The move is on to stop Donald Trump or Ted Cruz from becoming the next presidential nominee of the Republican Party.
Regardless of Trump’s performance in the primaries taking place, changes to convention rules can make the contest competitive and allow republican delegates to decide their nominee, rather than the winner of the popular vote.
The specific proposal at hand is to literally toss out the GOP’s 150 page convention rule book in favor of the widely known, Robert’s Rules of Order.
While Robert’s Rules is transparent, they can be gamed by savvy parliamentarians in the absence of hard and fast rules.
The “toss out” would specifically throw out Rule 40, which is a rule new created by the Romney team to specifically keep Ron Paul out of play in 2012.
The rule requires that a candidate is not eligible for nomination unless they have won at least eight primary contests.
This would knock out Kasich for sure, but Texas Senator Ted Cruz met the requirement on Tuesday with his win in Utah.
And the GOP Establishment knows this . . . and wants an alternative to both Trump and Cruz.
While Republican chiefs will argue that they control the rules and get to name their own nominee . . . not the voters . . . they are already breaking the rules.
The GOP’s rules committee is proposing changes that would impact the upcoming convention.
Those rules, if adopted by a majority of convention attendees, according to Robert’s Rules, do not take effect until the close of the convention.
Essentially, you can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.
Any changes to the convention’s rules made in 2016 would apply to the following convention.
Now, technically, convention delegates may choose to suspend the rules during the convention. For instance, they can elect to suspend Rule 40, but they cannot implement new rules.
Suspension of Rule 40 is the key to the Establishment getting its way.
If they are able to pull that off, which would be permissible with a majority vote, they could realistically choose Romney, Ryan or even Jeb Bush if the support is there after the first round of voting.
While the move would be the most blatant indication that the American people have no say in their elected leaders, since the Supreme Court decided the fate of Bush vs Gore, it is a clear possibility.
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