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"One of my very dearest friends use to be the Republican precinct chair here. We met in the mid 80's working at the polls. BTW, this is Poppy's old congressional district. She talks about how she and other Republican women worked their asses off to turn this Democratic area to Republican for old Poppy. They did all the things they were asked/expected to do......door-to-door, addressing envelopes, making calls, having bake sales, you know the drill.
Then they watched as the "moral majority" moved in. They listened to the men who told them, "Don't make waves, we need them to win. It's worth it if we are ever going to make Texas a Republican state." So they started making their calls and addressing from home, because the campaign headquarters was so foreign to them. Then came the Republican state convention in Houston in 1988. They stood by horrified as they were denied floor passes, even as volunteers (the delegate spots went to the men and the "moral majority"). They quiet so the Republicans could win Texas, but they lost the party they worked so hard to build during the Democratic years.
Well, Reagan 1984 became the last Republican she and most of her friends voted for for president. She votes for few statewide Republicans, never a Republican for congress and for Senate, only KBH. She feels a sisterhood with (pro-choice) KBH, whom many of the Republican women feel is treated shamefully by the Republican men in Texas, so they won't desert her.
Will she and her friends switch to Democrat? NO!!! They built the Republican party in Texas and by God they are going to fight tooth and nail to get it back. They don't often vote Republican (and NEVER for a Bush). They mostly vote Democrat or skip a race. Meantime, they are very active in AU (Americans United for Separation of Church and State). Also, she stopped running for precinct chair in 1992. She votes absentee, because she refuses to go into the rightwing polling place. For about ten years, she used my fax machine to send and get articles with her Republican women cohorts. Heck, I would read may of them to her over the phone. Let me tell you these women can show you all the links between various politicians and wingnuts. She also passes along the most biting e-mails between her group. You think we have anti-admistration jokes, her's are great. She has managed to get a job working with voter info and she will look up anything I need and pass me info on what she hears. She is going to get her party back, if it means helping Dems to squash the wingnuts, she's there.
So, thats what I learned from the 80's. Don't make concessions. It took decades to get what we have and it can take decades to regain anything we compromise."
This is what happens when we sell out to win at all cost. The cost, of course, is to women.
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