Those aren't "shenanigans" - it is the way delegates are selected. The primary or caucus determines who the delegate is obligated to vote for on the first ballot. But the actual delegates are usually selected at state party conventions weeks after the primary. Some states allow the candidates to submit slates of delegates, but in others, the delegates run for election in precinct, county and state conventions. So a candidate has to have a good organization AFTER the primary to get as many of his supporters selected as delegates as possible. Trump is just discovering this apparently.
Take SC for example - Trump won all 50 delegates. But in order to be selected as a delegate, you had to have attended the state convention in 2015 - months before Trump even jumped into the race. So the likelihood that the Trump delegates in that state will actually be Trump supporters is slim and none.
[Those aren’t “shenanigans” - it is the way delegates are selected. ]
You say that like they the two terms are mutually exclusive. They are not. Just because that is the “way” it is currently done doesn’t mean it isn’t “shenanigans”. The “way” should be changed so the candidate selects his own loyal delegates at each level. We are nominating a potential Executive; we should trust his ability to pick the best people to represent his interests at the convention. Those millions of primary voters expected their convention representatives (delegates) to actually represent their support for their candidate, not be party hacks elected through some process they were not involved in.
Pepe keep talking about how Trump will have to “cut deals” with other delegates if he comes up short of 1237. Is that really the way we want our government to function ? Handing out ambassadorships, promises of pork, or whatever to buy delegates ? That sounds like the very vision of lobbyist corruption I want eliminated from government. The fact that it happens on the convention floor rather than in “smokey back rooms” is immaterial.
A government that is as small as possible and does the bare minimum will never exist if the party that supposedly wants that to happen relies on bribery, corruption, and cronyism to decide on its nominee. Don’t we want a candidate who is beholden to no one but the people ?