My Freeper page tells about my first foray into politics as a Ronald Reagan supporter (1976). We managed to lose gracefully in a much closer election and come back and win big time four years later. We took our turns to speak, behaved civilly and didn't shout down the Ford people, even though I felt they were dead wrong. Also, I refused to vote for Ford in the general election, but we managed to get almost all of them voting for our guy just four years later.
There is a lesson there which will probably be lost on the Paulistinians.
How would you have felt in 1980, if after getting the votes you needed the state party illegally changed the rules to deny you and other Reagan supporters the power due to you?
The Paulistinians have a right to be angry.