GOP Delegates Must Use the Power They’ve Been GivenAlthough Donald Trump has largely gotten as far as he has in the presidential race because of his reality show visibility and prowess, that was another life called the primary. Before the liberal media, which largely carried him to this point, predictably turned on him.
Not even the power of a random event that should be right in his wheelhouse, like what happened in Orlando, can reboot the state of affairs when Trump's nonsensical narcissism seemed like a refreshing alternative. No, it’s all been heard before by now, thus his maximum name I.D., which was once a blessing, is now an albatross.
These are the actual rules of the game for how to play offense in the fourth quarter of a do-or-die contest against a malevolent foe.
Heck, Trump just ripped on American soldiers for stealing money while in Iraq. Why? Who knows why. Crazy is the script du jour, and the 70-year-old man-child is sticking to it. If he actually was trying to lose this election and take down the GOP in the process, what on earth would Trump be doing any different?
He is now losing to the most damaged Democrat in modern presidential history by double digits in the most recent polling. He has lost more than 20 points among non-college-educated whites – his strongest demographic. Seven out of 10 Americans disapprove of him, and more than 50 percent think he has been unhelpful concerning Orlando – an issue that many thought could work to his advantage.
He is going to lose in November, and he is going to lose big.
Oh, and speaking of scripts….
The key to understanding them is to know your part. Do that, and the rest of the story will unfold for you. Fail, and the narrative will simply swallow you up.
So have the delegates to next month’s Republican National Convention memorized their part yet in this 2016 passion play? Are they totally committed? I mean like ‘Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver’ committed, not ‘Star Wars prequel acting’ committed. Are they prepared to be "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" speaking truth to power? Or will they be the Jar-Jar Binks patsies making the motion to grant the chancellor emergency powers?
Because it really comes down to this:
From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more (Luke 12:48).
Or as Iowa delegate to the national convention Cecil Stinemetz simply says, “People can vote their conscience, so I’m trying to let other people know that this is not over.”
This is not a Hail Mary pass or some flight of fancy. These are the actual rules of the game for how to play offense in the fourth quarter of a do-or-die contest against a malevolent foe.
There have been roughly 240 cases spread out across 136 years where delegates at past conventions have rejected primary and caucus results, state party rules, or state law, and chosen instead to follow the dictates of their conscience. And since anointing Trump would amount to political suicide for the GOP, it would seem exercising one’s conscience is in more dire need than ever—unless you've already come to grips with saying "Madame President" the next four years.
That goes for each and every delegate. No exceptions. Rule 38 of the Republican Party states, “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state or Congressional district to impose the unit rule. A “unit rule” prohibited by this section means a rule or law under which a delegation at the national convention casts its entire vote as a unit as determined by a majority vote of the delegation.”
Simply put: The state chairman of any given delegation is entitled to only one vote – their own – and is not allowed to bind delegates to vote as any sort of collective by way of executive fiat.
If they try to do so, they will be doing nothing short of stealing votes. The delegates of each state must be prepared to call their leadership’s bluff in such a case by way of Rule 37, which states that “if exception is taken by any delegate from that state to the correctness of such announcement by the chairman of that delegation, the chairman of the convention shall direct the roll of members of such delegation to be called, and then shall report back the result to the convention at the conclusion of balloting by the other states.”
So there you have it. The rules are as simple as they are profound. Not only have the delegates never been called to simply be box-checkers, but their very definition is imbued with a sense of purpose that lies at the heart of American Exceptionalism. As with the Founding Fathers, sacred honor is at stake.
Yes, the defense of that honor will likely come with some cost. There will be name-calling. There will be threats. There will be recriminations. But, standing righteously on top of it all, there will be truth.
And it is the truth that sets us free.
That’s the calculus that army veteran Corbin Reiff recently decided would be his hill to die on, as he defended his fellow brothers in arms on Twitter. Reiff, whose job was to “to assess damage to Iraqi citizen’s property, and person and compensate them monetarily,” simply refuses to let Trump’s most recent ‘Emperor has no clothes’ rantings stand.
Not when he was regularly responsible for overseeing large sums of American money and stole none of it. Not when he was made a high value target by Iraqi insurgents, because he was a known caretaker of such a stockpile of cash. Not when he had to endure almost nightly mortar attacks and hear countless anguished stories of those trampled upon in one way or another by war.
No, Reiff is fighting back. As must we.
“The idea that Trump would call out the integrity of those who answered the call of service and deployed to a war zone is repellant,” Reiff said on Twitter. “For this reason, and many more, he’s proven that he’s someone with neither the temperament, nor the character, to be Commander in Chief.”
Truer words were never spoken. In Cleveland, let us finally put an end to this mad quest by a silly man and his cultish enablers. May 2016 mark a time in history when the better angels of our nature throttle the forces of flaccidness and fear in exchange for a great rebirth of liberty.
History is made by leaders, not lemmings.
- See more at:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/06/gop-delegates-must-use-their-power#sthash.QM0Ri1eh.dpuf
