[Jack Black]

So far from being "suicide," this is the GOP establishment's strategy for self-preservation: better to lose this election to another Democrat than risk having the party taken over by the grassroots.

Right. this is almost verbatim what the county chair from the GOP said to me when I was talking to him about his treatment of Ron Paul supporters in 2008. He said "they are trying to take over the party". It certainly seemed to him that the party belonged to him and the other long term activists and they were acting completely legitimately in protecting it from the outsiders.

I pointed out to him that nearly 100% of the attendees under age 35 at the caucus were supporting Ron Paul, and that for many it was probably their first experience with the Republican Party, and that it might make sense to at least treat them fairly. He was quite arrogant and was having none of it.

The Ron Paul contingent came back bigger and more determined in 2012, and the Tea Party in 2010 also started discomforting the GOP establishment by running real conservatives against squish incumbents. All sorts of jobs were viewed as sinecures by these people: port commisioner, regional transport boards, etc.

The county GOP powers were so incensed that the Ron Paul delegates came with a deep understanding of the rules in 20012 and basically tried to do to the GOP establishment what had been done to them four years previously that they ended our county convention without even choosing the delegates, essentially running out the clock and taking the delegate choice into the executive committee.

From the local newspaper, The Columbian is the story documenting the failure:

County GOP fails to fill its slate of delegates Convention in Vancouver breaks down in dispute

I was not a Ron Paul supporter in either election, but I was still appalled by the behavior of the GOP in our county. And when I see Ted Cruz wining these contests it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, a taste which is not cleansed by the national GOP head saying "it's in the rules".

I agree with your statement, and I've seen it up close. For a lot of these people the party is more about personally taking care of them, than governing.

[ek_hornbeck]

I remember the same thing in 1996 with following Pat Buchanan's primary win in New Hampshire. Many neoconservatives were saying that they would support Bill Clinton if Buchanan became the GOP nominee. The same people are now saying that they'd back Hillary over Trump.

It goes to show that the GOP elites have much more in common with the Democratic elites than they do with the grassroots voters who they've been duping for decades.