Disrespecting the “Will of the People”
Over the weekend, Sarah Palin announced that she would be campaigning for Paul Ryan’s opponent, Paul Nehlen, in the upcoming Wisconsin GOP Primary election.
“His political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly, he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his,” Palin said of Ryan in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
I have noticed a number of people using the phrase “the will of the people” to make the populist case and was wondering who are these people being disrespected.
According to the latest Gallup polling information 31% of the voters identify as Democrats, 29% identifying as Republicans and 38% think of themselves as independents. Gallup further found that many independents leaned towards one of the two parties and with that data the percentages broke 45% Democrat, 45% Republican and the other 10% as truly independent or one of the 3rd parties.
At this point let’s be generous and assume that Donald Trump won 50% of all the GOP ballots cast thus far in the primaries and caucuses. So I think we are ready to name the “will of the people” – at most 22.5% of all eligible voters.
So the next time Palin, Clinton or another political “has been” talks about the “will of the people” keep in mind they are referring to a small number of voters who agree with them and not necessarily the majority of the American voters.
About Author
IrishPat
Patrick Malone is a Business Advisor and Leadership Mentor headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia. He co-hosts Mountain Daybreak and Mountain Mornings, weekday news programs, and hosts This Week in Blairsville a weekend program on WJUL/WJRB. He is a mentor in Union County High School, serves on his church council and writes a monthly column on leadership in the animal healthcare industry.
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I just find it odd that someone that quit the Governor’s mansion for a FoxNews contract and now sends me emails asking for $25,$50,or $100 is in a position to pronounce anyone else’s political career as “over”. She, of all people, should know it wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor…
Perhaps more to Pat’s point here (I took the Palin bait, but it’s not really about Palin folks), on “the will of the people”:
I’m old enough to remember when we (myself included) Republicans mocked the people in Florida during the 2000 recount who kept insisting “I want my vote to count”. When pushed, what they pretty much admitted was that their vote didn’t count unless their candidate won.
Now, we have people on our side that show up and scream loudly. I honestly believe many of them believe the person who screams the loudest wins “the voice of the people” contest. At least, that’s the only explanation I have for Debbie Dooley’s constant screeching into the microphone at any GOP Convention.
If you don’t win the voice of the people by screaming the loudest, at least you can console yourself that you at least have the silent majority behind you.
+1
I think it is a little bit about Palin, for me. When I see things like this I ask, “Was she ever for real and just ruined by a toxic combination of politics and the need to be relevant? Or was she a charlatan that had me fooled back in 2008?” Either way, you are right, she is now a has-been. Political education is tough. It’s almost like you have to constantly learn lessons the hard way.
I can’t really blame Palin for 2008. She was drafted by a cynical, dysfunctional McCain campaign to try and compensate for the excitement surrounding Obama. She was woefully unqualified but that really wasn’t her fault in the beginning.
Too bad McCain couldn’t have had more success in 2000.
I have no idea if this is a good poll at all, but this has been flying around the internet.
AMP POLL:
05/01/2016
452 Voters:
Ryan 41%, Nehlen 48%
Should Paul Ryan Endorse Trump?
YES: 63%
NO: 15%
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3428344/posts
Not everything on the internets is as it seems.
http://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2016/05/08/dear-people-who-hate-paul-ryan-the-poll-with-paul-nehlen-up-48-41-is-from-prntly/
Trump lost Paul Ryan’s congressional district by almost 20 points. I’m putting my money on Paul Ryan to win reelection.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2016/by_cd/WI_GOP_0405_VD.html?SITE=AP&
Not to be arguemenative, but I have seen that 60 percent number or more used on people wanting Ryan to support Trump on TV. I know nothing about the guy running other than few quick clips of who supports him ie Tea Party, MM…..I would guess you are right, but would not be surprised if the race tightens to 10 points or less.
1st, The WI primary is in 3 months from today in August (after the Republican Convention). A lot can happen between now and then.
2nd. Ryan’s district is a “Chamber of Commerce” type of voting block not a blue collar block. The majority of the manufacturing jobs in the area were originally lost during the 2nd Reagan era when companies merged/leveraged/sold off or were forced into automation. The lose of the GM plant in Janesville in 2009 was the last of the automotive based industries closing shop in his district dating back to the 1980’s death of AMC.
3rd, The state created and gave birth to the Republican party. Pride alone will prevent the state from handing over it’s highest ranked national member of the GOP to be slaughtered by the likes of Palin. (she did so well when she was there in March -sarc)
I’ll take it one step further and say that the “will of the people” isn’t some golden principle. There is a thing called mob rule that our founding fathers attempted to protect against. Not to mention, a political party is not the same thing as the government and has no requirement to even hold primary elections except by it’s own rules. Trump only just now, with all other candidates dropping out, started pulling more than 50% of a primary vote in any state, so it’s hardly a mandate.
By contrast, these same people are still complaining that a president who was elected twice, by a large margin in both popular and electoral vote, is attempting to actually do the job he was sent to do by the “will of the people”.
According to The Green Papers (a great site devoted to election data http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/R), Trump has 40.2 percent of the GOP primary vote so far — 10,717,357 actual votes, about 3.4 million more than Cruz.
Trump’s percentage will obviously go up in the final contests but will still be short of 50 percent when the primaries finish. If the Republicans had a truly proportional system of delegate allocation, Trump would likely have far fewer votes because some of the other candidates would likely have decided to hang around for what would have certainly been a contested convention.
Bill,
In fairness if you applied that logic to any GOP primary nobody would ever secure the enough delegates in a contested primary for president, Like Trump or not, he will get the most votes ever by far.
Well the proportional system has worked on the Democratic side. Candidates have come up short in pledged delegates but the superdelegates have never overruled them. And the Republican Party actually changed the rules to give more advantages to the frontrunner in 2016 — obviously under the assumption that the frontrunner would be a mainstream figure like Jeb Bush.
Trump is the winner. He’s the boss now. Ryan will do what he’s told to do – period!
Or Trump fires his a$$ from the convention! Can you imagine the votes he’d get from Bubbas both Dem & Repub? Trump should say, ” Paul, you’re fired!”
Ryan already stated today he was willing to step down if asked. That’s a non issue.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/ryan-says-he-would-step-down-as-convention-chair-if-trump-asks-b99721843z1-378661491.html
I think Ryan is bluffing. He doesn’t think Trump would do it. If their upcoming pow wow doesn’t end with a Ryan endorsement, Trump should very publicly show him the door.
Ryan had no desire to be in charge of the convention to begin. I say they turn the runing and plan of the convention over to Paul Manafort or some other staff member. Ryan maintains the technical chairman but hands control to the Trump folks.