Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Campaign Launched to Free the Delegates
A grassroots campaign has begun to unbind the delegates to the Republican National Convention so they can be free to nominate a candidate more worthy of the presidency than Donald Trump.
The “Free the Delegates” campaign was initiated by Kendal Unruh, a Cruz delegate from Colorado and a member of the convention rules committee. Unruh is a high school social studies teacher and a conservative Christian with the moral firmness of solid rock. Here she is, explaining her position in an interview on nationwide television.
The campaign began with the issuing of a delegates’ Declaration of Independence stating the case for unbinding the convention. It reads in part;
To our fellow Republicans: We, the undersigned, have decided to come forward “for such a time as this.”…
The rules of the Republican Party have been clear since its first convention in Philadelphia. Delegates can’t be forced to do something which violates their own conscience. Rule 38 clearly states “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state of Congressional district to impose the unit rule. A ‘unit rule’ prohibited by this section means a rule or law under which a delegation at the national convention casts its entire vote as a unit as determined by a majority vote of the delegation.”
The Constitution protects freedom of association. It is unconstitutional for state governments to violate the First Amendment by mandating the manner in which private citizens govern private institutions (see Cousins v. Wigoda). About the most un-Republican thing the party of Lincoln and Reagan can do is compelling its members to violate their own conscience. And that is particularly true since ours was a party founded by those who refused to violate their consciences as one-time members of the Whig Party. Beyond simply being illegal, such an act is a repudiation of everything it means to be a Republican.
For these reasons, we the undersigned, who have been duly elected as delegates of the Republican Party to represent the interest of our fellow Republicans, consider ourselves unbound and will vote accordingly at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 18-21….
We delegates are the closest representation of the base of our party. We are elected officials as well as everyday activists. And because we stand on principle before all else, we are the GOP’s lifeblood. It is time for actual Republicans to determine who our nominee will be once more. Much time, talent, and treasure has been volunteered in order to be delegates to the Republican Party and, in so doing, preserve the conservative platform for which it stands, ensure its integrity and strengthen its legacy. Now, more than ever, with American Exceptionalism teetering on the brink of history, the American people and our cherished Constitution both need the real Republican Party to please stand up. That is our charge to keep in Cleveland, and keep it we will.
On the evening of June 19, delegates attracted by the call held a telecom, and the campaign has now taken off nationwide, breaking press in the Washington Post shortly thereafter.
Trump supporters have responded to the initiative with rage, attacking Unruh and her collaborators with an avalanche of venomous abuse, as exemplified by clinically interesting pieces of hysteria like this.
I don’t think they are going to have much luck with such tactics. This lady is not for turning.
If you want to join the campaign to free the delegates, you can do so at on Facebook at Free the Delegates 2016 or via the internet website at www.freethedelegates.com.
Published in General
Some of the delegates may decide to vote against him, but he also has a lot of supporters out there who will vote for him. Most of the delegates only consider how the primary votes went in their respective states and feel bound on the first ballot. He’s a fighter, that much we know for sure, so the Romney people better pack their lunch.
It’s another exit ramp before the convention – I signed their petition. I’ve got problems with the GOPe but Trump is an ass. He’s had six weeks to consolidate the party behind him, to reassure other Republicans that he could be ‘Presidential’ – he has failed Biblically.
If it succeeds, I’d be curious who they’d nominate. They are long-time party regulars (but not necessarily party hacks). I’d guess there savvy enough to gauge the mood of the electorate so they wouldn’t nominate Jeb.
Maybe they’d give Scott Walker another look, I’m fine with Cruz as well. Ryan/Rubio/Bush – they’ll fail. They need someone to shake up the status quo.
The trouble with all of those guys is a serious lack of testosterone compared to Trump.
No, you don’t understand. It’s because Romney was too moderate. Millions of young, first-time voters thought “he’s not conservative enough. Guess it’s Obama, then.”
As for going against the wishes of the primary voters who gave DT the nom, let me posit this just be sparky: Obamacare was passed by the Congress. The people reelected the man for whom it was named. Yet the Right keeps insisting it must be repealed, because it’s bad for the country. Aren’t we going against the Wishes of The People?
Yep, trump has so much “testosterone” and none of the other candidates had any in comparison to him. Perhaps you and I have different definitions of what testosterone is.
Ricochet is not the place for this kind of rhetoric. Take it somewhere else.
If I buy a gun will it increase my testosterone level? I’m at that age when testosterone goes down.
No a firearm is not the sole mark of testosterone (although I personally find the firearm to be a mark of aggression which is generally tied to masculinity; that is not to say that I think aggression is inherently wrong), but it in a mainstream cultural way is seen as one mark of masculinity and I could not find a picture of trump with one aside from once when on the campaign stage.
My point is that trump is not one who has testosterone. Most, if not all, his actions in public are childish and rude. Far from the ideal of a true man. Let me give another example.
https://youtu.be/B-FZbAiEWsM
Hey, its worth a shot…
Lame.
