Questions for all direct election opponents

The opponents owe all of us an answer to every one of these reasonable questions.

1. Why specifically do you believe Republican primary voters do not deserve a vote for the members of the state central committee (SCC), our representatives at the state Republican Party?

2. Can you name even one reason Republican primary voters WOULDN’T want their vote restored?

3. Given that the Illinois GOP of today keeps delivering disastrous election after disastrous election, can you name even one benefit the disenfranchisement of 99.999% of Illinois Republicans has supposedly produced?

4. Republican primary voters have always directly elected the members of their COUNTY party’s central committee (PCs in 101 counties, and ward & township committeepersons in Cook County), so why do you say Republicans shouldn’t also have a vote for the STATE party’s central committee, especially since it’s the state party which obviously has a much bigger impact on our Illinois party’s direction?

5. Our current system for picking the members of the state central committee makes a mockery of hardworking PCs. Our current system allows party bosses to count for themselves the phony “votes” from precincts which aren’t even represented by a PC. The modest weighted votes of PCs are routinely wiped out by the enormous tide of these phony votes for a self-dealing party boss. The article HERE further explains. Do you agree with Republicans who say our current system is corrupt to the core and a cynical insult to the American principle of one-person-one vote?

6. How do you preach ballot integrity and point fingers at the Democrats if you support an absurdly corrupt system for our own state party which openly relies on phony “votes”?

7. Do you believe our current system has anything to do with the fact around half the precincts statewide typically remain vacant with no PC representing the Republican voters within?

8. Do you believe our current system has anything to do with the fact that only a tiny few in the party ever make any serious effort to recruit PCs?

9. Do you agree with Republicans who say our current system has glaring negative incentives to party building which has destroyed the Illinois GOP beyond what the Democrats could have dreamed of doing to us? If not, why not?

10. Are there members on the SCC right now who are only there thanks to an enormous tide of phony votes from vacant precincts which overwhelmed the legitimate votes cast by hardworking PCs?

11. Are there members on the SCC right now who would never be there if Republican primary voters had any legitimate say about it?

12. When our vote was taken away in 1986, Illinois was a reliably Red State. Republicans held a substantial majority of the state’s U.S. Congressional seats. Illinois routinely elected Republican governors. Today, Republicans lose all the big races, typically by enormous margins. We’re down to holding just 3 U.S. Congressional seats. Republicans in the state house and state senate are basically irrelevant in their super minority status. Illinois hasn’t gone for the GOP presidential nominee since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Do you think disenfranchising 99.999% of Republican voters in their own state party has had anything to do with the alarming decline of the GOP in Illinois?

13. Do you think anyone seriously thought through our current system, or do you agree with Republicans who say it was nothing but a naked, corrupt power grab by selfish party bosses in 1986?

14. After reviewing the history, do you agree with most Republicans who firmly believe our vote was taken away SPECIFICALLY & SOLELY to keep grassroots Republicans off the SCC?

15. Similarly, after reviewing the history, do you agree with most Republicans who firmly believe our vote was taken away SPECIFICALLY & SOLELY to help only establishment backed candidates for SCC?

16. Republicans and Democrats used to elect every office in Illinois in the identical way. Then in 1986, a handful of GOP bosses created a new system for Republicans only, which robbed from 99.999% of Illinois Republicans their vote the office of state central committeeperson. Why do you believe this one office should be the only outlier between the 2 parties in terms of voting rights?

17. Are there any other offices, public or party, where you think Republicans should have inferior voting rights compared to every Illinois Democrat? If not, why is the office of state central committeeperson special?

18. Given that every Illinois Democrat still enjoys a direct vote for all members of their SCC, what do you tell Republicans who say they don’t like being treated as second class citizens?

19. The typical GOP event in Illinois today will have maybe 5 or 6 Black attendees, on a good day. That’s been true for decades. If you still refuse to restore the vote, what is your plan for attracting more Black persons, Hispanics, and any new voters for that matter, when any plans you’ve had in the past have clearly been miserable failures?

20. Would you buy stock in a corporation which didn’t allow every shareholder to vote for the members of its board of directors?

21. If you were a corporation shareholder, would you be satisfied only having a vote for the directors of one small subsidiary of that corporation?

22. Can you name a single Republican who will volunteer for you or the state party when they find out you don’t think they deserve a vote for the state party’s governing board?

23. Can you name one Democrat or Independent who will join the Republican Party in Illinois where they will have inferior voting rights?

24. The vast majority of the current members of the SCC are either public officials, recent public officials, work for a public official, have wealth, or were beneficiaries of phony votes cast from unrepresented precincts. Do you believe restoring the vote to all Republican primary voters would make it easier or harder for a grassroots Republican to make it on the SCC?

25. If a person with wealth wants to spend money to get on the SCC (a volunteer job which if done properly is a lot of work and headaches), that person is communicating with Republicans and getting voters to the polls. Do you believe that could be a bad thing?

26. The SCC has been holding its meetings pretty much in secret this past year. Many Republicans say the SCC today is the most out of touch, unresponsive and ineffective in history. Do you think disenfranchising 99.999% of the SCC’s constituents has played a role?

27. If our current system is so wonderful, why do so many lies have to be told, why must there be so much secrecy & lack of transparency, and why must there be so many rigged conventions in order to prop it up?

28. If Republican voters are empowered and respected again with a vote, do you think it will be easier or harder to convince the Republican rank-and-file to volunteer and contribute financially?

29. Do you think Donald Trump, a business & political professional who knows how to win, would be for or against empowering Republican primary voters again in their own state party?

30. Aren’t Democrats supposed to be the ones on a mission to make sure the fewest number of Republicans vote?