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the unholy alliance between the trump campaign and the republican party machine is coming into focus at the republican national convention in cleveland today...
in spite of running a campaign against the so called 'establishment'...the trump campaign has now enlisted the 'good old boys' of the party machine in an effort to utterly crush all dissent at the convention with a ruthlessness that so far has not even been directed at hillary clinton yet...
it started even before the convention officially opened...when the rules committee passed a series of unprecedented rules without debate...silencing dissenters on the committee with procedural tactics...
while the most well known of the dissenters on the rules committee were those of the anti trump 'free the delegates' movement...and the media has been lumping all dissent at the convention in with the 'never trump' movement...it was hardly just them that got steamrolled...here are some highlights...
...not only a rejection of the 'free the delegates' proposal to recognize all delegates as unbound under existing rules...but an entirely new rule explicitly asserting that delegates are bound to vote in accordance with their state's apportionment of delegates based on caucuses and primary outcomes... the last time the delegates were explicitly bound by a specific provision in the convention rules was in 1976...when a court found it to be an unconstitutional restriction on free speech...
...a proposal to close the early primaries so that only registered republicans can vote in 2020 was rejected by the rules committee...conservative former virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli was the highest profile supporter of this proposal... during emergency negotiations laughably blamed on a 'broken printer' it had seemed that RNC chairman reince priebus was prepared to compromise and provide incentives for early states that closed their primaries...but when the committee was reconvened priebus rejected all of cuccinelli's proposals outright...and most of the rest of the committee obediently followed suit...
...a rule allowing the republican national committee to change any rules at will at any time between now and the 2020 convention was passed by the rules committee... this rule is understood to grant unprecedented power to party bosses...
again although the media has been inclined to mistakenly lump all dissent against the new rules in with the 'never trump' camp...in fact this new rules package is an affort to conservative grassroots activists everywhere...and represents a massive power grab on behalf of the party machine...
the new rules package was scheduled for presentation to the convention for approval today... under existing rules a 'roll call' vote on the new rules must be held if a majority of delegates from seven states petition for it... the required signatures were collected...
the convention secretary reacted to this development by literally -hiding- in order to avoid having to receive the petition...security guards were posted in between the secretary and those attempting to deliver the petition... the petition was finally delivered when a third party was convinced to deliver the petition to the secretary...
the tone of the convention became clear when reince priebus appointed mitch mcconnell...yes -that- mitch mcconnell...acting convention chair to the expected chorus of boos from delegates...
when the time came for the rules committee to present its new rules package...a voice vote was substituted for the roll call vote... as a result the convention degenerated into boos and dueling chants... the chair was then vacated for no reason...which conservative utah senator mike lee recognized as unprecedented and well out of order...
during this time 'whips' from the trump campaign and the republican party machine circulated...working to get delegates to withdraw their signatures from the petition for a roll call vote...'almost physical' intimidation was reported on the part of these 'whips'...
deputy chair steve womack then returned to the stage and asked for a repeat of the voice vote...he declared 'the ayes have it' although this was not clear from the volume of the responses... in response cuccinelli ripped off his convention badge...tossed it on the floor...and walked out...
the delegation from utah was then recognized...and they too requested a roll call vote... the deputy chair responded that enough people had withdrawn their signatures to disqualify three of the states that had originally presented the roll call petition...
the entire colorado delegation then walked out...followed by a large portion of the iowa delegation... inexplicably unbeknownst to the iowa delegation...their state is rumored to have been one of those that withdrew from the petition...
the convention was then gaveled into recess until tonight...
during the recess the following happened...
a major donor and fundraiser for trump...'trump victory' committee member gary emineth...resigned in protest over the roll call debacle saying 'you don't do this in america!'
party bosses have also refused to release the names of any delegates whose signatures were supposedly withdrawn from the roll call petition...or even the names of the three states subsequently removed from the petition...
in spite of running a campaign against the so called 'establishment'...the trump campaign has now enlisted the 'good old boys' of the party machine in an effort to utterly crush all dissent at the convention with a ruthlessness that so far has not even been directed at hillary clinton yet...
it started even before the convention officially opened...when the rules committee passed a series of unprecedented rules without debate...silencing dissenters on the committee with procedural tactics...
while the most well known of the dissenters on the rules committee were those of the anti trump 'free the delegates' movement...and the media has been lumping all dissent at the convention in with the 'never trump' movement...it was hardly just them that got steamrolled...here are some highlights...
...not only a rejection of the 'free the delegates' proposal to recognize all delegates as unbound under existing rules...but an entirely new rule explicitly asserting that delegates are bound to vote in accordance with their state's apportionment of delegates based on caucuses and primary outcomes... the last time the delegates were explicitly bound by a specific provision in the convention rules was in 1976...when a court found it to be an unconstitutional restriction on free speech...
...a proposal to close the early primaries so that only registered republicans can vote in 2020 was rejected by the rules committee...conservative former virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli was the highest profile supporter of this proposal... during emergency negotiations laughably blamed on a 'broken printer' it had seemed that RNC chairman reince priebus was prepared to compromise and provide incentives for early states that closed their primaries...but when the committee was reconvened priebus rejected all of cuccinelli's proposals outright...and most of the rest of the committee obediently followed suit...
...a rule allowing the republican national committee to change any rules at will at any time between now and the 2020 convention was passed by the rules committee... this rule is understood to grant unprecedented power to party bosses...
again although the media has been inclined to mistakenly lump all dissent against the new rules in with the 'never trump' camp...in fact this new rules package is an affort to conservative grassroots activists everywhere...and represents a massive power grab on behalf of the party machine...
the new rules package was scheduled for presentation to the convention for approval today... under existing rules a 'roll call' vote on the new rules must be held if a majority of delegates from seven states petition for it... the required signatures were collected...
the convention secretary reacted to this development by literally -hiding- in order to avoid having to receive the petition...security guards were posted in between the secretary and those attempting to deliver the petition... the petition was finally delivered when a third party was convinced to deliver the petition to the secretary...
the tone of the convention became clear when reince priebus appointed mitch mcconnell...yes -that- mitch mcconnell...acting convention chair to the expected chorus of boos from delegates...
when the time came for the rules committee to present its new rules package...a voice vote was substituted for the roll call vote... as a result the convention degenerated into boos and dueling chants... the chair was then vacated for no reason...which conservative utah senator mike lee recognized as unprecedented and well out of order...
during this time 'whips' from the trump campaign and the republican party machine circulated...working to get delegates to withdraw their signatures from the petition for a roll call vote...'almost physical' intimidation was reported on the part of these 'whips'...
deputy chair steve womack then returned to the stage and asked for a repeat of the voice vote...he declared 'the ayes have it' although this was not clear from the volume of the responses... in response cuccinelli ripped off his convention badge...tossed it on the floor...and walked out...
the delegation from utah was then recognized...and they too requested a roll call vote... the deputy chair responded that enough people had withdrawn their signatures to disqualify three of the states that had originally presented the roll call petition...
the entire colorado delegation then walked out...followed by a large portion of the iowa delegation... inexplicably unbeknownst to the iowa delegation...their state is rumored to have been one of those that withdrew from the petition...
the convention was then gaveled into recess until tonight...
during the recess the following happened...
a major donor and fundraiser for trump...'trump victory' committee member gary emineth...resigned in protest over the roll call debacle saying 'you don't do this in america!'
party bosses have also refused to release the names of any delegates whose signatures were supposedly withdrawn from the roll call petition...or even the names of the three states subsequently removed from the petition...
