Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Rebellion In Reno!


Mitt Romney won the Nevada Republican primary in January. Ron Paul came in second and John McCain came in third. But now that Romney has dropped out of the race, how should Nevada's delegates to the national convention be divvied up between the two remaining candidates? Mitt himself gave a speech at the Nevada GOP state convention, urging delegates to rally behind John McCain.

Ron Paul supporters at the state convention came up with their own unique and novel idea how to decide: Why not vote on it? What a concept!

Since the vast majority of the delegates assembled were Paulistas, they were easily able to vote through a rule change that allowed a vote on the state's national delegates. Then they hit a brick wall.

Looking around at a sea of Ron Paul supporters, Republican Party officials, anxious to rubberstamp John McCain's nomination, had sudden misgivings about all this democracy stuff.

"We need to strike a compromise between perfect democracy and getting things done," said one McCain delegate amidst a chorus of boos and cat calls. Translation: Screw the vote, McCain gets the delegates.

"McCain won fair and square," McCain delegate Daniel Hancock said of the state's third-place finisher. "So, at this point we are electing delegates not to fight out the nomination in Minneapolis, but probably rewarding people loyal to the party."

"This is still a McCain convention," explained Ryan Erwin, a Republican consultant from Las Vegas. "But at the end of the day, part of the job of being a national delegate is to do what is best for the party in November. And that means supporting the party's nominee."

Party officials stonewalled until late into the evening, then played the "Golly, look at the time!" card. The convention was abruptly adjourned without any delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis having been chosen.

The Nevada GOP convention will be convened again... sometime. Using the "heads we win, tails we flip again" method of politics, it will be convened at time and location more amenable to the party leadership. When they do allow a vote, I'm predicting another stunning victory for Senator John Sidney McCain III.

I still have faith in our constitutional republic, but the two political parties that have grown upon it like twin barnacles are increasingly showing themselves for the corrupt oligarchies that they are. The political system needs to be stripped back to the bare studs (i.e. the U.S. Constitution and the respective constitutions of the states) and started over from scratch.

And as long as we're dreaming, perhaps Barry Goldwater and the Gipper could come back down here and kick these people SQUARELY IN THE ASS! (With a little help from Ron Paul, of course!)

1 comment:

Bawb said...

Wow. That's even more crooked than Montana's Republican Causcus. And I thought that one was gonna be tough to beat.