AMERICANS RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves” – Abraham Lincoln

The conflated efforts of Ted Cruz and John Kasich, to jointly target Donald Trump, in effort to deny him  the needed delegates to win the Republican Presidential Nomination is nefarious and unethical. This unholy alliance, attempts to manipulate and undermine the intent of the political process, and is just another manifestation of the status qou, and the elitists belief, that their own views are more important then the voting public’s. The arrogance and exceptionalism exuded by this type of thinking is the very reason that voters, in unprecedented numbers, have flocked to Socialist, Bernie Sanders, and businessman Donald Trump. Clearly, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich continue to remain ignorant of this fact, as they have failed to correctly assess the peoples dissatisfaction with the mainstream, establishment and elitists.

Millions and millions of people in this country are raging mad about the corrupt machine, (the government) of this country. Finally, millions of people, Democrats and Republicans alike, Rage Against the Machine! I pray that it is sustained until actual change occurs.

Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz and John Kasich are betting on brokered conventions to win their respective nominations. What will happen to the estimated 10-20 million voters that have come out to vote for the first time, or crossed party lines to vote for the person of their choice? What will happen in the event the RNC and the DNC establishment disregard the peoples voice, and select someone other then the popular vote recipient?

Why have the Democrats created Super Delegates and the Republicans Unbound Delegates?

The Democrats and the Super-delegate:

A super-delegate is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for whom they want to vote. According to Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz, “super-delegates exist to avoid putting party leaders in the position of running against grassroots activists”. These Democratic Party super-delegates include establishment party leaders, and elected officials, including all Democratic members of the House and Senate and sitting Democratic governors.  Democratic superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the nomination.

Put another way, Chairwoman Wassermann essentially said, regardless of how the Democratic constituency votes, we, that know best, “The Establishment”, will retain the ability to over-ride the will of the voter.  Super-delegates make up approximately one-fifth, or 20% of the total number of delegates, super-delegates play a decisive role in selecting the nominee. Makes you wonder why we even bother to vote!!

Republican Unbound/Unpledged Delegates:

The Republican Party has established unpledged or unbound delegates. The only people who get unpledged status are each state’s three Republican National Committee members. This means that unpledged delegates account for 168 of the total 2472 or approximately 6.8% of the total number of delegates. However, unpledged delegates do not have the freedom to vote for whichever candidate they please. The RNC ruled in 2015 that the unpledged delegates must vote for the candidate that their state voted for; the unpledged RNC members will be bound in the same manner as the state’s at-large delegates, unless the state elects their delegates on the primary ballot, then all three RNC members will be allocated to the statewide winner.  (I have read conflicting reports and analysis that the Republican unbound delegates are indeed allowed to cast their vote for whom they choose, rather then being bound to their states consensus. I do believe that the RNC will rule at their own discretion on this distinction as each Convention commences).

Although the Republican allocation of 6.8% of the total delegate count is far fewer then the Democrats 20%, there can be no doubt that these special allocation of delegates, by both parties, have been implemented to retain  a great deal of control over the eventual nominee. This is just one example, as to why, we the people, need to stand up and be heard, and not simply bury our head in the sand. We must demand of our Federally elected Representatives, that rules, such as super-delegates and unbound delegates are absolutely un-American and unacceptable!

Under no circumstance, should any one person’s vote count more then any other persons vote…period!

As Lincoln, in addition to many of our forefathers understood, this great nation can only be destroyed from within. With the tremendous polarization of parties, extremely divergent beliefs,, and with the decline in moral and ethical values, we as a nation stand at the precipice,  as to whether it will remain as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, or continue to fall into disarray and decline.

Whenever people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government.- Thomas Jefferson

God, grant us the wisdom to be informed!

-National