Playing by the rules is not stealing. What Trump is trying to do is stealing via intimidation. He is a sore loser. He didn’t even show up in the state of Colorado. Cruz was actually there. Cruz had a ground game. Trump the deal maker didn’t even know the rules, his team made tons of stupid mistakes, and yet he cries when he loses. Of course he lost. He had no idea what he was doing and failed to hire that top notch team he keeps promising. Imagine what will happen when he tries these lovely skills on the world stage.
He has more delegates overall than the vote percentages warrant. The system has advantaged him, yet he only gripes when he loses. He is the new Al Gore.
Playing by the rules is stealing when the rules are designed to limit participation and make it difficult for those new to the process or who are not favored by the establishment to participate. In Colorado that is exactly what happened.
The Colorado convention also used to hold a straw poll before the delegates were chosen that was non-binding but allow the crowd to see the general feelings of those there. The national GOP told Colorado they can’t do that and that if they took a vote at the convention it had to count. If it were me receiving that admonition I’d have said “We need to hold a primary or regular caucus rather than this weird convention thing. Instead they simply eliminated even the semblance of a vote. How can anyone in a representative republic agree with that?
That the party chairman tweeting “#NeverTrump: We did it” just minutes after the convention means there was NEVER chance that Mr Trump would get a delegate. This convention was rigged. I’d actually like to see the actual ballots. When he makes statements like that how do we know that the count wasn’t adjusted? Doesn’t it seem strange to you that not even ONE SINGLE Trump supporter was elected? The chairman tried to claim his account was hacked but that has been shown to not be true. His tweet shows that he was not representing the party but was just an activist “fixer” for Cruz. That means he was going to try to give every delegate to Cruz even if if person in the state voted for Trump.
Even if all of the above was pure innocent coincidence sleazy rules are the domain of thieves. Colorado has sleazy rule and the party bosses look like thieves and they deserve it for allowing sleazy rules to exist.
You can protest “But those were the rules” all you want it looks like theft. To make the case that what happened in Colorado was just “The rule” really makes you look Al Gore calling for endless recounts in Florida. He espoused noble intent too. Can you really not see how bad it looks? When the rules are bad the statement “Its the rules” is not morally justifiable.
The state of Colorado had an entire year to reform the process and instead holding a caucus or primary they eliminated the vote.
And
Iowa - telling caucus goes that Carson had suspended his campaign wasn’t against the rules
Sending out threatening fake voter registration letters wasn’t against the rules either
Using parliamentary tricks get unpledged delegates in Louisiana to all go for Cruz despite having resoundingly lost the state was also not against the rules.
Trying to effectively overturn the election in states by obscure parliamentary machination is neither ethical nor the mark of a “consistent Constitutional conservative”
None of these tricks will work in the general election.
Mr Cruz is in the process of alienating 30% to 40% of the Republican base. That should concern Cruz supporters very much.