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Curly Haugland, senior member of the Republican National Committee Rules Committee, told MSNBC this week, "The media has created a perception that voters will decide the nomination. That's the conflict here."
It's merely a perception that our votes count?
MSNBC then asked, if voters votes don't count, why do Republicans have primaries?
Haugland says he has also wondered about that.
Major Disconnect.
MSNBC reports that Curly Haugland, one of 112 Republican "unbound delegates" and senior member of the RNC Rules Committee, has explained that the conflict within the Republican Party is related to the fact that "the media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination."
Technically, I suppose, that would be true.
Primary votes create delegates who are allotted to candidates in relation to the number of votes each candidate gets---or in some states, the winner gets all the candidates.
The voter, however, expects that his or her vote will actually be represented in the nomination.
The candidate has the same expectation.
But Haugland's statement suggests that Republicans who stand in line, often in winter weather, or at least go to the post office in winter weather to vote by mail, and give their money to their favorite politician's campaign so he or she can pay the consultants, are, or may be, essentially irrelevant.
Semantics?
I had hoped so, but it's more than that.
Gary Emineth, another one of the special 112 unbound delegates, tells MSNBC that most delegates who are bound by their state's primary or caucus results are only committed on the first ballot. If subsequent votes are needed, virtually all the delegates can vote for whomever they want to vote for.
Emineth says they could introduce "Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or it could be the other candidates that have already lost and are no longer in the race, [such as] Mike Huckabee [or] Rick Santorum. All those people could eventually become candidates on the floor."
When asked why have Republican primaries, Haugland says he has also wondered about that.
This week, ousted Speaker of the House John Boenher recommended the RNC choose Paul Ryan as their presidential candidate.
Ryan has, as he initially did regarding the position of Speaker, said he won't accept the nomination.
However, by Tuesday of this week, he told MSNBC, "We'll see. Who knows."
Mitt Romney has said he could not decline his Party if they asked him to be the candidate.
Haugland has now sent a letter to each of the candidate's campaign alerting them to a rule change that he is proposing, which would allow any candidate who earns at least one delegate during the nominating process to submit his or her name to be nominated at this summer's GOP Convention.
That would eliminate Mitt and Paul Ryan, while bringing back every candidate that was in the 2016 presidential campaign---reducing the value of the primaries to that of securing 1 delegate.
Haugland says, "The rules haven't kept up. The rules are still designed to have a political party choose its nominees at a convention. That's just the way it is. I can't help it. Don't hate me because I love the rules."
All this is based on what the RNC calls "Rule 40," which states that any candidate for president "shall demonstrate the support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight states" before their name is presented for nomination at the national convention.
In a scenario where there is a front runner with a commanding lead but not enough delegates to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, Rule 40, In a scenario where there is a front runner with a commanding lead but not enough delegates to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, Rule 40 could crack open the door to the possibility that there could be a fight on the floor of the convention where, say, Chris Christie could garner 8 states from the Northeast, Rand Paul could do so in the South or Southeast, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Lindsay Graham and on and on....
Ironically, it was changes made by Mitt Romney's lawyers in the 2012 election and the assumed 2016 re-election should he have won in 2012, that are coming to bear on this election---and with Haugland's changes, would completely eliminate Mitt this time.
Enough of all that.
Bottom line:
There are 3 candidates left in the presidential race. One of them, John Kasich, has won only one state. His own---Ohio. Gov. Kasich is considered part of the "establishment" among the Republican ruling class.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are essentially now getting nearly all the votes.
Both despised by the Republican "establishment" as intruders---"politically unclean."
In fact, in January, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) told the press, as his own candidacy was failing, "Choosing between Trump and Cruz is like choosing between being shot or poisoned."
Yesterday, he endorsed Cruz.
While the Party has tried unsuccessfully to coalesce voters----those folks who don't actually count, we're now learning---around a vanishing lineup of "their people"---Jeb, Marco, and now John as "the candidate," the actual citizen Republican voters have not done what they were told to do.
The chaos we hear about daily is more rooted in a gleeful press and a confused political party elite than among the patriotic citizens who identify with the Party.
The panic also rests within the elite ruling class of the GOP.
They view Trump and Cruz as threats, regardless of what the people are saying, not because they can't win in a national election---although that is often said---but because they have not come to grips with the realities of 2016. Either because they are unable to do so or refuse to do so.
For the elite, the establishment, at the top of the the Party, the Party is virtually their entire professional identity. Many of them have become wealthy with their magazines, consulting, appearances on TV talk shows as experts defining and explaining the conservative movement, etc.
And this has continued, even though Republican candidates have not been winning elections, because the next crop of candidates always funnel into the same system, listening to the same consultants, using the same advisers, while paying millions of dollars for the services.
Both Trump and Cruz have rejected them and have not asked for their advice.
How much money would, say, Karl Rove make off Trump or Cruz?
Should either of these two men become president of the United States---they, the experts, would become irrelevant. What reason would there be even for their existence?
Who would care what their political "conservative" thinktanks think?
They are scared---their identities, their self worth, their massive incomes, their wealth, their lifestyle, their connections---all in jeopardy.
If Trump or Cruz wins the Party, establishment become the outsiders.
American Christians and conservatives, along with others, have awakened and are politically moving past the old GOP establishment---even the over-all American political establishment as we have known it.
The Democrat Party is experiencing a different but similar dynamic with the strength of socialist Bernie Sanders against their chosen candidate Hillary.
The importance of this upcoming election cannot be overstated. America as we know it has been placed in the balances---I pray we are not found wanting.
Act as though it all depends on you. Pray like it all depends on God---because it does.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.