Well, here we are again sitting in the dark. The Illinois Republican State Convention is rapidly approaching, and nobody knows what’s going on.
Has anybody heard anything about the three things which make it a convention in the first place: 1) the credentials – how to become a voting delegate; 2) the standing rules – how to get things done; and 3) the agenda – what’s on the menu to be decided?
How exactly does this work? Those of us who have figured out on our own the first step in the process – how to get selected as a delegate – is it our function to simply be present to rubber stamp what others have decided for us with neither our knowledge nor our input? The correct term for that would be a show – a performance put on for appearances – not a convention of delegates.
I have a dream that someday the Republican Party (big R) in Illinois will again become a republican party (small r) in Illinois. What’s it going to take to do that? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that we’ll never get there by sitting in the dark.
Harvey Bluedorn writes from Mercer County