Category Archives: Democracy

The Delegate Crying Game

Democracy, Donald Trump, Elections, Ethics, Regulation, Republicans

It turns out Donald Trump was right AGAIN. The nickname “Lyin’ Ted” for presidential hopeful Ted Cruz fits to a T.’ “Cruz insists he is winning ‘grassroots’ victories and claims, ‘This is how elections are won in America.'” But—and you don’t need honest Trump to state the obvious—“Cruz ‘has to get his delegates from the Republican bosses’ and … those wins [are] sneaky and meaningless.”

Good Man Vs. Bad: Carson Rejects Contested Convention; Kasich Embraces It

Democracy, Donald Trump, Morality, Republicans

It’s the difference between a good man and a bad man. When, in Dec. 2015, Ben Carson (good) got wind of the Republican Party’s schemes for a contested convention in the year ahead, he “condemned the GOP heads … for trying to ‘manipulate’ the primary outcome.” Carson persists in this ethical position.

“If the leaders of the Republican Party want to destroy the party, they should continue to hold meetings like the one described in the Washington Post this morning,” Carson said in a statement, which described the monthly dinner as a “party boss insider meeting.”

When weak, whiny, insider John Kasich heard he might be the anointed one, chosen by Republican Party operatives to steal the nomination from Donald Trump, he rejoiced.

We will go into Cleveland with momentum, and then the delegates are going to consider two things,” Kasich said. “No. 1, who can win in the fall — and I’m the only one that can, that’s what the polls indicate — and No. 2, a really crazy consideration, like, who could actually be president of the United States.”

How bad is Kasich? HuffPost and MSNBC, left-liberal outfits, are proposing a Clinton-Kasich ticket:

Hillary Clinton should ask John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, to join her in creating a “unity ticket.” It’s time for a national ticket that reflects our national desire for a new type of politics for our modern America.

MSNBC Guest Claims Trump Abusing Put-Upon Media

Business, Democracy, Donald Trump, Free Markets, Media

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes entertained a guest who framed the fact that Donald Trump bowed out of the next debate, as the act of a strongman in power, bullying a put-upon, abused press. How does one unpack such messy thinking? First to consider is that Trump has been extremely accessible to media.

More important:

1. Trump is not in power. He is not bolstered by police powers. Not yet. So he is not a political strongman.
2. Trump has grown his support like a business grows on the free market, non-coercively. You offer a product. If people like it, they buy it. Your business grows through the democratic dollar vote of the consumer. Again, no coercion was involved in Trump’s rise.
3. In absenting himself from a media extravaganza with the showy Megyn Kelly, Trump might annoy media, but he is not disappointing his base, who’ve had enough of the debates, and he is certainly not violating anyone’s rights.

Reckless Rubio Has Lost His Senate Seat

Democracy, Elections, Republicans

Rand Paul was smart. Unlike Marco Rubio, he didn’t abandon his senate seat when he stood for president. “[H]is Senate seat [was] a backup if and when his presidential campaign fell through.” Paul even “paid the state party hundreds of thousands of dollars to hold a caucus instead of a primary, which skirted state law preventing his name from appearing on the same ballot twice.”

Rand was also diplomatic enough to frame his presidential bid as an extension of service in the Senate:

“I am running for president for the same reason I am your senator: to fight for you, for our country and for our rights,” he wrote.

Rubio, on the other hand, is a real spoilt brat, who has acted recklessly and impulsively. Basically, he didn’t like the Senate and was eager to move on:

as Rubio runs for president, he has cast the Senate — the very place that cemented him as a national politician — as a place he’s given up on, after less than one term. It’s too slow. Too rule-bound. So Rubio, 44, has decided not to run for his seat again. It’s the White House or bust.

“That’s why I’m missing votes. Because I am leaving the Senate. I am not running for reelection,” Rubio said in the last Republican debate, after Donald Trump had mocked him for his unusual number of absences during Senate votes. …

MORE Rubio and the Senate.