Unruh-ly NeverTrumper’s Last Stand

As the highly anticipated Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland this week, the cadre of holdouts in the party’s ranks opposing Donald Trump’s inevitable nomination are prepping for their Alamo moment. Kendal Unruh, a leader of a group called “Free the Delegates,” has been plotting to try and steal the nomination from Trump pre-convention by jettisoning rules requiring delegates to vote along the lines of the democratic votes in their states.

Manipulating rules and ignoring the will of people does not seem very consistent with the history and traditions of our great nation — nor those of the Republican Party.

The ruling left the party rules in place but not without some howls from the NeverTrumpers, such as Shrill Bill Kristol and laughably unknown David French.

Convention committees begin this week before the major festivities and among them are the Rules, the Platform, the Credentials, and the Permanent Organization Committees. The Rules Committee, according to the RNC rules, consists of one male and one female delegate from each state, territory, and Washington D.C. (Rule 41).The Rules Committee will meet Thursday (7/14) and Friday (7/15) to determine the rules for the convention voting process.

Unruh represents a small minority of NeverTrumpers hoping to make a last stand at the convention. To succeed, Unruh must first get 28 members of the Rules Committee to vote to submit a report allowing the delegates to vote in a way that they were not elected to vote. If Unruh gets the votes, then the report will be sent to the whole body of delegates for a full vote.

The first thing to understand about this Rules Committee debate is that allowing Unruh’s unruly measure to pass goes against the rules that have been set up and the spirit of the primary system. The rules make it clear that some delegates are bound to vote for the primary winner and unbinding delegates simply goes against the stated rules that every candidate in the primaries agreed to. As Donald Trump has stated, he is a “Rule of Law” candidate and given the recent turmoil in our country, the Republican Party should lead as an example of stability and seek to make its process transparent and fair.

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It is good to remember that delegates are representatives of primary results and, on the main, the better a candidate does in a primary the more delegates they are awarded. Further, binding delegates, either in proportion to the amount of votes the candidate received in the primary or awarding the whole amount of delegates to the winner of the primary, is a common way to ensure that the primary process is run smoothly and fairly.

Before the primary process even began, the rules about binding delegates were set, so to change them now would be entirely inconsistent with a party that has stressed the rule of law. Unruh believes she has the votes on the Rules Committee to force a floor vote and change the rules at the last minute, but her tally been questioned repeatedly by a number of people who view it as a drastic measure that would surely split the party and award the White House to Hillary.

Recently the NeverTrumpers had a narrow victory when a wayward judge in Virginia struck down a duly enacted state law requiring delegates to the convention be bound to the primary winner. It was a loss for all the delegates, including those with Hillary Clinton — but most importantly, the decision will not effect the rules of either party binding the delegates.

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The ruling left the party rules in place but not without some howls from the NeverTrumpers, such as Shrill Bill Kristol and laughably unknown David French (what a horrible last name for a Republican!). They would both would do better to spend their time attacking Hillary Clinton and riding the wave of support that Mr. Trump has brought about — unless, of course, they prefer Clinton be president.

The other notable Rules Committee proposals concern Solomon Yue, a Rules Committee member from Oregon and Bruce Ash, a member from Arizona. Admirably, they both want to stop any contention at the Rules Committee meeting. Mr. Yue proposed an amendment to prevent any rule changes from going into effect until the convention ends. Ash has also sponsored a rule that a candidate win a majority of delegates in 8 states to qualify for the nomination.

With these and other issues looming, it’s good to remember that Mr. Trump has attracted voters across all demographics — and his ceiling can only continue to rise as Americans use their common sense to combat simple media lies. Though the NeverTrump forces have hysterically attacked Donald Trump, routinely taking his statements out of context and seeking to ride the coattails of Mr. Trump’s fame to improve their sagging brands, it’s clear that uniting against Hillary is the most important political end at this late juncture of the race. Common sense dictates that Unruh’s unruly and distasteful measure should be rejected in the name of party unity.