Party Christian Constitutional Conservative with some rock-solid core values" I struck out on my campaign trail.

I decided to run for Congress against my District's 20 year incumbent. I took classes at the Republican Party in Austin, American Majority in DFW, and the Leadership Institute in Washington, DC. In November of 2011, when I first filed for office, few people outside of my home County even knew who I was. I asked for money, hit the road, and worked hard to to make a dent in my impossible goal.

I asked for help along the way, too, and was offered, well --- one GOP noteworthy gave me the name of a "good" campaign manager to hire. My due diligence on google found that the recommended individual had just been released from jail for embezzling the campaign funds of his previous Candidate.

Although the local Republican groups are supposed to be impartial in the Primary, they absolutely are not. Neither are the "nonpartisan" groups and organizations. As a sitting Congressman my opponent had every door open to him throughout the campaign season, but I was unable to speak in the same places and to the same groups because I was a political candidate. This included a variety of Veterans groups --- even though our Congressman never served and I had a 31yr military career.

Of course, to no one's surprise, he won handily. I suspect he thought I was gone, but the week after the election I changed my signs from 2012 to 2014 and kept campaigning.

So in order to muddy the waters, the Republican Party in the most populated city of our District recruited another Primary candidate whose campaign could be easily confused with mine to split the vote, and gave their Candidate a good size bankroll to get things started. The officers of the big city GOP traveled with the Candidate they had recruited --- even though this is supposed to be against the Party rules. For the first few months, this campaign entourage seemed to show up at my campaign stops fairly often to listen, take notes, and even occasionally record me. In the end, I heard my ideas, issues, and statements coming verbatim from this new candidate in the debates and forums before election day 2014. I was in effect campaigning against the incumbent and myself.

Still, to be absolutely sure, they did one last thing. I am not particularly pretty to look at, although I did not think that average looks would seriously affect a campaign. Because of my religious values, my hair is long and natural, my face is natural, and my attire is business modest. I have been divorced for many years, and have not remarried. Plus, I served a long Army career. All this found its way into a whisper campaign that suggested that the good people of my very conservative District might not want to vote for a lesbian. Imagine my shock as I found myself assuring voter after voter in the last weeks of the campaign that I am 100% my birth biological orientation in answer to their questions --- and that was only the ones brave enough to ask. I do not know how deep or wide an impact this had on the vote.

Bottom line, the incumbent retained his seat. I learned a lot --- including the lengths and depths the establishment swamp will go to to retain their power and prevent an honest outsider from having any chance to be elected. If those within a party will stoop to such a level, just imagine what the opposition party is willing to say or do to thwart an opponent. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is sacrosanct to the political elites.

Do not be fooled.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LTC.Ret.

[Pollard]

It's a club and you ain't in it