The Cap the Democrats Didn’t Like

Joe Monack, the man who wanted to observe the Democratic Party Convention Wednesday night, but weas denied the privilege, was wearing the cap you see below>

GOP Judicial candidate Ray Flavin’s campaign cap apparently spooked County Democrats.

Some im the local Democratic Party apparently thought its slogan to close to the one used by Donald Trump.

You can see a comment by a Democratic Precinct Committeemen below this article.

Republicans have traditionally had a convention open to observers.

I remember many motions to allow visitors on the Convention agendsa.

This year, I didn’t see an agenda, but there certainly were a number of non-Precinct Committeemen in attendance.


Comments

The Cap the Democrats Didn’t Like — 35 Comments

  1. I wonder what would happen if a bunch of people wearing “Black Lives Matter,” “Hillary 2016” and “Bernie 2020” showed up to the GOP meeting.

    I’m SURE they would be very welcome. /s

  2. Spotlight, why don’t you try it next time and find out?

    There’s a big difference between being disruptive and wearing a hat which people misinterpret.

    I was in that room for about two minutes or less and didn’t say a thing when I was told to leave.

    I saw Wendy Piersall go up to the woman who told me I had to leave and point at me.

    Do you think she told that woman I had a hat she didn’t like or do you think she said something else?

    When I attended the Women’s March incognito I heard Nancy Zettler telling a group of people who I was.

    The Democrats’ website said the meeting was “open to anyone.”

    If they didn’t like my hat, they could have asked me what it meant, or asked me to remove it.

    I would have obliged.

    Instead, they lied and said the meeting was only for committeemen.

    There were people at the Democratic convention who were not elected precinct.

    Do Democrats appoint PC before the convention? If so, that’s an odd practice.

  3. *There were people at the Democratic convention who were not elected precinct committeemen*

  4. We all know what feckless bastards DEMOCRATS are because it’s in their nature
    to be so, that’s why they’re DEMOCRATS in the first place.

    It’s a well earned reputation much like that of RINO Rauner.

  5. To avoid confusion again, I was sitting there quietly *until* I was told to leave.

    At that point I did become argumentative, since I went there with the assumption that the convention was “open to anyone” as it stated on the website.

    Hopefully next time the Democrats won’t write on their website that their convention is “open to anyone” if is is not.

  6. I’m reminded by a time as a kid I went to an Oakland Raiders game in Oakland with my father. He said we couldn’t wear Bears jerseys there. I asked why and he said the Raiders fans would probably pour beer on us. While at the game, we oddly enough sat next to a few folks who happened to be there from McHenry County – a coincidence indeed! Those fans had decided to wear their Bears jersey to the stadium. Late in the 4th quarter, the Bears went up by a touchdown and, surprise, the Bears jersey laden fans next to us had beer poured on them!

    What’s the moral of the story, Joe? When you are the home team, you get to play by your rules, especially when someone is throwing their flag around.

    You were no ‘casual observer.” You went to the meeting knowing exactly what would happen. Irrespective of who gave the hat to you or not – you were clearly trying to elicit a reaction. Parties are private organizations and could ask me to leave if I showed up with a BLM shirt on just as much as they can tell you to leave based on your hat.

    Quit whining.

  7. I was also asked to leave just for wearing a t-shirt with the message “I love my sunshine blogger.” At that time I became very argumentative…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock…

  8. “You were no casual observer.”

    It’s funny that Spotlighty thinks he/she knows my intentions better than I do.

    Once again, I wouldn’t have worn the hat if I knew how much you would be offended.

    It’s just a hat.

    Couldn’t a Democrat easily argue they want to make the county great?

    I take it that you aren’t interesting in having an actual conversation though, Spotlight, but if you are I’d be willing to have one with you.

    If I go to another Democratic event will I be allowed in or not?

    The people did not say I was being kicked out because of my past involvement with Republicans or my hat, they said it was only for committeemen, and the website said it was open to the public.

    It sounds like you’re just trying to rationalize your party’s lies.

  9. lol Rationalizing with a story about sports nuts? In that teeny tiny brain, it probably made some kind of sense. LOL The moralizing bs is getting very deep.

  10. Is this Monack guy clueless or just naive?

    “Why can’t Democrats want to make McHenry county great again?” The same reason republicans don’t want to move Forward Together Forward?!

