Josef Stalin has one quote credited to him that I think about any time there's an election. "It doesn't matter who votes. What matters is who counts the votes." This axiom rang true when Lyndon Johnson first ran for the Senate in a special election in 1941. Seeing as how that worked against him then, he was able to use it to his advantage when he ran again for the Senate in 1948. I have heard of this working against Bill Clinton when he ran for Congress in 1974 and it wouldn't surprise me if there were several other examples.
We are now in the midst of the most interesting Presidential election in my lifetime, and although I am thinking of the Stalin quote, there is another axiom that I am going to bring forth as that the process it describes is currently in use by the leadership of the two major parties this time around.
It doesn't matter how you vote. If we don't like your vote, we can change the outcome.
On the Democratic side, they have had their safeguard against the will of the voter for several years. That safeguard is called "superdelegates". Culled from the party elite, the superdelegates are not selected by any primary or caucus. They exist to select the nominee at their convention, and if for some reason they don't like who their voters selected, the superdelegates are there to act in what they consider to be in line with the best interests of the party. The reality here, is that they will act in what they consider to be in line with their own interests. As of yet they have not had occasion to defy the will of their voters, but we are seeing that they are setting the stage for the coronation of Hillary "What Difference Does it Make?" Clinton. In those instances where challenger Bernie Sanders has won a state's primary, Hillary gets more delegates thanks to these superdelegates.
On the Republican side, they use a different process to make my axiom a reality if need be. They don't bother with superdelegates. They instead use rules. The rules are subject to change and can be changed one day before their convention if such changes are necessary to protect their elite. One rule we've been hearing about lately is this "Rule 40", which states that a candidate can not be present on the first ballot unless he or she has won at least eight state primaries. As I write this, both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz will qualify for this, but no other candidate will. This is a problem for the Republican Establishment as they don't like who their voters are going for, and amending this rule is being openly discussed. We've already had two delegates make public statements along the lines of the voters not really having any say, and with Organized Media encouraging a contested convention (it's good for ratings) it's an open secret that this is what they are trying to do.
This unfortunately isn't confined to the nomination process. How many court rulings have overturned voter-passed ballot measures where 2/3 or more of the voters have approved the measure? How many state laws have been overturned by a federal court, even if those laws have been favored by 80% of the voters? Would you like to count them? I'm not going to this evening as that I have an early bedtime these days, and plus, I think I've made my point.
Tomorrow is the day for the Arizona primary. Through an oversight on my part I failed to re-register as an independent, so my Republican registration, which I took out four years ago to defeat Mitt Romney is still valid. I have already made up my mind as to who I'm going to vote for, but as I go in , I go in with the foreknowledge that the Republican Establishment will find a way to overturn my vote.
In all likelihood, it will be an exercise in futility, but I'm going to go ahead with this. It's a matter of conscience, and it's a matter of honoring those who gave their lives on the battlefield so that I can waste my vote on the winner (or second place finisher depending on how it all plays out). I do know that neither of the two front-runners will be nominated at the convention. The Establishment is letting us know that the fix is in place. They're just not letting us know who they will select for us.
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright will always be best known for a controversial quote that he made about this country.
The Republican National Committee feels very much the same way about the will of the voter.
I guess that's fair, as that that's how I feel about the Republican Establishment.
