Curly Haugland, a Republican National Committee member, says the nomination process is pretty straightforward: The party, not the voters, chooses the nominee.In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning, Haugland, a North Dakotan and current member of the RNC’s Rules Committee, said that any assumption otherwise is misguided.
“That’s the problem: The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination,” he said. He went on: “Political parties choose their nominee, not the general public, contrary to popular belief.”
Technically, this is true. The nomination is decided by delegates to this summer’s convention, not directly by voters. But it’s probably not a terribly helpful argument to make at a time when Republican establishment types are openly talking about wresting the GOP nomination from Donald Trump at the convention. Trump has said doing so could lead to “riots.”
And the RNC said in a statement to The Washington Post that those delegates must represent the voters.
“Every RNC member is entitled to have their own interpretation of the rules,” RNC spokeswoman Allison Moore said. “However, the rules clearly require states to bind their delegates based off of the state’s preference vote.”
It’s important to note in all of this that the rules governing the convention itself are subject to change: A 112-member convention rules committee will convene at the start of the event and will be able to revise and set at least some of its own rules. Its members — one man and one woman from each state and territory — are elected by their peers. North Dakota’s will not be elected until after the state convention in April.
Full Text: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rnc-member-%E2%80%98political-parties-choose-their-nominee-not-the-general-public%E2%80%99/ar-BBqxYNk?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
revolutions
The Republican Convention will be a militarized event, with police enforcing “free speech” zones and putting down dissent. It will be hot. People might become angry if the process doesn’t seem fair. The Democrats could be similar!
It would probably be healthy for both parties to have conventions that allow for real debate over the splits in each. The Republicans seem split almost three ways (Trumpians, TeaParty, Traditional), and the Democrats seem divided pretty much down the middle (incremental vs progressive).
It may seem like things are going off the rails but it appears more that voters are increasingly tired of the status quo and are putting pressure on the traditionalists to evolve. So each candidate has a different mission.
Sander’s revolution is more of an intellectual exercise (as opposed to violent) to reform the system; Trump’s revolution is closer to pitchfork-carrying mobs. Clinton and Kasich don’t offer any revolution as far as I can tell. Cruz seems to be after the more traditional GOP, with a twist of evangelicalism.
"My primary consultant is myself...I have a very good brain "
“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically,” Mr. Trump said. “I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous, many, many millions of people.”
He added:”If you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it but I think bad things would happen.”
Meanwhile, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Mr. Trump described himself as the person he listens to most on foreign policy.
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things,” Mr. Trump said.
He went on, “My primary consultant is myself and I have — you know, I have a good instinct for this stuff.” He rejected labels of his foreign policy views as “neo-isolationist,” as an earlier guest on the show described it.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/16/donald-trump-warns-of-riots-if-party-blocks-him-at-convention/
Well Vidda, you can't argue
Well Vidda, you can’t argue with him. He definitely has said a lot of things.
I couldn't help smiling too, Rosa, when...
…I read Trump’s quote “I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things…”
I don't know if the good
I don’t know if the good brain part could be said about myself but if the standard is “saying a lot of things” I guess I would qualify for the office of President also.
lol!
I’d vote for you
The Trumpcrow
I’ll unravel every riddle for any individ’le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts I am thinkin’
I could be another Lincoln
I have a very good brain.
Oh, I will tell you why The ocean’s near the shore.
I can think of things I never thunk before.
And then I sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nuffin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain.
I will dance and be merry, life will be a ding-a-derry,
I have a very good brain.
Lyrics?
Who wrote this?
Scarecrow
If I Only Had A Brain. From the Wizard of Oz. Song by Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics).
With slight adaptations (changing if’s to will’s and adding Trump’s quote) by me.
Brother can you spare a rhyme
Check the rolls of blacklisted writers.
Yip, a tale of how we treat our national treasures.
Are you, or have you ever been...
If you scroll down you can find Yip amongst 150 of his peers on the Red Channels list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist
It seems plausible given the current climate of hostility towards adversarial speech, this could happen again
Face Value
“I’m representing a tremendous, many, many millions of people.” -DT
The fact that this is arguably true is an undeniable indictment of our educational system, and a blatant sign of our moral failing as a nation.
A lesson from history
In 1933, in the last contested election held in Germany before WWII, Hitler took power with a plurality far short of a majority of the vote. Squads of storm troopers “monitored” the elections to prevent voter fraud.
“In Prussia 50,000 members of the SS, SA and Stahlhelm were ordered to monitor the votes by acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring, as so-called auxiliary police.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_March_1933
Millions
Seems a bit like the Pareto principle, where 80% of us will be impacted by his 20%. : )
In 2013, Public Policy Polling found:
4% of Americans believe lizard people control politics – 12,556,562 people
7% think the moon landing was faked – 21,973,983 people
15% think the gov’t controls minds with TV – 47,087,106
28% think Hussein was involved in 9/11 – 87,895,931
In 2015, PEW found that:
– 19% trust the government always or most of the time (In 1964, the number was 77%)
– 55% think the average American could do a better job than politicians
– 35% of Republicans view government as an enemy (12% for Dems)
P.T.
Where is P.T. when we need him…