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My Delegate Dilemma: To Be Conscientious, In Good Conscience

Melanie Sturm | @ThinkAgainUSA Read Comments - 12
Publish Date: 
Mon, 07/18/2016

 

My son brought this telling joke home from camp: "If Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in a fatal car accident, who survives? Answer: America." 

 

If this joke resonates, you’re like the 81 percent polled by AP/GfK who are scared by one or both of the presumptive presidential nominees, the two most polarizing, distrusted and unpopular candidates in US history.

 

Since Clinton and Trump emerged as frontrunners, Americans of varying political persuasions have despaired that the 2016 presidential election comes down to two famously flawed celebrities, candidates who’d wage an unrelenting, insult-filled slugfest, not a clarifying solution-focused debate.  Hence the now-popular t-shirt, “I already hate our next president.”

 

Mid-way through this turbulent summer, with the nation reeling from terrorist attacks and fraying race relations, majorities of dispirited Americans wish the parties would Think Again about their nominees, neither of whom engender trust or confidence in a citizenry craving both.

 

Like last month’s Brexit vote that reasserted the “consent of the governed” principle, America’s voter revolt reflects the cleavage between elites who profit from the political system and those who feel fleeced by it. It’s also a cry for Washington to address – not exacerbate – pressing problems including immigration, Islamic radicalism, and economic stagnation.

 

Yet Washington is so politicized and agenda-riddled, even agencies charged with equal enforcement of laws – the IRS, Justice Department, and now the FBI – ride merry-go-rounds of evasion and unaccountability, aided by partisans who defend the law’s unequal application, and a media that’s more lapdog than watchdog.

 

Consider FBI Director James Comey’s recommendation to not prosecute Clinton despite meticulously detailing her lawlessness and lies. In conceding “individuals engaged in this activity… are often subject to security or administrative sanctions,” Comey advanced the banana republic notion that laws apply differently to the powerful – an injustice our constitution was designed to prevent.

 

Whether voters in November reassert their pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all” depends on their presidential options, a choice I hoped to influence when I was elected to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

 

An outsider and staunch critic of the Republican Party – as readers of my column know – I wanted a nominee who’d unite the “Party of Lincoln” around its bedrock principle that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” as Abraham Lincoln declared at the height of the Civil War.

 

My campaign platform echoed President Gerald Ford who reassured at his swearing-in: “Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not men. Here, the people rule.”  To their credit, Watergate-era Republicans put country and the rule of law before their man Nixon, heeding Thomas Jefferson’s warning: “The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.”

 

Today however, many frustrated Republicans are willing to discard these American precepts, believing we're now a nation that only one man can fix, so screw the laws since they're not being enforced anyway.

 

As a delegate, I reject this premise and can’t ignore that Trump rarely speaks of liberty, constitutional guardrails, and the increasing concentration of governmental power, preferring instead to campaign-by-insult and bombast. 

 

Feeling more like a “Republican in name only,” I am discouraged by Trump’s “get behind me or else, you loser” posture toward those who disagree, and the acquiescence of RNC insiders. If the presumptive nominee and his party allies won’t try to win over grassroots Republicans like me, how will they secure additional voters in November?

 

I respect the democratic process, the “will of the people,” and Trump’s record-setting 13.4 million votes. But I also know that 17 million Republicans voted for other candidates, creating fissures that must be addressed.

 

That party rules supercharged Trump’s weak 44 percent performance – the smallest share ever won by a modern era GOP nominee – into a 62 percent delegate haul, cutting off debate without majority support, should concern delegates.

 

Conventions aren’t coronations, and recent court rulings confirm that party delegates aren’t rubber stamps untethered from their consciences and emerging facts. That’s why I support liberating the delegates to debate and ultimately vote their conscience in an open convention, whether voluntarily for Trump or someone else. They should do so in good conscience knowing there is no such thing as coerced unity.

 

It's not about elevating a personality to lead the party; it's about leading the Republican Party back to the elevated ideals on which it was founded, recuperating the alienated.

 

Most importantly, it’s about defeating Clinton, the most corrupt and deceitful presidential candidate in modern American history, thereby dismantling the two-tiered justice system before its entrenched.

 

Think Again – Imagine a car accident in which Clinton, Trump and America all survive, because Americans have restored “liberty and justice for all.” Isn’t this what we owe our children?

 

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Truly a dilemma. If we vote

Truly a dilemma. If we vote for lying cheating hillary we will lose our right to own guns, and the revolution will begin. Not a pretty scenario.

If we vote for Trump, we will be at war with Black lives matter, and all the other terrorist groups. There will be a certain amount of unrest.

If we vote for an Independent, or Libertarian, or Constitutionalists our vote will be wasted, as the dumbing down of America has worked very well, and the people are convinced there are only two parties.

I have a feeling that there will be a lot of people staying home this election, and the only ones voting will be the activists.

But it really doesn't matter, as mankind has forsaken it's God, and God's will is being done on earth as He promised. Disobedience brings Calamity, as His blessings disappear one by one as our nation and our world continue to disobey his commandments of love one another.

So, prepare your self accordingly, as we reap what we sow. But as a believer, not to worry, as God is our "protector".

