Posted on 04/16/2016 11:16:02 AM PDT by Randall_S
Imagine, if you will, that your house is on fire. The conflagration has spread from the kitchen downstairs to engulf the hallway outside your bedroom upstairs. So you remain in your room, with a window open and a damp cloth over your mouth, under your bed.
As you lay there terrified, eyes and throat burning from noxious fumes, a fireman bursts through the door. He sees you under the bed, a look of frenzied hope in your eyes that help has finally arrived. The fireman walks over to the window, shuts it, and then exits the room closing the door again behind him.
That’s roughly the equivalent of what the Colorado GOP did to Republican voters last week.
At a time when record numbers of Americans do not trust their government, Congress, and their political parties, the Colorado GOP – with the full blessing of the Republican National Committee – decided to exclude input from more than one million Republican voters. Few things in this intensely heated political season have caused more of a justified outrage.
In the aftermath of the scandal, predictably, the debate has largely centered around the campaign’s two frontrunners. The Cruz supporters generally support Colorado’s process, which awarded Cruz all of Colorado’s 34 delegates. In response to the outrage, in good political form, Trump wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal denouncing the sham. (Full disclosure: The author is a Trump supporter, but does not believe Colorado’s delegates will be required for Trump to win the nomination.)
The candidate-oriented arguments miss the point entirely. As a political activist who has campaigned for various candidates and worked with the local Republican Party, let me suggest that the average Joe on the street understands much more about the problems this country faces than our party hacks. Far more times than not, party officials don’t think or speak like normal people: they’re half- brainwashed, condescending, and thoroughly entitled (to say nothing about rampant corruption). Your average Joe can tell you how stagnant wages affect his life and family. The party hack will waterboard you with politically correct pabulum you and tell you the solution is to vote for his candidate.
Fixing the disconnect between citizens and the clueless party officials and candidates does not require a degree in political science. It requires more participation from the citizens (you know, the people who actually make up the country) in the entire governing process, and most critically in elections. We hear that voters are really angry – well, why is that? It’s because they feel cut-out, disenfranchised, ignored. Does that sound familiar, Colorado?
The response in the Republican Party regarding Colorado has been divided. Pundits I respect, like Thomas Sowell, and pundits I used to respect, like Mark Levin, have insinuated that the Trump campaign is using Colorado as an example to self-servingly work up voters into a blind frenzy. Ann Coulter, meanwhile, has rightly focused on the ludicrous notion that the rules are somehow hallowed, and that people should study, respect, if not revere them.
Frankly, Sowell, Levin, and their compatriots have surrendered the moral high ground (or: maybe they have embraced the moral low ground?). In patronizing fashion, we are told that the State GOP sets the rules, that the RNC sets guidelines, and that all is transparent to those who want to know. We are scolded, like little children, that “the United States is a Republic, not a Democracy!” I got all that, thanks, but since when are Americans supposed to assume that their government and political parties are scheming to suppress political participation? And since when do conservatives and conservative pundits defend such a crooked system?
Our country is a mess today. We are economically stagnant, we are no longer respected diplomatically or militarily, and we do not even control our borders or immigration system. While healthcare costs continue to rise (especially for those with jobs), the education system has been engineered to train professional ignoramuses. The list of serious problems is as long as the national debt is unfathomably large.
We live in troubled and troubling times. The people looked to the GOP for salvation. Instead, the party shut the window, closed the door, and told us it was for our own good.
I like them (your thoughts). There are a plethora of appeasing faux-conservative Cruz supporters here ballyhooing the “rules” and how nothing was illegal or wrong and then offering up pathetic excuses about Trump’s contention saying that “other states gave him a disproportionate share of delegates on the VOTE.”
The PROBLEM is that there isn’t or wasn’t a share of citizen votes to ‘get’ at all in Colorado. Not what happened in some other state.
Colorado GOP politicians stink worse than any diaper I EVER changed for my children, or my grandchildren. Frankly, if one of them ever issued the offal that comes off this Colorado crap, I’d be looking for a Priest and an honest-to-God exorcism. I’m done with all these people and those like them.
Colorado GOPe needs to review our founding principles. And although States have a right as to how the select a president. When were Democraps and the GOPe given the right to write their own rules ?
I like the analogy. The reason they Cruz /GOPe delegates will be denied being seated in Cleveland is because they rigged the Ballots ( In absolute violation of state rules) to not show either the name of the delegate OR THE REQUIRE CANDIDATE that the delegate supported. This is an absolute violation of the rules!!! Rules are Rules?? NO ONE KNEW WHO TO VOTE FOR!!! It was rigged. In the confusion and even with huge numbers of Trump people there ( not knowing who was a Trump delegate and who wasnt from the crooked ballot) The cruz /gope cabal gets every delegate???? !!! What the hell? This delegation was rigged and will never be seated .
You don’t live in Colorado do you? Isn’t the primary June 2. They already had the caucus. Tea party people are gaining control of the Colorado party, is that what offends you?
The straw poll was canceled so that Colorado party could run the election and not the national party. There is more misinformation out there than there is truth. It is easier to believe those that give facts and not opinions.
You seem to violate the first amendment civil rights of Colorado republicans.
You are not living in a democracy.
This is a free republic
Colorado GOPe needs to review our founding principles. And although States have a right as to how the select a president. When were Democraps and the GOPe given the right to write their own rules ?
Are you kidding? They can and do have coin flips..they can say only people with 12 toes can be the nominee. They can do anything they want.
Where was the outcry before this rout? Would you people be crying if trump was not inept and captured the delegates?
I love how you people are blaming Cruz for trumps ineptitude.