STERN: Now getting back to dating, and when you got to say to a woman, you gotta go to my personal doctor and I’m gonna have you checked out, is that a tough thing to say to a woman?
TRUMP: It’s amazing, I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there. It’s like Vietnam, sort of.
STERN: Hey it’s your personal Vietnam isn’t it?
TRUMP: It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier!
STERN: A lot of guys who went through Vietnam came out unscathed. A lot of guys going through the 80’s having sex with different women came out with AIDS and all kinds of things.
TRUMP: This is better than Vietnam, but it’s uh… it’s more fun.
STERN: A little better, but every v****a is a landmine, haven’t we both said that in private?
TRUMP: [intense laughter] I think it is a potential landmine. There’s some real danger there.
…
TRUMP: You have to have a roving doctor, his office has to be in your briefcase. He has to be your best friend. He has to go with you at all times. He has to do onsite tests. [laughter]
http://www.redstate.com/diary/Anteater/2016/02/17/trumps-vulgar-admission-avoiding-stds-women-personal-vietnam/
Excuse me, but this is just exactly where it belongs. I pay the same amount you do to belong to this site. No where does it say we must all agree.
I’ve often wondered why his mother didn’t teach him better manners. He even went to military school where good manners are drilled into the boys. There is no way I can deny or defend some of the rude statements he has made, nor do I intend to. He’s still our nominee, and I’m with him until the end. I trust him to appoint good judges to the Supreme Court, and I trust him to help relieve us from some of this horrible political correctness that has made life and politics so uncomfortable. Furthermore, he is not an apologist for terrorists. The end.
It’s juvenile. How exactly is Romney a turncoat?
I hope they do it. One of two things will happen; either they’ll be beaten and humiliated once again, or, they’ll succeed, so alienating voters with smoky back-room jackassery that they’ll bury the GOP once and for all right next to the whigs that spawned them. And what replaces the GOP will not be kind to these people. Win-win, either way.
Weak, strong, whatever.
He wasn’t good enough to win.
And we desperately needed a win.
Watch the Netflix documentary on his campaign and tell me he had a fraction of the fire required to win that election.
I am the most NeverTrump person on Ricochet: I started posting comments on our need to adjust the convention rules to block Trump back in March, but this effort is not going to work unless we get a real patriot to step up in this moment of the country’s need and offer himself as a plausible alternative – and someone like David French is not going to cut it. Where is Mitch Daniels right now? How about Condolezza Rice? Romney thinks he will look like an opportunist but if he can’t recruit anyone else why not him? We need someone to salvage the Republican brand.
Who is this “our” kimosabe? He is definitely not my nominee and I was never with him. One of the things about him which disgusts me the most is his cowardice.
If you trust him to appoint good judges to SCOTUS or to relieve political correctness or to be tough on terrorists then I have a bridge to sell that you might be interested in….
I think you are missing the point that Obamacare was passed by Congress who was thrown out on their rumps in 2010.
Yes you do. It takes zero testosterone to shoot a gun. It takes some at least, to stand up to the media and political correctness.
God: Please?
James, you are correct as always.
Indeed, it could only have been Romney’s insufficient conservatism which led Lena Dunham and the entire media-entertainment complex to side with Obama. I’m sure that couldn’t have had too much of an effect on the outcome of the election.
If only Romney hadn’t been a squish, we could have gotten them on our side.
The “vote your conscience” declaration is so ridiculous.
Any conservative faction of the Republican Party that breaks off from Trump will split the party and the vote, giving the electoral college to the Democratic nominee for President. This is virtually proved when you examine Electoral College charts and voting history.
Therefore, the “vote your conscience” crowd, by its actions, ensures a Democratic President that will transform the Supreme Court and change America for decades to come, among other things, including continuing Obama’s insane other policies for the next 4-8 years. The “conscience” crowd never tells us why this won’t violate their conscience.
The conservative Christian faction that emotionally reacts to Trump’s antics and personality doesn’t think logically – and they can’t separate Trump’s brilliant marketing from his functional character and his personality. Yes, Trump has some character deficiencies – but almost every President has had them. At least we know Trump’s up front.
Vote Trump: he’s a devil you know!
A belief that a vote for Donald will lead to worse consequences, for the country and the party.
Is that what we are going with now? Seems logical.
Yes and one of them is his penchant for vacillating on the issues. We know of some of his character flaws and one of them is his inability to articulate a core set of beliefs that aren’t subject to political opportunism or as some would say political correctness.
If separating the party from Trump means electing Hillary, so be it. Attaching the party to Trump will also likely elect Hillary and if it must be Hillary or Trump, better it’s Hillary. The republicans have so screwed this up that they’ve made her, amazingly, the responsible choice.
The current social/political/media environment will not allow a consistently reasoning, fact-based, objective,religious, judeo-christian based, conservative Republican to accede to the POTUS. So, Trump.
We have 40 years of getting to know the devil Clintons. They are far far worse.