    I don’t have to look far for your intensions when you openly admitted to going “incognito” previously. Spy, lurk and, agitator come to mind.

    Then – THEN – you complain on the blog?! Lol Very passive.

    Why not passively send an email to the party?

    Instead, you complain on the political equivalent of writing on a bathroom stall to Cal and his band of misfits for your own personal self aggrandizing enjoyment.

    You can’t have your cake and eat it too Joe.

    You can’t be an incognito pacifist then wear a zit colored hat with GOP campagn slogan on it and claim to be a “passive observer” only wanting to listen.

    And, to your final point, parties are private organizations.

    They aren’t obligated to allow you into lease, private forum anymore than the GOP wouldnhave to be inclusive to BLM clad liberals crashing a committeeman meeting.

    Get real and quit being a wishy washy whiner.

  11. Joe:

    Hang around with dogs: get fleas.

    And a hard time to boot.

  12. Re: ““Why can’t Democrats want to make McHenry county great again?””

    Answer: They bow to the “round mound”.

  13. I’m ready for one of these rational debates that your party always talks about.

    The fact that you think I’m just some typical Republican shows your ignorance.

    Here are some of the things I have done that a left-winger could appreciate

    -Spearheaded the effort to fire Chip Amati.

    -Attended the March Against Monsanto.

    -Attended the Global Cannabis March twice.

    -Told the city of Woodstock to write letters to state legislators to legalize cannabis.

    -Wrote a letter to the editor condemning the NW Herald’s negative tone towards labor unions

    -Helped Represent US get a referendum on the ballot in McHenry County to fight the influence of money in politics.

    -Spoke against hiring lobbyists at the city and county level.

    -Brought to light the city of Woodstock clearing trees in Ryders Woods. Residents in the area ended up digging into that one some more and found out there were plans to build a parking lot there. The city changed their mind on that.

    -Helped get the astroturf field at WHS killed.

    -When MCC was proposing increasing tuition and new rates, I helped get the numbers down from a 20 dollar per credit hour increase to a 5 dollar increase by proving that the Chief Financial Officer was using faulty assumptions.

    I’m probably forgetting several, but that’s a good list of ten off the top of my head. I’m also only in my 20’s.

    In addition to these issues, I’ve supported a few Democrats over the years, and I have called out Republicans about a million times.

    Your comment about being incognito and wearing a bright hat is misleading, as I made it clear that in the past I have attended events incognito and was not well received by certain members of the Democratic Party.

    Then again, I have also been accused of being a communist by Republicans, and criticized by Republicans for signing a petition for an Independent.

    It shows that you’re interested in lumping people into simple categories and then dividing them and not actually working together, which is the rhetoric I so often hear from the left.

    These kinds of broad generalizations, as well as taking things out of context and repeating them over and over, is why we end up with candidates like Trump, Clinton, Pritzker, and Rauner.

    Once again, when you’re ready to have one of these “rational conversations” let me know.

    I don’t suspect it will happen.

    It seems like certain people in your party are just making up rules as they go along.

    They didn’t have the courage to bring up my hat at the convention.

    They said it was about being a committeeman, now you’re moving the goal post and talking about the hat.

    And even right now, people on this blog want to argue and don’t have the courage to use their real name.

    I would hope that if someone came into a Republican event with a Clinton shirt they could say — at least if those Republicans said it was open to the public.

    Or maybe they could, like adults, make sure the person knows that they can attend, but disruption will not be tolerated, instead of kicking people out preemptively, because they don’t like a hat!

    If I wanted to make a big deal out of this I would have published this on my blog and gotten thousands of views.

    Instead, I made the decision to get off social media and turn off my blog within the last few weeks, and I’m not going to reverse that so I can post about this and get attention.

    I didn’t even know I was going to this convention until the day before.

    I was asked by people who were curious about what was going on there.

    I see Northwest Herald wrote about the Republican convention in today’s article.

    Hopefully they’ll write about the Democratic one soon.

    Have a great night, Spotlight.

  14. At that rate of production, Joe could straighten this State out in 6 months.

    Politicians take notes and learn from Joe!

  15. Given the incredible amount of reckless, incompetent, lawless actions by Democrat President Obama and his Administration AND the reckless and lawless actions by the current top Democrat leader, Hillary Clinton, and her disastrous defeat in November 2016, one has to wonder why any sane person would want to be associated with the Democrat Party.

