Last month news came from Massachusetts that an attempt would be made by the local Republican Party to unseat Ron Paul delegates. They made their move:
But earlier this month, Kenney was one of 17 delegates and alternates disqualified by a Republican committee deciding who gets to represent Massachusetts Republicans at the national convention in Tampa. Kenney and others had failed to deliver in time an affidavit swearing, under the penalty of perjury, that they would support Mitt Romney’s nomination for president.
An affidavit is never mentioned in the Republican Party’s rules for selecting delegates and has never been required of delegates in the past, GOP critics say. Suspicions are steep this year because Kenney and the others are supporters of Ron Paul, the libertarian candidate whose quixotic campaign for president culminated in an effort to take over state caucuses nationwide. The delegates must vote for Romney, based on his strong primary win in Massachusetts, but Paul’s supporters hope to use the convention to draw attention to his agenda, including auditing the Federal Reserve and requiring wars to be declared by Congress.
What can I say? This was the only outcome I was expecting. The Republican Party, like any political entity, has a long list of forgotten rules that can be pulled out whenever the need to suppress an attempted party hijacking occurs. While it sounds like the signing of these affidavits hasn’t been enforced previously it was likely a convenient rule to pull out at this point in time as it stood a high likelihood of unseating some Paul delegates. Some good has come out of this, more people are starting to realize what politics really is:
“I’ve been rudely awakened to the realities of politics,” Kenney said. “I feel I’ve been cheated.”
Welcome to politics son, it’s the art of cheating, stealing, and using force. This is why libertarians suck at politics, we generally have little interest in forcing others to obey our decrees so we’re not familiar with the processes needed to accomplish such goals. Politics is similar to Global Thermonuclear War, the only winning move is not to play.