A Contested Republican Convention is Not Appropriate This Election Cycle
In normal times, if no Republican candidate got the majority of delegates, then a contested convention would be the appropriate way for the Republican party to choose the party's nominee for President. There is nothing wrong with Republican delegates chosen by their respective states to vote for that state's primary winners for the first ballot and according to their heart's desire afterwards.
But I speak of normal times. This year it is not right and proper for the Republican apparatus to pick their party's nominee at the convention because Trump was not chosen just by Republicans during this year's primaries and caucuses. His voters have been blue-collar Democrats, Independents, and first-time unaffiliated voters and so the Republican establishment has no business choosing for those voters.
This year - because this is the year of the outsider - the Republican Party, if it wants to survive, should change the rules and accept the candidate who gets the plurality of delegates.
Of course, if the RNC stands by its Rule 40 that they adopted in 2012, then only Donald Trump, so far, can be the nominee: the rule requires a candidate to have the support of a majority of delegates in eight states in order to be eligible to be nominated at the convention. Cruz has only won the majority of delegates 4 times so far. It is entirely possible for Trump to be short of 1237 delegates and at the same time for Cruz not to have won the majority of the delegates in 8 states. So in that case, technically, no one but Trump, according to Rule 40, can be nominated. Will the RNC change that rule before the convention?
We will know 30 days before the convention if they do make any changes - Rule 41d requires the RNC to publish any suggested changes to the rules by then.
If you are wondering why I am rooting for Trump, think about it: here's a guy that has had epithets of racist, misogynist, xenophobe, Islamophobe, clown, Hitler and everything else thrown at him, with tens of millions of dollars of ads against him by Republicans, with the entire press and even much of Fox News against him, and he's still winning more states and delegates than any other candidate. And some morons think he's un-electable despite inspiring more people to come to primaries than any candidate in history. Trump is right: the establishment is stupid.
Although I believe Trump will end up with 1268 delegates to nab the nomination, if somehow he ends up 100 short of that number and the Republican establishment pushes through someone who is 348 delegates, or less, shy of the majority, or in contravention of Rule 40, then I do believe it's the end of the Republican party.
It will be for me.
