Here's How Donald Trump Could Become President

[toubab]

I don't know about the rest of those north east states, you basing this off polls or feels?

I have faith in California to essentially say "Fuck Trump. We'll vote Vader just to see what happens." But my state often lets me down.

Mostly off of polls, but also the fact Cruz is extremely conservative in the religious nut vein of conservatism. Not New York values. Or California values, for that matter.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Fair enough.

 

[Hypoxia]

Virgin Islands GOP Meeting Ends With Shoving, Shouting and Cops

he Republican Territorial Committee held a joint meeting Saturday at a gun range in St. Croix, but the meeting erupted into chaos with attendees shouting over one another, calling for points of order, and at one point, Gwen Brady, an elected delegate, being allegedly shoved to the ground, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News.

This is just the latest in the civil war within the island's Republican Party where a fight over delegates to the 2016 convention in Cleveland has left the group in disarray.

Virgin Islands Republican Party Vice Chairman Herb Schoenbohm told the paper that Brady was “slammed against the wall and thrown to the floor because she objected to the Gestapo-like tactics of the V.I. Chairman John Canegata.”

Schoenbohm also blasted the location of the meeting, telling the paper that Canegata was "banging the table with a large ammunition cartridge being used as a gavel" and walking around with a "firearm on his belt."

Just a preview of Cleveland.

 

[toubab]

Virgin Islands GOP Meeting Ends With Shoving, Shouting and Cops Just a preview of Cleveland.

Both major parties, if they were interested in making things fair to everyone, would simply require holding primary elections in every state, territory, etc., in order to determine who their nominees would be for the general election. Neither major party wants anything to do with that, of course. Too much power to ordinary citizens who would then merely have to go in and vote and immediately be able to go home, go back to work, go pick up the kids, or do whatever they needed to do to get on with their lives. Can't have that.

 

[Hypoxia]

Both major parties, if they were interested in making things fair to everyone, would simply require holding primary elections in every state, territory, etc., in order to determine who their nominees would be for the general election. Neither major party wants anything to do with that, of course. Too much power to ordinary citizens who would then merely have to go in and vote and immediately be able to go home, go back to work, go pick up the kids, or do whatever they needed to do to get on with their lives. Can't have that.

Open or closed primaries?

What we see with early standalone primaries that aren't tied to anything else is that, as with caucuses, only the most enthusiastic and polarized citizens bother with them -- and moderates are punished.. California's June now-fairly-open primary also may contain local races and issues so more of the populace is likely to cast ballots, not only activists.

But note that Dems and GOPs are private non-profits incorporated in Delaware and may set their own damn rules pretty much however they wish. If they tie their delegate selection processes with state elections, then they must meet state rules too. But if they want to run private caucuses or non-transparent conventions, nothing stops them. The party system has no Constitutional basis and thus, absent an amendment, no grounds for federal intervention.

USA was first established under the Articles of Confederation with state sovereignty. It did not work; that is why USA has a federal Constitution. The entertaining free-for-all state+local delegate selection process is like state sovereignty on steroids. Anyone care for chaotic governance?

 

[toubab]

Open or closed primaries?

What we see with early standalone primaries that aren't tied to anything else is that, as with caucuses, only the most enthusiastic and polarized citizens bother with them -- and moderates are punished.. California's June now-fairly-open primary also may contain local races and issues so more of the populace is likely to cast ballots, not only activists.

But note that Dems and GOPs are private non-profits incorporated in Delaware and may set their own damn rules pretty much however they wish. If they tie their delegate selection processes with state elections, then they must meet state rules too. But if they want to run private caucuses or non-transparent conventions, nothing stops them. The party system has no Constitutional basis and thus, absent an amendment, no grounds for federal intervention.

USA was first established under the Articles of Confederation with state sovereignty. It did not work; that is why USA has a federal Constitution. The entertaining free-for-all state+local delegate selection process is like state sovereignty on steroids. Anyone care for chaotic governance?

Seems to me closed would make more sense, as long as people were given a reasonable chance to register as either a Democrat or a Republican before the primary election.

There is no need for federal intervention. The parties can mandate primary elections to determine nominees if they like. Nothing is stopping them.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Nothing stopping them sans it doesn't suit their needs.

Honestly if you don't want the feds stepping in to organize this shit you really have no right to bitch about the system. Because it is what it is. Two private parties doing whatever the fuck they want. They could nominate based on the outcome of a game of Twister if they chose.

Edit: I hope they don't. I'm pretty sure Sarah Palin would whomp Trump, Cruz, Bush, Kasich, Carson and the others.

