Trump gets obliterated by Cruz forces in Georgia's District Conventions

[Penelope]

As much as I dislike Trump, this is truly disguisting.

Bullsh**t. Trump needs to be stopped and any means to do so is acceptable. Of course they are merely using the existing rules here so I don't see what the problem is.

If you had any principled reason to oppose Trump, you'd never say something like this. I can't imagine anyone who wants to stop a "fascist" would be cheering the active subversion of democracy, and voting for a man who is honestly quite similar to - and possibly much worse than - Donald Trump in views and rhetoric.

[Volrath50]

When people rely on "It's technically within the rules!" to justify something, you know it's wrong, they know it's wrong, any are only relying on it being technically allowed to justify it.

As much as I dislike Trump, this is wrong when the clear intent of the primaries is to have a democratic exercise. It's one think to woo uncommitted delegates, it's another to hijack the process and replace delegates voted on by people with double-agent, ninja delegates, with no true loyalty to who they are pledged to represent.

[Sbane]

As much as I dislike Trump, this is truly disguisting.

Bullsh**t. Trump needs to be stopped and any means to do so is acceptable. Of course they are merely using the existing rules here so I don't see what the problem is.

If you had any principled reason to oppose Trump, you'd never say something like this. I can't imagine anyone who wants to stop a "fascist" would be cheering the active subversion of democracy, and voting for a man who is honestly quite similar to - and possibly much worse than - Donald Trump in views and rhetoric.

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Cruz is an extremist but he is an acceptable part of the political discourse in America. What is truly scary is people like you accepting Trump as a valid part of the political discourse in America. You are validating the open use of race baiting and racial violence as an acceptable part of the political discourse in America. That is VERY, VERY scary. Scarier than Trump or his supporters.

[Lyin' Steve]

How would all you knuckleheads feel if your hero Jon Huntsman had won the election and Trump had gotten like no votes, but Trump's supporters were going around to all these conventions stealing the election from Huntsman with the aid of local party people?

[Lyin' Steve]

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Most of that stuff about Trump isn't anywhere near true either.  You'll really enjoy life more if you stop inventing terrible things to believe and simply live in reality.

[Sbane]

When people rely on "It's technically within the rules!" to justify something, you know it's wrong, they know it's wrong, any are only relying on it being technically allowed to justify it.

As much as I dislike Trump, this is wrong when the clear intent of the primaries is to have a democratic exercise. It's one think to woo uncommitted delegates, it's another to hijack the process and replace delegates voted on by people with double-agent, ninja delegates, with no true loyalty to who they are pledged to represent.

Why should someone who hasn't got the majority of the vote get the majority of the delegates? If the Republicans had rules similar to the democrats, trump would only have about 40% of delegates. It's completely unfair he may be able to get a majority of the delegates with just 40% of the vote.

[RFayette]

How would all you knuckleheads feel if your hero Jon Huntsman had won the election and Trump had gotten like no votes, but Trump's supporters were going around to all these conventions stealing the election from Huntsman with the aid of local party people?

Cruz has done far better than getting "no votes," so your analogy is garbage.

[Comrade Funk]

I hate that slimeball Cruz. Hope Trump obliterates him in true democratic form by the voters trouncing him

[Sbane]

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Most of that stuff about Trump isn't anywhere near true either.  You'll really enjoy life more if you stop inventing terrible things to believe and simply live in reality.

His entire campaign is about racial animosity towards anyone who isn't white! It is a fact that people who look muslims and were peacefully at Trump rallies have been heckled by his wonderful supporters. He has plenty of support among white supremacists and neo nazis, you can't deny that. And he has literally called for the exclusion of all muslims from the US! What exactly is not factual about what I said?

[Erc]

Trump only got 39% in the state, compared to 48% for Cruz + Rubio.  Obviously those sorts of numbers games are generally specious, but keep that in mind.

Trump can't command a majority of support anywhere outside the tri-state area and the Marianas, and the vast majority of non-Trump voters have resoundingly said they don't want him as their nominee.

The system is such that if no one commands a clear majority going into the convention, the delegates get to decide.  Those delegates are chosen through processes like these, which admittedly favors party activists and committed Republicans over your average D-grade voter (to borrow a phrase from Howard Dean).  Voters overall have been against Trump, and the committed Republicans are definitely against Trump.

In the end, the GOP is a private organization, and while they've mostly deferred the decision to the people, in cases like this where there is no clear decision from the people, they get to choose the nominee themselves.

