Yes the caucus system is old. Needed in the day when communications and travel were slow and expensive. It’s plus is that it does require real investment on the part of the voter.
I can’t get over how people are focused on the right to vote and forget the privilege and responsibility pieces. They want voting to be easy, convenient. No registration, no ID, no waiting in line. No thinking.
Our founding fathers had a real fear of mob rule. When a population is under stress, that population often makes seriously damaging decisions. Think Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood and Germany with Hitler. Our founding
Father’s searched earnestly for a system that would respect the will of the people and still guard against the dangers of the mob. They worked for a balance that would protect the small states interests as well as those of the larger states.
Before we go throwing a system away, we should spend at least as much thought on those same issues. Read “The Miracle at Philadelphia” to gain an understanding of what went on during the Constitutional Convention. Link to free PDF: http://www.steporebook.com/book/miracle-at-philadelphia-the-story-of-the-constitutional-convention-may-september-1787-24226-pdf.html. Study guides also available online.
There’s a belief among Trump and shared by his supporters that there is a fundamental right to vote in primaries because, after all, we’re a democracy as Trump has stated himself(falsely so, BTW). They believe because there is a right to vote in the general election, then because they can’t do it in a primary, they’re being disenfranchised. Now, maybe one can argue for changing the caucus system afterwards and the points made can be valid, but the rules as they are are what they were going into Colorado and it was Trump’s responsibility to know the rules.
“Now, maybe one can argue for changing the caucus system afterwards and the points made can be valid, but the rules as they are are what they were going into Colorado and it was Trump’s responsibility to know the rules.”
This whole “he didn’t know the rules” is just a stupid GOPe talking point.
He did know the rules, the GOPe is aiding Cruz, pulling strings to select anti-Trump delegates. All within the “rules”. Fine.
But that’s a no-win situation for Trump, so he’s not going to play that game, instead gets on TV and yells “rigged”.
He’s playing HIS game. Now the RNC is on the defensive and have to explain their “rules”.
He’s definitely NOT being outsmarted. By Cruz or the GOPe.