Thomas Sowell‘s latest column at National Review Online considers support for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
The current angry outcries because there was no primary vote in Colorado to choose delegates, supposedly because “the system” was “rigged” against Donald Trump, is only the latest sign of a widespread lack of interest in facts.
The Colorado rules were there before the time for delegates to be chosen. If Donald Trump did not bother to learn those rules, or to hire people to keep on top of such things, that was his fault. But it is all too typical of Trump to cover up his own lack of knowledge or understanding by making wild accusations against others and inciting the gullible.
The convention rules that require a candidate to get a majority of the delegates, in order to become the party’s nominee for president, are also nothing new. But, here again, Trump and his followers are raising an outcry by saying that it would not be “fair” or “democratic” to “steal” the nomination from Trump and give it to some other candidate.
First of all, it is not Trump’s nomination until after he has earned it, under the rules that apply to all candidates. Nobody can “steal” what was not his in the first place.
The rules are the rules. As an old New York Yankees fan, I still have a painful memory of the 1960 World Series, where the Yankees scored 53 runs and the Pittsburgh Pirates scored 27. But the Pirates won the World Series, because the rules go by how many games were won, not how many runs were scored.
