Ron Paul delegates: “We were robbed”

“We were robbed”

by digby

The Paul delegates were blocked in an unusual set of challenges during earlier party proceedings, and Tuesday they tried to reverse the decision on the convention floor. When they failed despite what sounded like fierce support from many other delegates, they erupted. “We were robbed,” they chanted, among other high-volume protests.

As Paul’s Maine supporters left — many emotional and visibly upset — they made it clear they felt betrayed.

These people should have realized long before now that the RNC does not allow men in ponytails inside their Big Tent.

The truth is that they gamed the system and the system gamed them right back, neither side giving a moment’s thought to the spirit of democracy. This disrespect for the democratic principle of one person one vote pretty much defines all factions of the Republican Party.

Update:

Oh Jesus.

The RonPaulites, whose furious devotion to a single idea have made them the Ellen Jamesians of the right, were protesting a decision by RNC officials not to seat members of the Maine delegation, which was split between Paul and Romney supporters following rule changes made just prior to the convention. There were energetic shouts of “Aye!” and “Nay!” as a Puerto Rican party functionary—Zoraida Fonalledas, the chairwoman of the Committee on Permanent Organization—took her turn at the main-stage lectern. As she began speaking in her accented English, some in the crowd started shouting “USA! USA!”

The chanting carried on for nearly a minute while most of the other delegates and the media stood by in stunned silence. The Puerto Rican correspondent turned to me and asked, “Is this happening?” I said I honestly didn’t know what was happening—it was astonishing to see all the brittle work of narrative construction that is a modern political convention suddenly crack before our eyes. None of us could quite believe what we were seeing: A sea of twentysomething bowties and cowboy hats morphing into frat bros apparently shrieking over (or at) a Latina. RNC chairman Reince Priebus quickly stepped up and asked for order and respect for the speaker, suggesting that, yeah, what we had just seen might well have been an ugly outburst of nativism.

The Id has been unleashed. And it isn’t pretty.

Update: Apparently, they weren’t chanting USA, USA at the Latina in particular but rather because of the ruling.

But you know — chanting “USA USA” every time you want to shut someone up for any reason is really, really stupid and jingoistic. It’s not surprising that it might give the wrong impression.