“...we currently use the party system to select our candidates, and each party has rules about how their candidate is selected. And why you bring a Constitutional argument in about that process is mystifying to me...”
This nation was founded in blood, primarily because a small but powerful ruling class denied the common people a voice in how they were to be governed.
Today’s two dominant political parties have now recaptured the power of self rule that was won by our forebears so long ago. If the parties don’t like the people’s choice of nominee, they simply impose ‘rules’ which give them the power to choose one more to their liking.
That, in no way, resembles a republican form of government, and should be fiercely rejected by all Americans who haven’t lost sight of this nation’s founding principles.
Okay so then have your candidate run for office outside of the party system, as an independent. But if he is going to run as the candidate of one of the parties, he has to follow their rules to be selected.