Bob SparksTed Cruz has really stepped in it now. He has made a monumental blunder. His transgression, and that of his campaign, is comparable to the deeds of the Gestapo.
So what did Cruz do to earn a comparison to the Nazi secret police responsible for the murders of millions of Jews? He dared to take advantage of the rules for selecting delegates in Colorado, grabbing all 34 that were previously unbound.
One of Trump’s newest hires, the savvy convention operative Paul Manafort, brought the G-word into the campaign. Accusing Cruz of threatening delegates during a “Meet the Press” appearance, Manafort tagged the Texas senator for using “Gestapo tactics.”
In addition to the ridiculous comparison, the interview contained another gem. The “Gestapo” tactics of Cruz, said Manafort, can be seen by activists who “go to these county conventions.” Herr Cruz and his followers are indeed guilty of attending and working those conventions, badly outmaneuvering the much less engaged Team Trump.
The chirping began, of course, on Twitter.
“The people of Colorado had their votes taken away from them by phony politicians,” he tweeted. “Biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed.”
It is perfectly fine to hate the system concocted in Colorado, probably devised over a few mugs of Coors. Those in Colorado, as well as the 49 other states, D.C. and territories, are free to develop a system of their choosing. Legislatures are often involved, not just the political parties.
Some have caucuses while some have primaries. Some states have winner-take-all delegates, while others award delegates by proportion.
Florida, as a winner-take-all state, in March presented Trump 100 percent of the delegates with 45.7 percent of the vote. We heard no whining from Sen. Marco Rubio, who finished second, that the system was unfair. Everyone knew the rules.
The peculiar arrangement in Colorado did not spring up last weekend. The rules have been, or should have been, known for about a year.
Trump is floating the story that Colorado changed its rules last year just to stop him now.
“I know the rules very well, but I know it’s stacked against me by the establishment,” he told attendees of a recent New York rally.
By understanding that Cruz, hardly an establishment darling, is operating under the same rules reveals that statement to be silly at best. But Trump goes even further.
On Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh, he told Heather Nauert of Fox News that Florida also changed its rules last year just to stop him. “They thought Jeb Bush would win,” was the supposed reason.
This is so divorced from reality that not even Trump could write an alimony check large enough to satisfy the truth. Perhaps Gov. Rick Scott, a Trump supporter, could put out a tweet reminding Trump and everyone why he signed the 2015 bill that set up our state’s primary.
Trump conveniently forgets how the “crooked system” has benefited him as well as Cruz. Among the states selecting delegates so far, Trump has earned a majority of the delegates in 10 states, including Florida, despite garnering only a plurality of the votes.
In Missouri, Trump earned two-tenths of 1 percent more votes than Cruz, but took away 71 percent of the delegates. In South Carolina, 32.5 percent of the vote was good enough for 100 percent of the delegates.
Alabama’s primary voters gave Trump 43.4 percent of the vote, yielding 72 percent of delegates. In Illinois, he garnered 38.8 percent of the vote and 79 percent of the delegates. You get the picture.
Cruz has similar examples in his home state of Texas and the recent blowout in Wisconsin, where he took 85 percent of the delegates after winning 48.2 percent of the vote.
Trump says another reason this is unfair is because he has “millions more votes” than Cruz. He is close to the truth there.
According to Politico, the front runner has earned 8.2 million primary and caucus votes, 23 percent more than the 6.2 million garnered by Cruz. Trump has 755 delegates to 545 for Cruz, a difference of 27.8 percent. Looks like the system treated him better than Cruz.
The front runner also turns his guns on the Republican National Committee, saying they “should be ashamed” for letting these “unfair” rules be implemented. We could again ask Scott to let his guy in on how Florida and other states set up their primaries and caucuses, but that would be a waste of time.
Trump knows how things work, but continues to magnificently use the media as a bullhorn to his assembled masses around the country. His constant whining plays perfectly into the anti-establishment hysteria that fuels his candidacy.
A Donald Trump happy hour contains plenty of whine, but precious little cheese. His recent rout in the cheese state of Wisconsin provides the perfect excuse for the cheddar deficiency.
Ted Cruz stole the rest of it.
***
Bob Sparks is a business and political consultant based in Tallahassee. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
