This is not a conspiracy by the one percent
by digby
This Republican delegate from Indiana has been receiving death threats from Trump supporters ever since he declared he wouldn't vote for Trump on the second ballot at the convention. And he does something important in this piece --- he explains how the rules were promulgated for his state:
Many Trump supporters have taken the bait and swallowed the stump speech swill that the Republican “establishment” is trying to steal the nomination. Trump and his pundits would have you believe that every delegate who supports Kasich or Cruz is a fat-cat millionaire lobbyist or businessperson who’ll personally prosper only by maintaining the status quo.
What many of these supporters don’t realize is that the delegate selection process for the 2016 presidential election began four years ago in a very democratic way.
For me, the process started when the registered Republicans in my county elected precinct committeemen and vice-committeemen in May 2012. Those elected party officials then conducted an election for county officers in March 2013. At that time, I was elected county chairman. One week later, the county chairs and vice chairs in the 16 counties that make up Indiana’s 4th Congressional District elected me as district chairman.
Earlier this year, we solicited interest for positions as delegates to the Republican National Convention. Candidates were required to submit a notarized application to me by March 15. The district officers then prepared a slate of candidates for a straight up or down vote to be presented at a district meeting in April.
In my district, only two people applied by the deadline. Since we need three delegates, they automatically became our representatives for the convention. I will go as well.
[How should Republicans denounce Trump? Past GOP presidents have already told us.]
As this shows, the Republican establishment is not top-down. It’s an amazing grass-roots organization that begins and ends with the great loyal Republicans who stuff envelopes, walk neighborhoods, work phone banks, attend Lincoln/Reagan Dinners, vote consistently, and contribute to the election of council people, commissioners, auditors, sheriffs and legislators. They receive no compensation for their efforts on behalf of the Republican Party. They are the true strength of our party and a vital element in the process of selecting national convention delegates.
It's lots of fun to join up when it's an exciting presidential contest. It's like becoming a fan when your team makes the play-offs. But you don't get to change the rules in the middle of it because you didn't bother to show up earlier. This guy shows up.
I think there should be the same rules for all elections, uniform across the country. I don't think caucuses should exist, they're fundamentally disenfranchising. We should have rotating regional primaries (or something like that) to take away the power of early, unrepresentative states like Iowa and New Hampshire. There should be no electoral college or, frankly, a Senate. It's all undemocratic. Unfortunately, the United States persists in clinging to its quaint notion of federalism so we allow state and localities to have control over all kinds of things that makes this nation a hodge-podge of different rules and regulations, elections being one of them. I'm not for it!
However, as long as that is true, local and state functionaries are going to be in charge of the party elections machinery in this country. I guess you can call that "the establishment." But if so, it's damned easy to infiltrate if that's your concern. Anyone can join up.
Trump is whining about the system being "rigged." But if it is, it's rigged by a bunch of local Republicans going to boring meetings and making decisions about all this while everyone else is doing something more interesting. It's not a conspiracy by the One Percent.
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