I'm not trying to be argumentative -- I honestly don't get it. Exactly who are these people being removed, and who put them in those places to be removed in the first place?
“Can somebody explain why these rule changes are so important?”
The establishment is setting the table for the next election. They’re creating a system where the nomination, political agenda, and platform building process will be completely and entirely under the control of a small number of party insiders - thus eliminating the influence of movements like the Tea Party. We can vote and march all day long, but at the end of the day the establishment types will pick the winners and set the political agenda with these changes.
It's all about the future of the party and keeping those upstart Tea Party supporters from upsetting the GOP-e apple cart.
Going forward it gives the national party apparatus control over delegate selection, front-loading of early primaries (winner takes all vs. proportional) and freedom to change rules between party conventions. All designed to minimize grassroots conservatives from having much influence.
It isn't about Ron Paul (though its convenient to blame him), but about a future candidate who is at odds with the GOP establishment.
“Can somebody explain why these rule changes are so important? I don’t get it. Why should I care if certain delegates are on some committee, and others aren’t? Does it actually matter? Romney’s the candidate, Ryan’s the Veep nominee, so what’s the point of the rest of this stuff?
I’m not trying to be argumentative — I honestly don’t get it. Exactly who are these people being removed, and who put them in those places to be removed in the first place?”
You should care because the aristocrats and oligarchs are choosing our leaders for us. They are setting up the machinery to ensure that only someone they choose will become the republican nominee ever again. How do you think we get such men as Gerald Ford, Robert Dole, George Bush and his son, and now Mitt Romney. They worked hand in hand to destroy Goldwater, and since Reagan’s two landslides, they’ve been working to ensure that a conservative never again gets the nomination because they cannot be controlled. They’ll pick someone and that’ll be it because where are we going to go, they’ll say.