It’s a time for choosing, I concluded yesterday, for Republican voters — between the so-called “establishment” Republicans endorsing Donald Trump’s candidacy and those, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and both President Bushes, who have declined to endorse.
Sen. John McCain’s admonition that, “You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party,” raises the imperative question: Who gets to choose?
Moreover, who should choose?
I’m a big fan of democracy — not pure democracy as a form of government, of course, but voting as a wonderful mechanism for people to control their government, and therefore, to protect our rights, our republic.
Yet, the Republican and Democratic Parties are private associations of citizens. We have a right to vote on who serves in public office, but not a right to decide who is nominated by a political party to which we do not belong.
“Without borders,” Mr. Trump has argued, “we don’t have a country.” To which a Republican friend recently added, “Without borders, we don’t have a party.”
People in political parties, as in any association, have rights, including who they nominate and how. Parties should be independent, not government-controlled.
Nor should political parties be advantaged in law, or their primaries and national conventions subsidized by taxpayers, as they are now.
Trump has railed that the GOP nomination process is rigged. Like most public-private partnerships, it is! But not the way you might think … as I’ll delve into tomorrow.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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