“It is not censoring political speech. Anyone is free to say whatever they want.”
That is pure nonsense. You have voters going to the precinct caucus who win the plurality or even the majority of votes and then have one or no delegates going to the county or legislative district convention to represent their earned vote. The GOPe favored delegates then proceed to use the numerical advantage gained at the precinct caucuses in defiance of the voters’ express votes to then vote to sideline any remaining few delegates at the county convention who could represent them at the state convention. The delegates sent to the national convention then represent a minority of the GOP voters who have manipulated the rules and procedures to deny the plurality or majority of the GOP voters the right to have their political speech, Presidential candidate, party rules, and policies represented at the deliberations in the national convention. As I said before, the abuses of the privilege is fairly comparable in many respects to similar abuses found in the totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union. Any political process which results in a minority of the electorate being able to use the rules to deny the majority or the plurality a fair and accurate proportion of representation in the election is inherently non-Republican, because such a process is not truly representative of the sovereign political body.
“Well, the problem is that Trump voters haven’t represented a “majority” of Republican voters this primary season. They represent a plurality.”
This is not necessarily just about Trump at all. Trump is simply just the latest example of the GOPe minority manipulating the process to deny the will of the plurality and the majority of the GOP. All of this denial and spin amounts to nothing more than an extremely foolish and ill advised attempt to deny the undeniable fact that an influential minority has been abusing their existing control of the GOP apparatus to retain their minority control of the political party at the disadvantage the majority of the party’s voters. It also remains to be seen whether or not the voters will be able to compel a majority of the delegates to vote for Trump despite the efforts of the GOPe and Ted Cruz to take away the delegate positions the pro-Trump voters earned with their votes or the votes they would have used had they been allowed to vote.
“The truth is that while everyone wants to blame “neverTrump” on “the elites” or “the GOP-E”, it wouldn’t have any power unless there were a lot of other rank and file Republican voters who absolutely detest Trump.”
That is simply not true. I watched as Newt Gingrich won the most votes in the caucus voting and then see him not be allotted any delegates to the county convention until I spoke up to volunteer on his behalf. I have had many other voters report similar circumstances in their caucuses. The delegates sent from the caucus to the county convention often do not fairly or even remotely represent the actual voting results for these presidential candidates.
“Those people are also “lifelong Republican voters”. My mom voted for Goldwater, and she has said there’s no way she’d vote for Trump. I know a lot of folks who feel the same, and they’re not “the elites”. They’re just ordinary people.”
They are also not the party officers who become automatic delegates and control the rules committees that shut out the representatives of the plurality or majority of the voters’ representatives.
“The reality is that the party isn’t just divided between “the elites” and “the masses”. The masses themselves are divided, and there’s really no way to fix that. A very large group of “lifelong Republican voters” are going to be very dissatisfied with the nominee no matter who it is.”
The sore loser excuse just does not fly. These voters know they are going to win some and lose some. Your comment is a prime example of the disrespect these life-long Republican voters are complaining about. Your attempt to misrepresent and trivialize their concerns and their witnessing of a minority disenfranchising the will of the plurality or the majority and denial of the unethical means being used to do so is alienating most of the members and would be members of the GOP. These current and former members of the GOP have already withheld their votes from the GOP to send a message to the GOP to clean up heir act and to stop with the denials, and here we are in the middle of yet another dangerously critical election with the GOPe and people like you making inane excuses for all of this unethical disrespect for the voters and the opposition delegates like a bunch of tone deaf grave robes whistling past the graveyard on the way to the next cemetery while pretending to remain innocent as the disgruntled customers trail behind with pitchforks and rolling pins in disgust for what has become of the GOP.
For the party establishment itself (as opposed to all the GOP elected officials in Congress who have their own opinions as well), that’s a huge problem that RNC really can’t resolve.”
That’s is utter nonsense. The GOPe can begin by simply ending the Diebold vote rigging, ending the party membership of people like Mitt Romney after he plots to throw the election to Hillary Clinton rather than allow Trump or some earlier Republican candidate to win the presidency, ending the business of permitting naturalized citizen candidates to pretend they are natural born citizen candidates, ending the practice of sending delegates who do not represent the candidates voted for by the voters in the precinct, and so much more. Simply stop making excuses for the reasons why you refuse to listen to the voters and respect the choices of the majority or the plurality of the voters. Failure to listen and respect those voter demands will otherwise result in the Republican Party going the same way as the Whig Party much sooner than most people have imagined could ever be possible.
“As an entity, the GOP is screwed either way.”
No, the Party officials are making bad choices and engaging in bad behavior that will soon result in the sudden collapse in GOP voters the likes of which has never been seen since the Whig Party expired.
If that's a violation of rights, it still isn't the violation of "free speech" you claimed.
Personally, while I do object to delegates not being bound on the first ballot, I have no probably with intra-party elections/politicking to select the delegates who can vote their conscience in subsequent ballots.
The fact is that Trump has been the "first choice" of only 37% of those who have voted in a GOP primary/caucus. If we want to represent accurately the desires of those who voted as a whole, the majority of delegates also should not be "Trump first" voters. They should actually represent -- as best as possible -- the full diversity of thought represented by the total ballots cast. That necessarily means electing delegates with free will (after the first ballot) to chose who they want as the field narrows.