As Rod Serling used to say on opening of Twilight Zone:
“Imagine if you will...”
Imagine if you will that the media and Cruz are wrong...That Trump is not a bloviated idiot they claim he is. That he is not a whiny looser.
Imagine he figgurred out after reading the rules that the best way to play this was the way that it was played. And that after what had been in the darkness was exposed to the light the people saw what a sham this was where one person one vote went right out the window into the land fill..
Imagine if you will that is this possible because one does not become a billionaire by being stupid
Imagine if you will ...that when writing “The Art of the Deal” ...this is the mind set Trump uses in all negotiations to get the enemy off balance.
Imagine if you will that those of us who support him know this and it is the media that are the doddling neanderthal country bumpkins who are their way to the biggest shellacking in American political history.
Imagine if you will...
Freegards
LEX
Allow me to provide some truth about the Colorado caucus.
1) not a single registered republican was turned away from their precinct
2) since 2004, there has only been a nonbinding presidential STRAW poll conducted during the caucus. Witness 2012 where the straw poll supported Sanatorum but the delegate count favored Romney
3) since 2004, the caucuses are used to select delegates to represent the precinct at the state convention.
4) ANY REGISTERED REPUBLICAN from the precinct can run for the delegate or alternate to represent the precinct
5) ANY REGISTERED REPUBLICAN from the precinct can run for and be elected as precinct captain
6) The 3,953 state delegates represent the precincts at the state convention where they vote on a number of things. One of the things they vote on is the 37 Delegates who will represent the state of Colorado at the GOP national convention.
7) The only change has been the national GOP rules which said IF you have a straw poll it has to be binding. Since the straw poll has not been binding in Colorado since 2004, the party decided to abide by the national rules by not holding a straw poll.
8) Note that this did not stop the precinct captain from calling for a precinct straw poll. In fact, I have been told by a few precinct captains that this is what they did. But is also known, based on some reports, that when Trump supporters showed up and found out that there was not going to be a straw poll, they left and were not there for the voting for their delegates.
In the past, the methods of restriction included things like discrimination based on race, sex or property ownership.
In Colorado, "voting" for presidential candidates at primary time is limited to those who are willing to spend hours or days and possibly considerable financial expense to decipher the arcane system, jump through the necessary hoops, and do the necessary travel to remote locations. Some (but not all) of those whose primary hobby is politics fall into this category and heartily approve of this system, which gives them more control than their neighbor has over who runs the government.
Awarding special powers over who gets elected to those who are willing to spend the most time and money on bureaucratic crap makes no more sense than using race or sex and the basis for awarding special voting powers. Rank-and-file voters who are the extremophiles who can put up with the crap are the ones who are applauding this sytem and impeding a clean-up. These people are not necessarily those on top. They're your neighbors—and some of them are posting here.
I listened to a lot of the livestreamed comments from people on the Capitol steps, and almost to a person they said they were not there because they were for-Trump or against-Cruz, but because they were looking forward to being part of the primary process and were told to go to hell by the Colorado GOP. They are good American patriots, not partisans over crying sour grapes.
Of course when the party rigs an outcome to favor one candidate and intentionally screw another one, there’s no question people are mad and they have every right to be. The Colorado GOP and Steve House in particular are corrupt to the core and he needs to resign and the party needs to go to an open primary system.
I like your approach. I am not sure who is running the disinformation and propaganda programs against Colorado but I think the angry posters are helping the Democrats and the turncoats with deep pocketed backers.
I am neither DemoRAT nor rePUBlican but you would have to put a gun to my head to vote demorat. Put Bill, hillary, and a bunch others in jail and I would consider the rat party. Get rid of the publican turn coats please.
Excellent post. You nailed it BIG TIME.
“These people are not necessarily those on top. They’re your neighbors—and some of them are posting here.”
Yep, and they’re exposing themselves to one and all, and shaming themselves squawking about “the rules” like good little Dems—RULE OF LAW! RULE OF LAW! CAW! CAW!—and pretending what really happened didn’t REALLY happen.
You, as most people today, must think that our “founding principles” mandated democracy in the USA. Wrong. The Founders established a republic. The only ones eligible to vote were men who owned property. So the rules have changed over the centuries, but the rules still rule. Without them, you have mob rule, and we are getting closer to that end with every election.
A Republic is governed by Laws not Rules.
Criminals deceive you with capricious rules and guidlines.
Handcuff them all.
Keep it simple. :-)
“So the rules have changed over the centuries, but the rules still rule. Without them, you have mob rule, and we are getting closer to that end with every election.”
Confused. How are we getting closer to “mob rule” when the mob is actually being cut out of the process? What we’re getting closer to is authoritarian rule by a few, with a show vote for cake.
Here is an execllent article that I have been using on other boards / blogs to refute much of the disinformation:
http://ariarmstrong.com/2016/04/setting-the-record-straight-about-colorados-republican-caucus/
I was a precinct captain in 2012 and saw a lot of miss information get pushed back then. I was out of town on a business trip and couldn’t make the caucuses.
Your analogy is flawed. The person cowering under a bed while the house burns down is beyond stupid. That bed would go up like the Fourth of July. The fireman closing the window would be doing you a favor by limiting the amount of oxygen in the room with which to combust the bed. Hopefully the extra time would make you realize that being under a burning bed is a folly, and you would then either try to go out the same way as the fireman did, or jump from a second or third floor window. It would probably not be a fourth floor window because most houses only have two or three floors. Here in Placer County, CA, you can’t build a single-family dwelling over two stories above the ground.
Got any idea who is behind most of the misinformation??
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.