Posted on 04/05/2016 8:30:44 AM PDT by Lucky9teen
On social media you see a lot of people saying that this candidate or that candidate is “stealing delegates.” There is no such thing. First of all, it implies something illegal, or at best, nefarious. It is neither. Secondly, there is no way you can “steal” delegates.
When people talk about stealing delegates they are displaying their ignorance about how the system works. Just as Donald Trump displayed his ignorance when he claimed that he should be the candidate because he had more votes than any other candidate, but not a majority. Reince Priebus had to call Trump into a special private meeting so he could explain how the delegate system works and what the rules are for the Republican convention. Trump is no longer making that claim.
So here is how the delegate system works. In most states, delegates are selected by the campaign of a candidate. For example, I have been selected to be a delegate for the Cruz campaign in California. If Ted Cruz wins a majority of votes in my Congressional District, I will go to the convention as a Cruz delegate. In California, you are committed to vote for the candidate whose campaign selected you for the first two ballots. After that you are “unbound.” There are some states where the delegates are only committed to vote for their candidate for the first ballot. There are some states, like Colorado, where the delegates go to the convention “unbound,” and can vote for any candidate on the first ballot. By the third ballot all delegates are unbound and can vote for any candidate.
What some people refer to as “stealing” is a practice that has gone on since the formation of the Republican Party in the early 19th Century. Smart candidates who know the system will try to get delegates to vote for them after the first or second ballots. All delegates are typically contacted by candidates other than the candidate whose campaign selected them, and asked to commit that, if their candidate isn’t selected on the first ballot, or the second ballot, they will vote for candidate “x” on subsequent ballots. I am personally committed to vote for Senator Cruz for every ballot, no matter how many, so another candidate would be wasting his time trying to get me to commit to vote for him in subsequent ballots. However there are some delegates who do make those commitments. The mainstream media (read: the Democrat Party press) call this long-time political process “stealing” delegates. The fact that Senator Cruz has been successful in getting delegates from other candidates to commit to him on subsequent ballots isn’t “stealing.” The fact that the Trump campaign hasn’t been successful is because they weren’t familiar with how the system works. Trump hasn’t had a campaign staff that is really familiar with how to round up delegates, or the inner workings of the Republican Party.
You also hear comments that the “Establishment” is rigging the convention so that Trump can’t be the candidate. There is no way they can do that. Yes, there are some uncommitted delegate positions that the RNC, and State parties have who will vote the way they are told to, but they are a minority of delegates and couldn’t sway an election.
The way it works is that the candidate is not nominated by a vote of the people. The people elect the delegates. The delegates nominate the candidate. There is no way the election can be “rigged.” At the convention, 2,472 individual delegates will vote. If no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first ballot it will go to a second ballot, and to successive ballots until one candidate emerges with a majority. That candidate will be the nominee for the Party. The voting is transparent. It will be an above-board system which will fairly nominate a candidate for the Party who has the support of a majority of delegates.
> “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “STEALING” DELEGATES”
Yes, there is.
Ron Paul tried it in 2012 and it resulted in a change to Rule 40B, which the bastards are now thinking to change back.
The stealing is not in the spirit of the Party of Reagan. It is in the spirit of Romney.
The Party of Reagan would offer a winner of a state’s delegates the opportunity to seat their own delegates.
The Party of Romney denies a winner that they don’t like their own delegates in lieu of the Party seating delegates that they own.
Donald Trump is completely morally justified in selecting his own delegates to represent him at the convention. If any of the delegates is found to be unacceptable to the convention committee say for example a prior conviction or association with a militant group, then Donald’s campaign should be afforded the courtesy of finding an alternate.
A winner should be respected and given common courtesy.
The GOP establishment is pulling every dirty trick they can, which conforms with the philosophy of Romney which is to lie, cheat and steal one’s way to power.
No, you would be buying a delegate, not stealing them.
BUMP
It doesn't have to make sense, because.............Cruz! For some people it's hard to type something coherent because of, and I'm paraphrasing, blood coming out of their eyes, blood coming out of their whatever.
If we voters elect Trump delegates, then they should stay Trump delegates.....
Your insight is remarkable.
Like the brilliant colors of a pre-pubescent masterwork in crayon, the nearly incandescent nature of your comment illuminates every aspect of viewpoint. Where it not for uncanny ability you display with the written word, one might be inspired to derision rather than pity. Excelsior!
Other than the equivocating by Cruz supporters here on Free Republic, I have met no one who believes that the Cruz campaign trying to install their people as pledged Trump delegates is legitimate or moral. This looks like an obvious attempt to disenfranchise the millions of people who voted for Trump over Cruz. It just doesn’t sit well with anyone outside of hard core Cruz supporters. Approximately half the people in the country are still waiting to vote and perception is important.
I have yet to hear anyone explain how it’s immoral.
Legitimate? If you let your opponent pick your team you will lose. A lack of action on trump’s part is in no way an immoral or illegitimate act by Cruz.
Honesty is overrated.
‘”If you want to beat him [Trump], you have to beat him at the ballot box,” Cruz said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”’
Good to see Cruz taking the high road on this. What’s more, we know he means it, because he’s a man of his word:
‘”At the outset of this campaign, I promised I would support the Republican nominee,” he said. “And I am someone who keeps his word.”’
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ted-cruz-beat-donald-trump-ballot-box-not-gop-convention/
Exactly!
If Trump is crying foul because he can’t manage to deal with the intricacies of a primary, what does he think he is going to do with an entire federal government full of bureaucrats who oppose his agenda?
Trump has two paths to victory. Either get the 1237 delegates or cut a deal. Trump and the trumpets are burning bridges to ensure that no deal will be possible... if he doesn’t get the delegates he needs, I will be one of those waving at him from the other side of the bridge he burnt down thinking.... serves him right.
As horrible as it sounds, a Trump + Cruz ticket is the only way to unify the party and a unified party is the only way to win in November.
Pick a bake-the-cake rino like Kasich for VP, and I’ll be voting for the conservative... but for the presidential race, that won’t be the Republican.
Does the term “bribing delegates” work for you?
Everything in this article is true. The real deception comes at the State level. So when the delegates are “chosen” they are chosen by who they support. So the State knows that if it goes to a second ballot, they have 75-80% of the “hand chosen” delegates will flip to Cruz. It’s happening in Arizona. If the Presidential Preference Election was paid for by the political party, then I’d say, fine. That’s the system. But that’s not how it is here in Arizona. The Counties pay for their elections, all citizens pay. So how can I go out, as a Republican, and register people and tell them that their vote matters when actually, it doesn’t.
This happens on the Left and Right. The election process as perverted by the political parties in the country is a sham. Someone like Trump, truly outside the political class, has exposed the inner workings of the party.
The parties want to provide an illusion of choice, but they like to control things to the point where only their candidates are put up to run in the first place. That's why one hears absurd things like in '08 when it was "Mccain's turn to run".
Since the GOP and Dem parties are all woven together at the top with the same pool of big money donors, you ultimately have a hidden donor class selecting candidates on both sides who then put on a little show for the public where the public is given the illusion of voting.
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