Donald Trump Jr. sees the red of communist China in the Republican nomination process.
“Well, it’s amazing. When you let the voters vote, we do incredibly well, you know? But when you try and suppress that, it’s a different system,” Trump Jr. told Sean Hannity. “We have to let the American people decide. I mean, it’s actually a joke. I feel like I’m in communist China sometimes watching this stuff.”
Trump Jr. was discussing “Team Trump’s inability to secure delegates,” Jim Swift noted for The Weekly Standard.
The Trump campaign has criticized the nomination system as “rigged” and “corrupt,” decrying it for the alleged bias against, naturally, the Trump campaign. It’s an old saw, one that populist politicians as far back as 1930s Louisiana Governor Huey Long used to attack their opponents. In a truly democratic contest, the campaign argues, Trump would win the nomination and the presidency.
Political party processes, though, were never meant to be democratic. “A party is an organization. It has every right to award clout based on how much work you’ve put in over the years. Why should drive-by independents get more say than party bosses?” William Saletan asked in Slate.
The Electoral College, after all, isn’t democratic. It’s a republican institution specifically designed to tamper imprudent democratic urges. That’s not democratic, but it’s more American than Chinese.
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