#FreeTheDelegates Is A Singularly Awful Idea

by Rod D. Martin
July 14, 2016

Our #NeverTrump friends are plotting a coup here in Cleveland, whereby all delegates would be freed to vote however they wish not on the second ballot, but on the first.

I call this a coup – as they do – with reason: it would overturn the results of the entire primary and caucus season, even if Donald Trump were ultimately nominated. It would say – and mean – that elections just don’t matter, at least to conservatives and Republicans.

Speaking as a friend and supporter of the two Southern Baptist candidates in the Republican primary, and as someone who has still not endorsed Donald Trump, I simply cannot express to you how terrible an idea this is.

To restate the obvious, Donald Trump didn’t win the nomination by a little: he won it by a lot. Trump won 38 states, enough to amend the Constitution. None of us thought he could get to the requisite 1,237 delegates: he blew past that number and amassed a whopping 1,543. His nearest rival won a third of that. He al…