Compare this to the system in the Electoral College, where there's a similar multi-tiered system if no one wins a majority.  The election is thrown to the House, where they vote (by state) to elect the President.  The representatives are not obliged to vote in the same way their state did.  Of course, congressmen are elected on the same ballot as the President (unlike delegates in most states), and there's no possibility of a dark horse emerging in the House, but there's a rough analogy there.

[Sbane]

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Most of that stuff about Trump isn't anywhere near true either.  You'll really enjoy life more if you stop inventing terrible things to believe and simply live in reality.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/12/media/cbs-sopan-deb-arrest-trump-rally

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[Figueira]

As much as I dislike Trump, this is truly disguisting.

I have to agree. The voters are choosing Trump; they should let him have the nomination.

"The voters are choosing Trump."  Except that not a single state that's voted so far has seen a majority of voters support him.

It would be great if we had some sort of IRV system or runoff or something like that. Unfortunately we don't, so the only candidate who can really be argued to have a democratic mandate is Donald Trump.

[Lyin' Steve]

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Most of that stuff about Trump isn't anywhere near true either.  You'll really enjoy life more if you stop inventing terrible things to believe and simply live in reality.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/12/media/cbs-sopan-deb-arrest-trump-rally

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You describe it as though it's a routine thing, like they have their two minutes of hate where Trump leads the crowd in cheering against dark-skinned members of the audience.  When all you have is one idiot saying something mean to an Indian guy.

[Penelope]

As much as I dislike Trump, this is truly disguisting.

Bullsh**t. Trump needs to be stopped and any means to do so is acceptable. Of course they are merely using the existing rules here so I don't see what the problem is.

If you had any principled reason to oppose Trump, you'd never say something like this. I can't imagine anyone who wants to stop a "fascist" would be cheering the active subversion of democracy, and voting for a man who is honestly quite similar to - and possibly much worse than - Donald Trump in views and rhetoric.

Are you being serious? When has Cruz said that all Mexicans are rapists? When has he said all Muslims should be given special ID's so they can be tracked? Has he called for all Muslims to be excluded from America? Has he even called for all 12 million illegals to be forcibly removed from the U.S.? Are his rallies full of white supremacists and neo Nazis? Are people who are Muslim or may look Muslim (people of south Asian descent) called terrorists and heckled at his rallies? Has he called for the U.S. Military to commit war crimes?

Cruz is an extremist but he is an acceptable part of the political discourse in America. What is truly scary is people like you accepting Trump as a valid part of the political discourse in America. You are validating the open use of race baiting and racial violence as an acceptable part of the political discourse in America. That is VERY, VERY scary. Scarier than Trump or his supporters.

?

I just said that Cruz is as bad or worse than Trump - meaning that both must be awful. But, I'll reiterate.

Cruz has said some pretty disgusting things, too. In the wake of the Brussels terror attacks he was talking about how great it would be if we had the police patrolling Muslin neighborhoods. This, of course, would not do anything to stop terror, but would just incite fear in the Muslim population of America. It's just more hot-headed racist rhetoric. The type of rhetoric that is supposedly your problem with Trump.

Also, Cruz HAS called on the U.S. Military to commit war crimes. He said that we should carpet-bomb the middle east to stop ISIS and "find out if sand can glow in the dark." Carpet bombing civilian areas is considered a war crime under Protocol I of the Geneva Convention.

[Vosem]

This is so frustrating to watch.  I'm not a Trump supporter by any means but what's happening is deeply unfair.  To those who say "it's part of the game", do you remember Romney or McCain or W having to go back to elections they had already won and re-fight them, not to win votes, but to outmanouver local party activists abusing the rulebook to put up delegates who support the guy who lost instead of the guy who won?  It's insane that this can happen.

Yes. I distinctly remember Ron Paul dominating these kinds of events, and there being a real fear that if Romney and Santorum deadlocked the nomination would ultimately go to Paul (who had way less popular support than Cruz, btw). The whole thing ended up moot because Romney won a majority of delegates.

To summarize, it's always been part of the process, but _trumpies haven't always been part of the process and now they're butthurt having found out about it.

[IceSpear]

At this point this kind of stuff doesn't matter much anymore. It's fairly obvious now that if Trump doesn't get 1237 with his bound delegates + scooping up enough unbound on the first ballot, he's screwed.

[windjammer]

At this point this kind of stuff doesn't matter much anymore. It's fairly obvious now that if Trump doesn't get 1237 with his bound delegates + scooping up enough unbound on the first ballot, he's screwed.

^^^^^
I was going to post something like that haha

[Mehmentum]

I think these results still matter.

Cruz wants the loyalty of a majority of delegates to feel safe after the first ballot.  If only a plurality of the delegates are Cruz loyalists (with Trump supporters and establishment people making up the rest), its possible that it will take a while for the eventual nominee to emerge.

