Charlie Grapski DNC Convention Legal Considerations

Broadcast 8/3/2016 at 10:26 AM EDT (16 Listens, 10 Downloads, 1756 Itunes)
The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show Podcast

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Rough interview notes.

He did a workshop for Bernie Delegates on knowing their rights and rules of the DNC convention.

Bill in 1996 Bill Clinton turned the convention into a show ignoring the delegates. No-one informs them on how things work, how they speak, on votes they cast.

After that I worked with delegates to help them get their voice heard, while the DNC did everything they could to stop them.

This was a giant machine using a third party-- security-- to silence them. They were forcefully taking signs from them.

Every day of the convention there's supposed to be a journal-- the prior day's proceedings-- the minutes.

I was watching at the Marriott where all the big party players were. When Bernie began speaking CNN said Bernie was calling to suspend the rules by acclimation. But bernie didn't say that.

He I now move 2000+ votes for Hillary 1000 plus votes for Bernie sanders.. He didn't follow the script.

I told people to get the journal. I got someone to put it in writing-- We need a copy of the journal. She was told he would get it to her tomorrow-- of course the convention was over by then.

We don't know if the democratic party put it in history that she was nominated unanimously.

Rob; Would there be any legal ramifications if they recorded it inaccurately.

There are ramifications that the DNC is not following its own rules.

Rob: The Democratic convention is publicly financed?

Both the Dem and Republican conventions are publicly financed, to the tune of millions, and of course, third parties don't get it.

The convention has been replaced by a literally scripted Hollywood show. There is really no reason for the convention anymore.

Rob: If no-one has a sufficient number of electoral college votes, what happens?

The house

Remember, the electoral college was not expected to elect the president.

Nominees would be sent to the house-- the pool would be, if Gary Johnson and Jill Stein get enough votes, the two of them and, Trump and Clinton. Then the house would decide.

Rob: so the house can't bring in new people?

It's not supposed to. It's not been actually done yet, in history, so I don't k now how they'd interpret it.

Rob: so the house could Gary Johnson over Donald Trump.

Yes. It is so out of line with the way the modern two party system goes, it would be chaos, a constitutional crisis.

Rob; We'll we're already in a constitutional crisis.

Rob: What else can you tell me.

The 2 most significant speaking moments came when the father of the Muslim soldier spoke and when Sarah Silverman spoke. Because both of them were unscripted, because everyone had a script, which was Rah Rah Clinton. Bu the father spoke from his head.

What people need to understand is that the Democratic party itself runs roughshod over the constitution. The first amendment, is based on the Magna Carta, which gave members of parliament the right to criticize the king. The first amendment was aimed at giving members of congress the right to speech. The delegates to the convention are elected representatives, represented by their state. And the national convention is the legislative body. They are equivalent of a member of parliament or the house of representatives, yet their speech was severely limited. The rules say the delegates assembled are the highest authority.

The whole thing has been flipped on its head with the party elite thinking they run the show and the delegates work for them. The delegates were not provided with any info on rules, their rights, procedures. They were told that if they spoke out in any way against Hillary Clinton they would get their credentials revoked. There are no such rules.

They were instructed their social media and many of them stopped talking. So they had a hard time communicating among themselves.

Sarah Silverman said that Bernie or bust people were being ridiculous. No. they were doing their job.

Right now the Democratic party is trying to pull a historical first. There have been realignments throughout history.

See this video

What the democrats are doing is appealing to Republicans-- people who they feel Trump has made amenable to the democrats. What we're seeing is a lot of Democrats doing a DemExit. And what they're saying is they are going to de-register as democrat and re-register as Green, Libertarian, etc.

Rob: So what do we do next?

What's next is really the key. I don't think anything significant is going to happen in November if you care about progressive issues.

Just like Howard Dean, came up with a grassroots, bottom up movement" It didn't w ork in 2004.

They tried to push Bernie-- he succumbed and endorsed.

He announced Our Revolution, a PAC aimed at electing progressives, which is what Howard Dean was persuaded to do, which met limited success.

You can't translate a movement-- it's not the kind off thing that will keep a national movement energetic and focused.

What Dean also did with DFA was training sessions teaching people how to run for office. And Bernie's following the same mold, with the Bernie Sanders Institute.

The Our Revolution PAC and Bernie Sanders Institute cannot sustain a movement.

The idea o f taking democracy back through the Demcoratic party is not viable now because the Dem party is corrupt. Having people on the inside, but without the people on the outside putting the pressure on them".

Rather in terms of reforming the Dem Party or third party, the movement needs to think outside a progressive coalition rather than top down and single party focused. It can focus on the progress issues. That coalition could become so successful it challenge the very concept of political party.

Rob: What would this coalition be, what it would look like.

Start off by recognizing what progressive issues and concerns are and you coalesce around them. You encourage and recruit people to stand up for people taking office. You're not limited to doing so with only one party. You could help a Green party candidate in one state, a Democratic candidate in another state. You'd be focusing on the philosophical rather than party label.

Rob: You're bringing together a lot of different progressive groups

exactly, into one umbrella.

Rob: Has anyone started yet.

Not exactly, but there was the Peoples' Revolution Conference

PDA "

The coalition allows you to take all those actors, separate from any political party and use our strength in numbers. 47 or 48% of the population no longer identifies as Dem or Rep, more than the two of them combined. If the Democratic party were smart and that coalition were out there, they'd do all they could to get the coalition's support.

They've lost every presidential campaign, except for Obama, playing the game of not catering to the left.

The movement has to sort of come back together. I don't know when the next catalytic moment, l ike Bernie Sanders is going to come. We have to re-group and the way to do that is to form a coalition.

From there we can build our own tools to create powerful force.

Rob: I'm thinking this could be the next metamorphic stage of occupy.

The occupy movement is very much alive with the Bernie Sanders movement only it larger and wider. We've shown that there's a critical mass. A catalytic movement like .

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