The RNC convention rules committee rejected Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh's proposal to "unbind" delegates committed to support the candidates who'd won their state's primaries and/or caucuses. So far as the cool cat can figure out, Ms. Unruh's "conscience" proposal was for the delegates to ignore what the voters of their states had sent them to the convention to do and instead vote for Ted Cruz, Ms. Unruh's choice.
One supposes "Conscience Democracy" differs from Oligarchy, however, Growltiger is a cat, and felines can't tell the difference between "a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution" (Wikipedia) and a small group of "conscience conservatives" overturning the will of an electorate which overwhelmingly chose a different candidate than the one they supported.
What is more astounding than a bunch of partisan activists/control freaks trying to foist a rejected candidate onto the electorate is that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page and columnist Kim Strassel apparently believe such behavior is just fine. So long, of course, as the candidate being cheated out of the nomination is Donald Trump. One cannot imagine in one's wildest dreams the Journal or Ms. Strassel would support such a thing happening to Jeb Bush. As a friend likes to say, "it all depends on whose ox is being gored." Different strokes for different folks translates into different rules for different people, as Mrs. Clinton and General Petraeus certainly have discovered.
The spokes-paper of the Republican wing of the Globalist-Establishment-Uniparty-Status Quo really, really, really wanted Governor Bush to win the Republican Party nomination (Governor Bush had up to $120 million of special interest bucks in his campaign chest), but so long as the nominee wasn't Donald Trump, the Journal would be willing to swallow the castor oil and get behind Senator Cruz. After all, they reason, how bad can Senator Cruz be? No matter how much he railed against the "Washington Cartel", the truth is he is a part of Washington. And he did go to Harvard, is a member of the ruling political class, his wife does have connections with Goldman-Sachs, and Neil Bush, brother of President Bush fils, brother of candidate for president, Jeb, son of President Bush pere and grandson of Senator Prescott Bush was a member of Senator Cruz's finance team. Senator Cruz's connections to the Bush machine does give new meaning to the word anti-establishment, but then again, cats aren't as easily deceived as humans or we'd never be able to catch a mouse for breakfast. Or maybe humans just don't get the information they need to catch mice for breakfast. How many people really know about the Bush-Cruz connection?
Facts are nasty little devils. At least for Senator Cruz, the Never Trumpers and the Conscience Conservatives nee Oligarchs. So here are the facts:
There are 50 states. (For the sake of simplicity, Growltiger did not include territories or Washington, DC).
Of these 50 states, 39 held primaries in which the voters select the nominee. Donald Trump won 32 of 39, Ted Cruz won 5 and Marco Rubio and John Kasich each won 1. So even if Senator Rubio and Governor Kasich donated their states to Senator Cruz, the score is still 32 to 7.
Of the remaining 11 states, 9 held caucuses which favor candidates supported by party activists because they best know how to game work the system. In these states, 5 chose Senator Cruz, 3 chose Donald Trump, 1 chose Marco Rubio and 1 state (North Dakota) wouldn't, couldn't or didn't make up its mind (1).
Then, of course, there's Colorado. After the RNC changed its rules to require a state's delegates to support the candidate that wins the state's primary or caucus (why else have one?), the Colorado Republican executive committee voted to cancel the traditional presidential preference poll (2). Those who want to read a more detailed account of the shenanigans in Colorado see (3) below.
What the tiger cat finds more than interesting, however, is that the aforementioned "conscience" conservative, Ms. Unruh, is from Colorado, and that Senator Cruz presents himself and is presented as a man of honor.
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(1)
http://www.270towin.com/2016-republican-nomination/north-dakota-caucus(2)
http://www.denverpost.com/2015/08/25/colorado-republicans-cancel-presidential-vote-at-2016-caucus/(3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Republican_PartyExcerpt: "A proposal to prevent Republican delegates from voting for 2016 presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was written in March of 2016 by aeorspace engineer, Robert Zubrin. The group named "Colorado Republicans for Liberty" passed out fliers of Zubin's resolution at the state's convention.Delegate #379 (a Trump delegate) was replaced on the ballot with a duplicate of delegate $378 (a Ted Cruz delegate). Delegate #379 was Jerome Parks, a Trump alternate delegate. Larry Wayne Lindsey, a state delegate, claims he was removed from the ballot without knowing until shortly before the convention started. He claims he was removed from the ballot because he supports Trump's presidential campaign. The Colorado Republican Party's Twitter account posted a message saying "We did it#Never Trump" after presidential candidate Ted Cruz received all 34 delegates at the state's convention in April. The party claims its Twitter account was hacked and claims to be investigating how the message was posted. Cruz claimed that Trump complained because the delegates did not vote for Trump, when in fact evidence exists of removing delegates from the ballot for supporting Trump. In May of 2015, the Colorado Senate defeated an initiative to hold a presidential primary in 2016. State senators Laura J. Woods, Kevin Grantham, Kent Lambert and Jerry Sonnenberg voted to defeat the bill. Coincidentally, Sonnenberg, Grantham, Lambert and Woods are members of the "Colorado Leadership Team" for Ted Cruz. Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams and Congressman Ken Buck are also members of the Ted Cruz "Colorado Leadership Team". In August of 2015, the party decided not to hold a preference poll for voters to express their preferred candidate."
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