The first Republican presidential debate is approaching — Aug. 6 in Cleveland — and GOP candidates who are likely to miss the cut for the nighttime debate are stepping up criticism of the system.

First Curt Anderson, a veteran Republican strategist, former top official of the RNC, and now an adviser to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Let all 16 Candidates Debate.” Anderson’s argument is that the RNC plan to limit debates is backward-looking: it’s a solution to a problem that plagued the poor-quality 2012 GOP field but is not present in the high-quality 2016 field. The RNC plan relies on irrelevant national polling, Anderson writes, giving unfair advantage to candidates with pre-existing name recognition — “retread candidates and political dynasties,” as well as “personalities and circus acts.”