Saturday, July 23, 2016

Utah's Delegates Got What they Deserved

   Now, I don't know that I read anything spelling it out, but I understand the Utah delegation's hope at the national convention was to derail Donald Trump.
   Only thing wrong with that, is that Donald Trump won the popular vote, nationwide. So, it seems a little amiss to try to rob him of the nomination. If the people have picked him, you shouldn't be going about unpicking him . . . unless your plan is simply to open it up for the people to unpick him. I understand, the Utah delegates wanted to change the rules. Change the rules, then. But the rule change I suggest, is that you change it so there can be a recall election. The convention is in July. The general election is not until November. Why not slip a recall election in between? If the people's vote is to mean anything, you can't derail Trump's nomination without their approval.
   The Utah delegation ended up being served a comeuppance. Utah voters -- many of them, anyway -- had gone to the polls not so much as to vote for any one candidate, as to vote against Donald Trump. When the delegates got to the convention, they were marshaled and ready to vote for Ted Cruz. They did, but then someone pointed out that Utah's own rule book doesn't allow someone who has dropped out of the race to be voted for.
    With all the other candidates out of the race, only Trump was legal to receive votes. So, Utah's votes were all taken from Cruz and handed to Trump, all 40 of them. You can say that wasn't fair, and you can say such a thing hailed from across the seas and back a few years to the old Soviet Union, when your vote was forced. You can say it wasn't democracy, but rather democracy in reverse. And, you can say it wasn't just.
   I'd certainly agree with you. It probably was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice ever to unfold in an election in the U.S.
   So, Utah's voters -- a large share of them -- turned out to the caucuses just to vote against Trump, and yet he ended up sweeping all 40 of the state's delegate votes? Well, in some ways, that was indeed just. For if Utah's delegates were seeking to derail the national popular vote, it seems they earned their reward, their comeuppance, when it turned out, it was only their own state's votes that were turned on end.
   Utah's delegates got what they deserved. The voters back home didn't deserve what happened. But the delegates did.

 
 

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