If Trump wins on the first ballot, hostile delegates would still have control over who his running mate is.

[Erc]

It honestly matters more for the imminent Cruz vs. not-Cruz fight.  It's Kasich supporters that should be worried more than anything, and in cases where they are picking delegates who are already bound on the first ballot, anti-Cruz people should openly be working with Trump supporters, if necessary.  Trump's clearly going to lose support on the second ballot, so if you help elect an actual Trump delegate, you're not really helping Trump, you're hurting Cruz.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The same way I had zero sympathy for the Republican establishment when Trump humiliated them, I have zero sympathy for Trump now. F[inks] him.

[Wisconsin+17]

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Well, it's unfortunate he's a democrat.

As for fairness, never heard any Trump argument that they should split the Missouri delegation. It will be sweet irony if the entire Missouri delegation goes for Cruz.

[Mister Mets]

The system is rigged. This will cause a popular outrage among the Trump supporters and only help Trump win the required 1237 delegates the regular way and win on the first ballot.

If the system is rigged it's in Trump's favor. He's getting a higher percentage of free media than he does with the vote, and he gets a higher percentage of delegates than votes. The latter has helped him more than it has other candidates.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/despite-complaints-delegate-system-has-given-trump-22-percent-bonus-n553801

The system is rigged. This will cause a popular outrage among the Trump supporters and only help Trump win the required 1237 delegates the regular way and win on the first ballot.

The system is not 'rigged' at all. The nomination process for delegates is has been known for years and Trump's failure to actually know the rules is his fault and no one else's.  

The failure to understand the rules hasn't left a positive impression of the type of President Trump would be.

I'm imagining a President Trump (Ew!) getting outraged that the Solicitor General is expected to argue in a particular way in order to covince the Supreme Court.

"It's so unfair that he's expected to understand the statutes and the constitutional amendments!"

[Volrath50]

The system is rigged. This will cause a popular outrage among the Trump supporters and only help Trump win the required 1237 delegates the regular way and win on the first ballot.

If the system is rigged it's in Trump's favor. He's getting a higher percentage of free media than he does with the vote, and he gets a higher percentage of delegates than votes. The latter has helped him more than it has other candidates.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/despite-complaints-delegate-system-has-given-trump-22-percent-bonus-n553801

Regardless, what makes a more compelling, easier to understand narrative?

"Trump is getting a disproportionately high number of delegates! He should be winning, but not by this much!"

-or-

"Ted Cruz is trying to steal the nomination! He's sweeping delegates in states where they cancelled the election, and getting his own delegates elected as Trump delegates in order to override the will of voters!"

Regardless of anything, I think the second narrative will dominate. For most people, getting the most votes means you win, regardless of the actual "rules." Just think how many Democrats are still angry about 2000, even after several post-election recounts have shown Gore's recount strategy still would have had Bush win.

[Mister Mets]

The system is rigged. This will cause a popular outrage among the Trump supporters and only help Trump win the required 1237 delegates the regular way and win on the first ballot.

If the system is rigged it's in Trump's favor. He's getting a higher percentage of free media than he does with the vote, and he gets a higher percentage of delegates than votes. The latter has helped him more than it has other candidates.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/despite-complaints-delegate-system-has-given-trump-22-percent-bonus-n553801

Regardless, what makes a more compelling, easier to understand narrative?

"Trump is getting a disproportionately high number of delegates! He should be winning, but not by this much!"

-or-

"Ted Cruz is trying to steal the nomination! He's sweeping delegates in states where they cancelled the election, and getting his own delegates elected as Trump delegates in order to override the will of voters!"

Regardless of anything, I think the second narrative will dominate. For most people, getting the most votes means you win, regardless of the actual "rules." Just think how many Democrats are still angry about 2000, even after several post-election recounts have shown Gore's recount strategy still would have had Bush win.

It's the responsibility of people who know better to get the facts right. Presumably, everyone on a politics message board knows better.

This is so frustrating to watch.  I'm not a Trump supporter by any means but what's happening is deeply unfair.  To those who say "it's part of the game", do you remember Romney or McCain or W having to go back to elections they had already won and re-fight them, not to win votes, but to outmanouver local party activists abusing the rulebook to put up delegates who support the guy who lost instead of the guy who won?  It's insane that this can happen.

It's happening because Trump is weaker than Romney or McCain. If Trump was on track to win all the delegates, it wouldn't be an issue.

[Wisconsin+17]

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The will of the voters was quite clear. Cruz + Rubio > Trump.