Follow the Rules

For John, BLUF:  If the GOP leadership doesn't follow the rules it could fracture the Party and cause people to stay home.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Even Anti-Trump Rank-and-File Republicans Don’t Want Open Convention".

The headline is so insightful I thought to put it before the Source (Roll Call) and the author, Mr Walter Shapiro.

Buried about five paragraphs down is this insight:

What I didn’t calculate, though, was how wedded rank-and-file Republicans are to voter sovereignty in the primaries.  Conventions are now viewed as TV backdrops – not decision-making bodies.  That, at least, was the overwhelming reaction Saturday night at the Saginaw County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Gala.

“I think if someone’s winning by the rules set out, he should be the nominee,” said Saginaw state Rep. Tim Kelly in a welcoming address to the dinner.  “We’re a party of rules, we’re a party of laws.  Otherwise, we would just play into the narrative of the left that the system is rigged.”

The key point here, perhaps, is that the Republican Establishment has been so interested in calm waters that they have not, in the eyes of Republican voters, done what needed to be done in Washington.

And it isn't just Republicans.  On City Life this Tuesday AM Mr George Zaharoolis, a Democrat, said he voted for Senator Bernie Sanders, but if he had a Republican Ballot he would have voted for Mr Donald Trump.  I am wagering that folks are not voting for Mr Trump because they like Mr Trump so much as because they don't like the way the "establishment" is handling things.

UPDATE:  Typo corrected.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff