BOCC Election Workshop: Reflections

“Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle and physical skill,
are articles of commerce. They are bought and sold. You can hire them by the year or by the hour. The only thing in the world
not for sale is character.”   ~ Antonin Scalia

by George Gramlich, Commentary
Last Monday’s (June 17) Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ second Election Integrity workshop was proposed and moderated by Commissioner Kevin Day. As we know, he brought in a bunch of election fraud deniers including a representative from the corrupt, leftist Colorado Secretary of State’s office. It was a total pro government dog and pony show. That’s what Day wanted.
Day set the workshop rules. Only written questions would be allowed, and they would be answered after all the speakers were done. (Day is not a big fan of public comment. He should have allowed questions after each speaker both in writing and orally. To have to wait three plus hours to answer a question about something 2.5 hours ago was ridiculous. But Day is not big on hearing from all the citizens. And that is how he rolls.)
About 60 people attended, the vast majority from the conservative side. (It is kind of amusing that the libs wouldn’t attend their own show.)
The Sentinel sent Fred Hernandez to report on it. I didn’t see it (although I later saw some clips from it). When Fred came in on Tuesday morning he was upset a bit. Fred commented that the presentations were very professional and well done (except for one guy who was a bit angry and aggressive) and that much of it was false or misleading. Plus they went totally political at various points attacking conservatives.
Fred said that several conservative attendees were rude and angrily interrupted the speakers by yelling out questions or comments during the speakers’ presentations. Fred said that they were visibly angry and rude, and their behavior was totally out of place. He also said a few had an outburst and then stormed out of the workshop in
a huff.
Also that morning, I had several other people who went to the workshop come in and state the same thing: that several audience members had interrupted the speakers. One guy said he was one of them.
Later that day, Fred and I sat down and talked about that. We agreed that interrupting the speakers, especially in a loud and angry manner was NOT what conservatives do. WE are the “free speech” people. And it made us conservatives look bad because we can’t control our temper. And, as noted below, showing anger is weakness.
We compiled some points that should be considered by our brothers and sisters going forward:

• Interrupting speakers because you don’t agree with them IS EXACTLY WHAT THE LEFT has been doing for years. Especially on our college campuses. And it is WRONG. Conservatives have condemned this speech suppression and now, in our own neighborhood, we DO THE EXACT SAME THING. This was flat out wrong and rude. And extremely immature.
• The attendees knew the rules coming in. Especially with regards to how questions were to be submitted (in writing). If you aren’t going to obey the rules, then don’t go. The speakers were guests of the BOCC (and us citizens) and should have been treated with respect. If you didn’t like what they were saying, just politely get up and leave. We all knew the speakers were bobble headed leftists spewing lies and twisting the truth. If you can’t take that and be polite, don’t go.
  We can ALWAYS learn from listening to the left. Always. Do not underestimate your opponent.
• The people who interrupted, according to several attendees, were ALL ANGRY. And their anger was visible and loud. ANGER IS WEAKNESS. Period. And SHOW-ING ANGER is even worse. When you hear somebody start speaking and showing anger, the vast majority of people simply tune them out, as they are not being rational. Even If you do have a good point, saying it in an angry tone destroys it and you look like a per-son who can’t control his emotions. We have seen this behavior at the BOCC meetings for years, from both the right and the left.
  Note that no lefties interrupted the conservative speakers in the first Election Integrity forum. There weren’t many there, but they remained polite. So why can’t our people do that?
  (I am not saying one can’t get angry over some valid reason. Mature people compartmentalize it and do not show it in public. Immature people let it take over their mind and soul. Displays of anger are always detrimental in a public forum.)
• You often see angry speakers, when they finally sit down and shut up, act like they just did something good. Like, “I told him!” etc. They sit down all smug and angry. Wrong. What you see is an immature child sitting there. They didn’t do anything good. They looked like fools. Day didn’t help the atmosphere with his completely over-the-top response to people interrupting. Totally out of place.

We know almost everyone who interrupted. Good people. But those actions are not who we are. We don’t want to be labeled as speech suppressors like the left is. We use reason, facts and logic to make our case. Not anger. Not yelling. Not being rude. Nor interrupting somebody because we disagree with them.Fellow conservatives: Logic, facts and reason are our weapons. Not an immature outburst of anger like the left. Don’t fall for that trap. Stand tall, look those fascists in the eye, and make your point in a calm, controlled manner. That is how we are going
to win this war being waged against our country.