-By Warner Todd Huston
There is a lot of valid angst about who will become the nominee for both the Republican and the Democrat Parties this year. We are in a day when the voters are clearly pulling in a multitude of ways and not giving any candidate an overwhelming nod. But there is also a lot of BS about how “the will of the voters” is being thwarted by the party system and much of this is misinformed.
I am not saying that none of this should make you mad. Just get the facts before you get mad. Don’t shy from getting mad, just be informed while you do it!
Let’s just get one fact out of the way at the outset: your vote in a primary is not and never was the only or even the final say on who the party picks for its nominee. The will of the voter does matter in a general election where the nation picks the president, but not as much in a primary when the parties are picking who they will offer up as a candidate for the forthcoming general election. The fact is, primaries are not “the election.”
It is the party that picks the nominee, not the voter. Yes, the votes in the primary are a key guide for the party and yes, if the vote is overwhelming for a particular candidate both parties generally chose that candidate. But, the fact is the parties — any party — can pick who ever the heck they want quite regardless of the vote totals.
After all, that is what a party is for, to control its destiny and policies.
Now, we out here in fly over country may want to exert as much influence as we can and there is nothing at all wrong with doing that. We can demonstrate, remonstrate, complain and huff and puff. And if the party bosses listen to us, then we won. This is how or system works and it is all perfectly legitimate.
But the parties also control their own milieu. They can make whatever changes to their rules they want to choose whomever they want regardless of the voters’ intentions. All they need is a majority of their delegates and rules committeemen to accept the changes.
It’s just a matter of the political cost of such a move. Sure, there may be consequences of ignoring the primary voters’ wishes — maybe even the “absolute destruction” of the party Ben Carson warned of late last month. But the fact is the parties are not 100% bound to the primary vote tally.
Rank and file voters of both parties must understand convention officials can set the rules to whatever they want them to be and the delegates have a voice in that process. That means, for example, a delegate bound to vote for Trump on the convention’s first ballot could conceivably vote for a rules change that would be detrimental to Trump’s chances of gaining the nomination. This is because the delegate may be bound to Trump but he is not bound to anything but his political instincts on rules changes.
The GOP convention could be a mild affair where the party decides the political cost of passing over Donald Trump is thought to be too high, or there could be a raucous floor fight to pick a dark horse nominee of the likes we haven’t seen in a hundred years of nominating conventions.
The same is true in the Democrat Party. They have already essentially anointed Hillary Clinton with their “Super delegates” rules. But if they began to fear their voters would destroy them if they stuck with Hillary, they may easily change their rules and allow for a floor fight to pick someone other than Hillary. Will they? Who knows. But the fact is they could. It’s their party. They can do whatever they have the political will to do.
So, before everyone gets all mad that there is some “conspiracy” afoot, realize this: there is no conspiracy. This is all open for everyone to see. Is it messy? Sure. Is there a better way? Maybe. But let’s not mistake what we have here. We have two parties choosing their own nominee. We don’t have “the people” choosing that nominee. And we never really did.
Finally, if you don’t like it, DO something about it. THAT is why we have to organize and get involved, folks.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Federalist Papers, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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