“More specifically, can you name any party rules that the GOPe could use to prevent us from removing them from power?”
Did you not watch the votes at the convention last year??? Yes!
You are living in a pipe dream Grandma. RINOe’s closed the barn door to eliminate challenges at the convention.
They control the apparatus.
They systematically tanked every conservative in the game.
They went before cameras to cast doubt and accusation.
If there was a way for you to do it, they would be closing that loophole now to prevent it.
You NEVER change a bureaucracy from the inside. All they care about is their control of money and power. The only way to do that is to threaten to take away either or both from the outside.
Choke off their money supply and send it to actual conservatives, as Sen. DeMint did. Oppose the RINOs at every turn. Support their primary opponents. And even then, 8 out of 10 people you send to DC will go native.
As Reagan said, “They never see the light, but they feel the heat.”
If conservatives had become involved in a mass, organized effort after the 2008 presidential debacle and actually tried to take over the party apparatus, we could have had control over the convention. Instead, too many just went to Tea Party rallies or contributed money to a politician or sat around complaining about the state of the party and country. That’s not cutting it. We need to get involved, kick out the RINOs, and change the party rules to favor conservatives.