    It is not only Obama and Hilary, but the CURRENT reckless actions by Democrat leaders in the Congress, Schumer and Pelosi. Maybe Democrat “participants” in Mchenry County should wear paper bags over their heads in public meetings.

  16. I’m having trouble picturing Spotlight as an NFL fan.

    He seems more the soccer or men’s figure skating type.

  17. Spotlight, your game analogy is a sweet explanation of how you’re projecting your own character onto someone else. I get why you would think that any Republican would show up to a Democrat event with the sole intention of agitating, because that’s what Democrat’s do. Isn’t it in the handbook to disrupt as many conservative events as possible. Bottom line is that it was published as open to all, that should of been honored. Then again a Democrat keeping their word must be just as foreign a concept.

  18. The dichotomy I consistently see is far-right attempting to “trigger” others by making outrageous statements and then calling others “snowflakes” for responding negatively to such attacks. Those are the most basic bully tactics.

    Spreading negativity and purposefully hurting others in the name of partisan far-right politics is what has torn our party apart. How someone can be a God-fearing, humble self-proclaimed Christian and then at the same time subscribe to and take part in (or revel in) such actions is clear hypocrisy. Why are we trying to “trigger” and belittle those we disagree with? Im ashamed of where some of you in this party have fallen in the past few years at the guidance of Roy Moore / DT / Bannon / etc. Liberals may have ideas we dont agree with but their tactics are no where near as vitriolic. Its embarrassing and sad.

  19. Clarence, what doesn’t ‘trigger’ you Democrats? So many of them are walking around being nervous wrecks and sore losers.

  20. Clarence? Thanks for the laughs. Using the word snowflake constitutes a bully. That was the greatest line I have ever read.

  21. Mr. Skinner, your post is an intentional and disingenuous distortion of my attempt at a courteous gesture in expressing regret and compassion for the feelings of a former Republican Precinct Committeeman who wished to observe the Democratic convention.
    Joseph Monack was honest to admit that he was told that the Republican Convention was also closed to voters who did not vote in the Republican Primary. I see no equal criticism of the County Republican leadership’s decision to be discriminating of the party you support. Is there a principle you believe in or is it just the denigration of people who disagree with you on issues?
    No one at the Convention expressed a disapproval of Mr. Monack’s cap, you know that my comment was merely speculation that wearing clothing that had a Republican campaign slogan might have implied an intent to be disruptive. In the exact same way, had I shown up to the Republican Party Convention wearing a Lock Trump up t-shirt, I’m guessing I would have been perceived as intending to disrupt the Republican Convention. Of course I wouldn’t have been allowed to attend the Republican Convention, according to Monack’s own report, because apparently the Republican Convention was only open to Republican Primary voters.
    As it turned out, the Democratic Convention was so packed that there was standing room only. I do not know the rationale for asking the Republican PC to leave, but I presume it was because the leadership knew that the Democrats who naturally would have preference in filling the limited amount of seats in the hall.
    My comment to Monack was in response to what I felt was a reasonable criticism of the lack of openness of both of the major parties when it came to their respective County Conventions.
    I do not know Mr. Monack, however, he seemed sincere to me in wishing to be a silent observer, at least based upon his post here late on Wednesday evening. Monack admitted his own party had the same issue, and I respected his candor and even handedness in that post.
    I’m disappointed you chose to distort my comments, and present them in a manner to tarnish people who had nothing to do with them. You did not bother to investigate who had asked Mr. Monack to leave and why that person made that decision to ask him to leave.
    It seems you have the same high journalistic standards as the folks working at Fox News.
    Mr. Monack made an effort in his post on Wednesday to be even handed and focus on an ideal of openness and acknowledged that the Republican Convention had the same policy. I suggested to Monack we both work within our perspective parties to encourage greater openness. I felt that perhaps he might be reasonable enough to consider this mutual principle to worthy to work at with earnestness. Perhaps it was a mistake.
    It’s obvious that your own post which intentionally distorted my comment demonstrates your own values do not include respect for the people you choose to slander in a single minded attempt to win for your political allies at any costs.
    The question I have is what do you think you will win if you act without integrity as you have done with this post?

