“Fair and square” and the GOP establishment

Last updated on: October 11, 2016 at 7:46 am by Jane the Actuary

“Fair and square” and the GOP establishment 2016-10-11T07:46:09-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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from Pixabay.com; https://pixabay.com/en/referee-sports-fair-person-man-1149014/; public domain

Two opposite approaches:

Trump wins primaries, and the GOP establishment follows all the rules, scrupulously voting down attempts at the convention and elsewhere to replace him. The drama over the weekend included various Republican congressmen pulling their support of Trump, but the RNC itself then issued a statement that they will do no such thing. A voice on the TV last night (I wasn’t really paying much attention; don’t know who): “Trump won the primaries fair and square; he’s the GOP nominee and that’s that.”

The continuing revelations that the DNC was planning from the start on doing no such thing, with active private support for Hillary Clinton even when making statements that they were neutral.

The Republicans are emerging as rule-followers, or, more precisely, process-followers, following the established process, even when it’s in their power to re-evaluate the situation and change the rules, even when it’s to their harm. And the Democrats, are, of course, rule-breakers.

At the same time, the very method of selecting candidates was far different, too: the Republicans “winner take all” primaries prioritized getting someone, doesn’t matter who, across the finish line quickly — valuing process more than the suitability of the actual finisher. And the Democrats’ Super Delegate system was a (non-duplicitous, at least) way of favoring the Establishment’s choice of candidate.

Of course both these approaches, in 2016, backfired. Had the Republicans’ process not favored the winners, regardless of their actual share of the vote, then at the very least the convention would have been contested. Had the DNC not so clearly had their chosen candidate — well, Bernie still wouldn’t have gotten a majority of the vote, even without the Super Delegates, but if you go back further in time, other Democrats might have thrown their hat in the ring had they not regarded Hillary’s nomination as a done deal.

So do you think this says something bigger about Republicans and Democrats, or about conservatives and liberals? “Follow the process regardless of whether it’s still wise” vs. “break the rules to get to the result you want”?

Or am I reading too much into things?

from Pixabay.com; https://pixabay.com/en/referee-sports-fair-person-man-1149014/; public domain

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