Will Rules Matter for Trump and Fans at GOP Convention?

Republicans ignoring the rule of law is part of what has Trump voters so upset in the first place.

So I find it more than a little ironic that both Trump and his fans are threatening riots (figuratively, of course—wink) and Trumpertantrums if he fails to secure a majority of the delegates and is not made the nominee anyways.

Trump and all candidates knew the rules going into this process: you must secure a majority of the delegates to get the nomination.

At the current pace, none of the candidates will secure the majority of the nominees on the first ballot.

After the first ballot, all but a few of the delegates are free to vote for whomever they choose. Those are the rules.

They are the rules that gave us Lincoln, as Mark Levin notes here. (Well worth the listen.)

They are the rules that Hugh Hewitt believes gives the edge to Ted Cruz, though he doesn’t take sides:

Most of all, Trump really needs to show he has grasped the art of the deal, because each of the necessary 1,237 delegates is a living, breathing, complicated deal. It is going to take a lot of skills that have so far not been demonstrated to woo the majority. And if he doesn’t get that majority on the first ballot, he is unlikely to get it at all.

So, where does all this leave us? Probably with Cruz as the favorite.

They are the rules that may require a third-party candidate to save the GOP from a down-ticket disaster, as Erick has suggested.

They are the rules that give us these options as laid out by David Bahnsen, though he takes a more pessimistic outlook:

Do I believe we are headed to a convention fight? Hopefully. Because it is likely the last play we have to run. Do I think it will work? Not really. Do I think that regardless of what happens Hillary will be our President? Yes, I do. But will I fight for all of this anyways? Yes, I will. Because that is what a patriot does.But they are the rules.

They are the rules that will give us Clinton as President if Trump is the Republican nominee.

Unless Trump and his fans are advocating for anarchy, they would do well to remember what fueled the Trump train in the first place.