 

[richard_daily]

Both major parties, if they were interested in making things fair to everyone, would simply require holding primary elections in every state, territory, etc., in order to determine who their nominees would be for the general election. Neither major party wants anything to do with that, of course. Too much power to ordinary citizens who would then merely have to go in and vote and immediately be able to go home, go back to work, go pick up the kids, or do whatever they needed to do to get on with their lives. Can't have that.

You're talking about parties who don't trust the electorate to have a direct voice.

Both of them are full of shit, and always have been. They're all about protecting their own and the monied interests that finance them.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I get a real kick out of watching the politically uninvolved tell the politically involved the rules of behavior that would make the former more comfortable, in the name of fairness.

 

[richard_daily]

I get a real kick out of watching the politically uninvolved tell the politically involved the rules of behavior that would make the former more comfortable, in the name of fairness.

So, are you claiming to be "the politically involved"? If so, what's the metric?

 

[hashtag45]

So, are you claiming to be "the politically involved"? If so, what's the metric?

The distance between your ears as a gold standard, dummy.

 

[WalksOnWater]

...the politically uninvolved...

No such creature exists, wannabe.

As long as at least two individuals are involved in anything, politics - the art of group governance - is involved.

Politics, exactly like science, exists as itself and is, itself, naturally benign - any human taint cursed upon it simply derives from the individuals who can't help but unnaturally need to lord over others instead of first getting a handle on governing themselves.

Getting that good handle on self-governance is, after all and all by itself, a lifetime pursuit for any individual, and if more individuals actually lived their lives revering that natural political spirit, the very less of public government would be necessary.

Alas, like those who teach that never did make government education drool, those who've never known self-governance make mighty Leviathan drip.

 

[Sean Renaud]

^^^ Wow.

 

[toubab]

Nothing stopping them sans it doesn't suit their needs.

Honestly if you don't want the feds stepping in to organize this shit you really have no right to bitch about the system. Because it is what it is. Two private parties doing whatever the fuck they want. They could nominate based on the outcome of a game of Twister if they chose.

Edit: I hope they don't. I'm pretty sure Sarah Palin would whomp Trump, Cruz, Bush, Kasich, Carson and the others.

Doing something relatively simple, logical, and fair doesn't suit their needs. True, unfortunately.

 

[toubab]

You're talking about parties who don't trust the electorate to have a direct voice.

Both of them are full of shit, and always have been. They're all about protecting their own and the monied interests that finance them.

Again, true, unfortunately.

 

[toubab]

I get a real kick out of watching the politically uninvolved tell the politically involved the rules of behavior that would make the former more comfortable, in the name of fairness.

Meaning what? Does being a citizen who votes make me politically involved?

 

[richard_daily]

Meaning what? Does being a citizen who votes make me politically involved?

I believe the metric is the amount of C&Ps from American Thinker.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Again, true, unfortunately.

Given Trumps triumph I'm not sure we've earned their trust so much as justified their stance.

 

[toubab]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d8FFxmCQEYI/hqdefault.jpg

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Meaning what? Does being a citizen who votes make me politically involved?

Are you a member of a party that actually does something other than vote?

You see, voting is a civic duty, not a political activity per se. Working to set up a caucus or a primary or running as a candidate are forms of being politically involved. Oh it's nice to say, we want mob rule, whatever the majority wants, the majority gets (once every four years is nice), but where were all of you when the groundwork was being laid in the wake of the last disaster when the majority got exactly what it wanted, a nice, squeaky-clean moderate centrist...



Those people are 'the party.' Nobody was bitching about the primary process until their guy left the race.

 

[Saint Peter]

I believe the metric is the amount of C&Ps from American Thinker.

You only get one vote no matter how politically involved you are.

 

[toubab]

Are you a member of a party that actually does something other than vote?

You see, voting is a civic duty, not a political activity per se. Working to set up a caucus or a primary or running as a candidate are forms of being politically involved. Oh it's nice to say, we want mob rule, whatever the majority wants, the majority gets (once every four years is nice), but where were all of you when the groundwork was being laid in the wake of the last disaster when the majority got exactly what it wanted, a nice, squeaky-clean moderate centrist...



Those people are 'the party.' Nobody was bitching about the primary process until their guy left the race.

No, the only thing I do is vote. I have no interest in becoming "politically involved" other than that. The way I see it, those who are "politically involved" by your description are usually assholes.

 

[toubab]

You only get one vote no matter how politically involved you are.

Superdelegates have an unusually powerful vote, however. It's worth more than the votes of thousands of ordinary voters.

 

[toubab]

https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/trump-new-york-results.jpg?w=960&h=702

 

[richard_daily]

https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/trump-new-york-results.jpg?w=960&h=702

YUGE win.