The Fort Worth convention center welcomed delegates to the Texas Republican State Convention on Thursday morning June 7th with a few rousing bagpipe tunes. The instruments which led the people G.K. Chesterton described as “the men that God made mad” into the frenzied fray of whirling battle axes and whizzing arrows didn’t feel out of place. There was the smell of battle in air.

It wasn’t just “country club” republicans who gathered in the most Republican county in Texas to cast their votes for delegates to the national convention in Tampa. There was a large contingent of “plain” folk too, people who lacked the polish and shine of manicured nails, Bvlgari accessories, and 1,000-dollar power suits.