When it looked like the full force of the Republican establishment was going to come forth to prevent him from being the nominee, Donald Trump couldn’t get in front of a microphone without screaming about the system being rigged. Funny how that narrative ended the minute he became the presumptive nominee.
Over in Democraticland, Bernie Sanders and his supporters are still crying foul about a rigged system. To be fair, he has built his brand on identifying institutions as being rigged…the political system, the economic system, and probably the Law of Gravity and the Theory of Relativity. I’m not really sure where it ends.
In defeat, the anti-Trump forces are slowly but surely falling in line, which is what Republicans always do. House Speaker Ryan is moving awfully slow in this direction, so maybe he just wants to close the gate once all the cattle (or sheep, depending on your perspective) are in the pen.
In the other defeat, Senator Sanders (cue the sound of bubbles bursting) seems to be looking for concessions and changes using representation on the Rules and Platform committees, in particular, to achieve them. And, there is also a move to replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz as head of the DNC, not to mention Senator Sanders’ support of her primary opponent to try to remove her from her house seat. And with the threat of “party unity” in the balance, it will be interesting to see to what extent he may be placated.
So what is on display here is the contrast between the two major parties. The Republicans seem to be ignoring all of the #NEVERTRUMP rhetoric of the primary season in favor of agreeing on basically one thing…they hate Hillary Clinton. And the Democrats, who never tell a constituency to sit down and shut up, are trying to find some common ground and ordering a participation trophy…so millennial… to hand to Senator Sanders at the convention. (Democrats are just a bit touchy-feely, don’t you think?) It would be so much more simple if they could focus on one thing…Donald Trump scares the bejesus out of them.
And as for flipping our wigs over the rigged system? Go ahead, but I’ve never known folks to want to change the rules during the middle of a game if they are winning it. It may be rigged, but it’s rigged in their favor. (I think this what we generally think of as “privilege.”)
It seems to me that what gets described as rigged is more like “undemocratic.” Buy me a martini at a nice watering hole, and I’ll explain why I think caucuses, superdelegates, winner-take-all primaries, the Electoral College, and the basic structure of the U. S. Senate are all “undemocratic” and, therefore, rigged. Buy me two martinis at an appropriate day drinking location, and I’ll throw in why I think pure democracy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Buy me three at my favorite watering hole, and we’ll forget politics and you’ll have to change all your cash into ones and fives.