  22. Joe Monack, despite what Cal Skinner has posted here, no one at the Democratic Party County Convention, that I am aware of, complained about your hat. I have no direct knowledge of what the rationale behind the decision to ask you to leave was. I was merely speculating about the impression that your hat might have implied.
    If I was to guess the reason, it was probably because the leadership of the party knew how packed the meeting would be, it was standing room only by the time we graveled the convention into session. I’d estimate about 80+, some spouses of elected PCs, some candidates, and others who had either been PCs in the past or have been active with the County Party in the past.
    Your post seemed reasonable to me, my comment was an attempt to seek common ground and to try to find agreement on an overriding principle which could apply to all parties. In this attempt, I attempted to express sympathy for your disappointment. As you probably know, whether a party, which is not a government body, opens their meetings to the public is up to the respective party. I’ve witnessed Republicans attend our regular meetings in the past and there were no requests that the representative from the opposition party leave.
    You seemed reasonable and interested in an ideal I could agree with in your post and I sought to respond with an attempt to be equally reasonable.
    Apparently my attempt to be reasonable in return was twisted into a slander by Mr. Skinner directed towards people he didn’t bother to query regarding the charge he’s made. My speculation regarding the reaction to your cap has turned into an distortion in order to demonize honest political disagreement. I’m saddened this has happened.
    I thought your post was an opening to constructive dialogue, unfortunately, it seems that respectful political discourse is not valued by all.
    That’s the biggest problem in our nation today. Everything seems to be about attacking those who have different interests, different experiences, and different beliefs. The Founders of our country would have called this diversity faction, and would have found it to be a natural result of the complex diversity of a large nation with diverse interests. Instead of viewing disagreement as natural we seem to have evolved into a society where diversity of conscience is viewed as a threat to be attacked and fought and suppressed rather than taking the time to understand, and enter into a cooperative process of dialogue which might lead to the best solutions for all.
    Listening is just as important to dialogue as talking. You spoke, I listened and responded with an attempt to establish a health dialogue. Unfortunately, I feel that this post of Skinner’s undermined that attempt.
    It’s a shame, because I think there are ideals more important than distorted partisan attacks. I hope reason will eventually defeat partisan snipping. If it will, I think it will take reasonable people putting ideals first, and defeating political opponent second.

  23. I offered to post your reply as an article, you asked that I not, so I did not.

    I again offer to give your views greater prominence by putting them up as an article.

    Do you desire me to do so?

  24. What the Democrats don’t like is Donald Trump IS MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN and they don’t want that to happen under the Republicans.

  25. Lean forward. Can you hear the whisper? It’s the blue wave coming your way. Only 199 days away. It’s unstoppable…and overwhelming. Repeat with me: Speaker Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi. Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock…

  26. Someone should inquire with the college to see if the room was paid for or not.

    If not paid for, then it would be open to the public by virtue of our constitution. Article 8, Section 1 (a) reads :”Public funds, property or credit shall be used only for public purposes.”. I

    f not paid for, The Democratic party owes you an apology and/or the people of the County appropriate room rental fees.

    What do you think, Spotlight?

  27. My favorite part of Kappel and his ilk finding “common ground”, is when their picking my pocket to pay for it.

  28. Terry Kappel states:

    stead of viewing disagreement as natural we seem to have evolved into a society where diversity of conscience is viewed as a threat to be attacked and fought and suppressed rather than taking the time to understand, and enter into a cooperative process of dialogue which might lead to the best solutions for all.

    Listening is just as important to dialogue as talking.”

    Yes. Diversity of expression is being suppressed across our nation. At numerous colleges and universities. Most usually, the voices and thoughts of conservatives and Republicans, whether students or invited speakers, are being shouted down by liberal and left wing students. In one instance at a university in California in early 2017, a mob of left wingers resorted to violence at the campus and did not allow a gay conservative to speak. That gay person had to be escorted to safety lest he be harmed by the mob.

    The Democratic Party presumably supports freedom of speech and thought. Yet, we have not seen any substantial efforts by the Democratic Party to work with colleges and universities to assure free speech for every student and invited speaker no matter their political affiliation.

  29. Hey, Terry Kappel are you on Snap aka food stamps?

    I was behind you at ALDI, when you bought ice cream and steaks in February.

    You are able-bodied and reasonably intelligent (ie., average IQ), so why don’t you get a job and quite having me pay for your Goldfish crackers which you eat during your cable TV binges?

    —just asking.

  30. Apparently Democrats are against making McHenry County great!

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