If the nomination process has devolved to the candidates and fundraising has devolved to PACs, what role does the RNC have?
I guess they still hold the Republican Convention, but what’s to stop the candidates from taking that over, too, and run it over Facebook, per Ben Carson’s suggestion?
“If the nomination process has devolved to the candidates and fundraising has devolved to PACs, what role does the RNC have? I guess they still hold the Republican Convention, but what’s to stop the candidates from taking that over, too, and run it over Facebook, per Ben Carson’s suggestion?”
Laws regulate how the election process works, including how candidates sign up to run for election, how elections are held and how the national convention elects the final candidate. The candidates cannot take over elections or conventions.
Debates are NOT regulated by law; they are put on by the national party making contracts with those who want to put on a debate. This part is being complained about by the candidates.
Good plan. I don’t see many obstacles. It’s about time to get rid of the RNC and let the candidates run their own shows. I don’t like the RNC being their “handlers” and it is obvious that most of the candidates don’t trust the RNC anymore than the MSM.
The RNC is a confederation of the state and territorial Republican Parties. Its irreducible core function is to establish the rules by which the state parties can come together to field a national candidate. The rules are adopted at the national convention, which is the plenary body of the party, assembled (per the current rules) once every four years, or by special call.
Beyond that, the RNC does whatever the state parties direct it to do. Every state party has a national committeeman, national committeewoman, and a state chairman, elected under state party rules. These delegates ARE the RNC. Everybody else is just staff. Historically the RNC's biggest role was to raise the funds for the presidential campaign. That is what turned the RNC into the money machine that reaches out and touches all of us regularly (whether we respond or not).
People should stop turning the RNC into some kind of hobgoblin. It is the confederation of the state parties. No more, and no less. Pretty simple when you get down to it.
The Republicans still operate under traditional rules of engagement. The Democrats poisoned their process in 1968 when the Democratic Convention kowtowed to Jesse Jackson and refused to seat the Illinois delegation, due to the melanin balance of its delegates. It seated instead Jesse's rump faction, so in essence the national party suppressed one of its state constituent parties and asserted national control over delegate selection. This was a big stop down the slippery slope to a Leninist party enforcing discipline from above. The Republicans should not follow this model.