Always good to read your article.

You were able to so

You were able to so eloquently express your feelings which coincide with those so many of us have had, and I do hope others
have seen your article this week...especially folks with the same feelings.

Seems I have gotten hooked on watching the convention in Cleveland (where I am from) and have found it quite informative,
though some things I have questioned about the deviseness among delegates and the fact Katich and several others are not in attendance.

It has been difficult for me, though I have met a few people who have known Trump and shared personal feelings about him in a positive manner. His unusual way of expressing himself on stage is so non-professional. Sometimes I think it's good only because he isn't a charismatic person leading to people to believe he is perfect and can resolve all the problems.

Then I think of everything the Clintons have been involved in from Filegate, Watergate, Officegate, Cattlegate, Chinagate, Emailgate, Pardongate, Whitewater, Bribes, Foundation Fundraising, Mystery Suicides, Benghazi, use of the FBI contacts..... WON'T even finish this as Governor Christy did such a good job last evening on it.

My closest experience to the subject of the Clintons was obtained while I was a Ski Ambassador. Having met a gentleman from AK while we were going up the chairlift, I had asked him about the Clintons and if he had seen the homemade video I called the Clinton chronicles and if any of the info was true? HIs reply was that it certainly was true and went on to divulge even more about the Clintons. I was totally shocked and asked why he had not shared that info with the American public. His remark was, "I am on the inside and you have seen what happens to those on the outside".

I never asked his name, thank heavens, or I would not have had a reply to my simple question.

I have been quite impressed with his wife and children and the sharing they have done thus far, and can't wait to hear more later today and tomorrow. I just wish you could meet Trump and some of his family while you are there, so you can give us a first-hand report.

It's a shame the press has already ridiculed a few sentences his wife shared with us, saying they were stolen from Michelle Obama's speech. Of course, others have found Nancy Reagan and others have expressed similar things in the past also.... but we all know the liberal press.

This person is not a serious

This person is not a serious conservative. If the delegates are not going to represent the will of the people of their States because they think they are ever so much smarter than the voters then we should not bother having primaries or they should resign as a delegate. This is the elitist arrogance that got Trump nominated.

Sturm und drang. Come off

Sturm und drang.

Come off it, Melanie! She´s obviously affliated with the little GOP clique that cancelled the primaries in Colorado, and went straight to delegate selection, of which she is apparently the beneficiary. Citing an AP poll, where AP has been on a "Destroy Trump" mission for months, is hardly convincing.

Only 44% of Republicans

Only 44% of Republicans voted for Trump. A lot of those voters were not Republicans who will not vote for Trump in November.

Constantly, incessantly attacking writers and publications highlights desperation as there are no facts for a clear defense.

No one here wants Hillary but almost 60% of Republicans don´t want Trump. Do the math. It isn´t pretty and that horrid woman will become president.

The ANSWER to the joke (Who

The ANSWER to the joke (Who survives?)is:
OBAMA.......for a third term!

Good article. Is there a way

Good article. Is there a way for Trump to pivot to normalcy? Same issues but without the insults…
Although insulting Hilary is fair game since you do that too…

Mel is a victim of the "Boy

Mel is a victim of the "Boy and the goat" fallicy of rhetorical thought process. The process is this; A boy sitting beneath a tree one afternoon begins to surmise, "I wish I had a goat. I would play with him and pet him. I would care for him and feed him the best of carrots and even apples. My goat would love me and pull my wagon.I would keep him in the yard tied to the gate. But, what if he broke free? And then walked to the river and fell in and drowned?" At that the boy begins to cry pitifully and runs home to tell his mother his goat has died.

Liberal minds are filled with this kind of nonsense. They see a candidate and begin to tune-in their mental crystal ball. They use their mental balance scale to weigh the imaginary ideas they think they know the candidate holds perfectly dear as if they and only they can percieve the candidate hard set plans for society. Their arrogance of intellect and perception places them, in their mind, far beyond the common person´s abilities. And so, they become, in their own mind, a kind of "Super Person" who is determeiend to save everyone else from their own stupidity and sloth.

They forget they are living in a democracy. They forget they are imperfect beings themselves. They forget they can be wrong. But, by the time they start their activism, they have moved past normal human experience and live in the realm of saints. Only in their own minds, of coure. They have become perfect meddling asses.

The trouble with having an

The trouble with having an open mind, they say, is that it´s easy for your brains to fall out. Melanie, you are so open-minded that you have become a complete air-head.

A camp joke resonates? My,

A camp joke resonates? My, you´re really taking this thing seriously.

Ms Sturm then compounds her error by engaging in the Appeal to Majority fallacy ie yet another poll.

Ms Sturm then compounds her error AGAIN by hauling out some of the worst political cliches: polarizing, unpopular, etc.

Then there´s staggering insight: DC is politicized and agenda-riddled. Yes, I know it´s difficult to imagine, at least for Ms Sturm, but the seat of government involves...government.

Ms Sturm contradicts herself by saying defeating Hillary is the priority but then suggesting the delegates float free. To whom? To what?

The Hamlet act got old a long time ago. Get with the program.

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