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Title: Let Me Ask America a Question How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change
Source:
WSJ Opinion Column
URL Source: [None]
Published: Apr 15, 2016
Author: By DONALD J. TRUMP
Post Date: 2016-04-15 00:15:26 by tpaine
Keywords: None
Views: 1242
Comments: 14
Let Me Ask America a Question How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change By DONALD J. TRUMP April 14, 2016 7:18 p.m. ET On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an “election” without voters. Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred. A planned vote had been canceled. And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined. In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special- interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it. Advertisement Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family? I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated. No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice. Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide. The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy. Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election? Here, I part ways with Sen. Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement. Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district. That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters. While I am self-funding, Mr. Cruz rakes in millions from special interests. Yet despite his financial advantage, Mr. Cruz has won only three primaries outside his home state and trails me by two million votes—a gap that will soon explode even wider. Mr. Cruz loses when people actually get to cast ballots. Voter disenfranchisement is not merely part of the Cruz strategy—it is the Cruz strategy. The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme. My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them. What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters. The American people can have no faith in such a system. It must be reformed. Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people. We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee. How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders? Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country. My campaign will, of course, battle for every last delegate. We will work within the system that exists now, while fighting to have it reformed in the future. But we will do it the right way. My campaign will seek maximum transparency, maximum representation and maximum voter participation. We will run a campaign based on empowering voters, not sidelining them. Let us take inspiration from patriotic Colorado citizens who have banded together in protest. Let us make Colorado a rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C. The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs. Mr. Trump is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination
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#1. To: tpaine (#0)
Don't worry Donald the people of Colorado will get the opportunity to slap Cruz in the face one way or the other. If you become the candidate they can vote for you, if Cruz becomes the candidate they can vote for Hilliary, either way, you win
Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district. Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people. We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee.
This is great! Exactly what I've been thinking when I hear people like Mark Levin exulting over the "rules", and how the "rules" favor his chosen candidate, through disenfranchising the voters so they cannot say what they want (Levin leaves off that last point, as though it were irrelevant, but it's the whole point, really). I thought it, and now here Trump has written what I thought exactly. This man is a great leader. We need to get him into the White House.
You are getting your change... It's called TRUMP. The Democrats REALLY FEAR him... The Republicans hate him. That makes me wanna VOTE FOR HIM. I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
I used to like Levin, but since he & Glen Beck have become cult followers for Cruz, I have really lost a lot of respect for Levin. Beck, I never have liked. Si vis pacem, para bellum Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. There are no Carthaginian terrorists. President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood "I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
I did too. Now I understand that really he just another one of the Republican "minority makers", and I just turn him off and listen to music instead.
Yeah, me too. I think him & Beck are either being paid, or blackmailed, or they are domestic enemies. Si vis pacem, para bellum Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. There are no Carthaginian terrorists. President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood "I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district. That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters. While I am self-funding, Mr. Cruz rakes in millions from special interests. Yet despite his financial advantage, Mr. Cruz has won only three primaries outside his home state and trails me by two million votes—a gap that will soon explode even wider. Mr. Cruz loses when people actually get to cast ballots. Voter disenfranchisement is not merely part of the Cruz strategy—it is the Cruz strategy. The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme. My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them. What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters. The Colorado fiasco has been like manna from heaven for Donald Trump. It is a public relations bonanza, a gift that will not stop giving. As Cruz took credit for a voterless victory, his campaign has been collapsing. The latest Fox poll (15 April) shows that Trump, at a new high, now leads Cruz by 18 points, 45-27; Cruz now leads Kasich by only 2 points 27-25. Megan Kelly has made a pilgrimage to Trump Tower. Murdoch-owned New York Post has endorsed Donald Trump. The Karl Rove SuperPac American Crossroads has warmed to Donald Trump, see here, here, and here.
They broke the law in Colorado.
The Breitbart article refers to state bylaws of the party, not to state statutes. However, the process was corrupt.
Democracy is winning through, thank God. Republicans all over the place are looking straight at what happened in Colorado, and what mouthy Republicans with microphones (like Mark Levin) are saying, and realizing that these guys really mean it when they express their disdain for democracy, that America is a republic, that the founders feared democracy...and that therefore Levin and his ilk actually think it's ok for have primaries and millions of votes cast, and then just disregard the result and pick a candidate who didn't even compete, in some smoky backroom, as though this were 1952. The Levins and Cruzes really think they are PRINCIPLED when they speak of cancelling out democracy by inside-baseball rules. They are so CERTAIN of their moral rectitude that they will turn to any expedient. I'll tell you one fallout of this for me. I used to listen with interest to Mark Levin's discussion of an Article V Convention, how it could be bound by rules, etc. But now that I've seen him give a live example of what his idea of "governed by rules" means - that tens of millions of votes can simply be ignored without comment because of arcane rules - I recoil in shock and disgust. THAT'S what he means by "principles"? So, Levin did me a service by his kamikaze charge for Cruz's naked election stealing. Levin's tenacious defense of "the rules" - and to hell with democracy because the Founders opposed democracy - made me open my eyes and realize that he's not so much a brilliant constitutional scholar as a Pharisee who can justify ANYTHING to himself as long as he believes in the cause and has some rule on which to hang. His greatest principle is "I'm right!" I used to trust him - disagree with him sometimes, but trust his scholarship. That's gone. He's an obsessive crank who will say anything to get what he wants. Cruz will never be President, and Levin's extraordinarily "principled" assertion of utterly undemocratic rules have scotched the chances that his Constitutional Convention idea will be going anywhere. He has no sense of fair play. He's just a hard-core ideologue. And therefore his SCHOLARSHIP cannot be trusted, because he'll clearly believe and say ANYTHING in order to advance his cause. Cruz will never be President. And Mark Levin's star has burnt out. High stakes elections sift the hearts of men.
Sounds like you know your history, I'm sure you did not pull 1952 out of the hat at random. Non auro, sed ferro, recuperando est patria
Agreed. Well said.
#2. To: tpaine (#0)
Here, I part ways with Sen. Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement.
Wheeeee! It's sock it to 'em time. God bless Donald Trump for bringing up some real issues! If he recites this out on the campaign trail he will win. We've had two chances in the last 25 years to clean things up, Perot and Trump.
#3. To: tpaine (#0)
(Edited)
#4. To: tpaine (#0)
(Edited)
No wonder voters demand change
#5. To: Vicomte13 (#3)
" I hear people like Mark Levin exulting over the "rules", and how the "rules" favor his chosen candidate, through disenfranchising the voters "
#6. To: Stoner (#5)
I used to like Levin,
#7. To: Vicomte13 (#6)
" . . . I just turn him off and listen to music instead. "
#8. To: tpaine (#0)
Here, I part ways with Sen. Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement.
#9. To: nolu chan (#8)
#10. To: A K A Stone (#9)
They broke the law in Colorado.
The errors could have violated state bylaws significantly enough that some of the results could be contested, according to the volunteers.
#11. To: nolu chan (#10)
(Edited)
#12. To: Vicomte13 (#11)
...in some smoky backroom, as though this were 1952.
#13. To: Vicomte13 (#11)
#14. To: nolu chan (#10)
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