In the US, political parties are completely free to decide whom they want to put on their ticket (and you don’t even have to be affiliated with a party to run for president in any case). When the Constitution was originally written, political parties weren’t actually a thing in the US; that only happened later, and funnily the leaders of the first two major opposing parties, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, had previously written extensively arguing against the idea of partisan politics.
Primaries and caucuses haven’t been around all that long, having been widely adopted only a century or so ago (at first, usually the members of a party caucus in Congress would get together and pick somebody, and then the major parties started having nominating conventions of delegates chosen by state party conventions of delegates chosen by district party conventions; not a transparent or very democratic process).
Since there are no formal laws that govern how a party should decide on a candidate, rigging the process is not technically illegal, and hence no convictions were likely at the DNC.
I never understood that as a joke. I assumed Rohrabacher was genuinely being given envelopes full of cash. (Trump I think has more complicated entanglements involving a history of money laundering and probably doesn’t need direct payment)
Sort of, Rohrabacher immediately came out saying he never had any approval from Trump and is now in later interviews changed his wording to align more with Assange’s lawyer.
Meanwhile, Assange’s lawyer said that Rohrabacher had approval from the president to make this explicit offer and it was turned down.
Trump was still a joke candidate in many people’s mind, including Republicans, until he won. If they really thought he was going to win, it might have been less funny. I’m sure many of them also realize not working on climate change is going to make the world a much worse place for humans, but don’t care as long as oil/gas $ keeps them in power and pays them well. The Republican leadership is all bought and paid for.
It’s probably multiple things, including that he listed expenses to several mistresses as business deductions. Also he’s likely paying a tiny amount in tax, for however much he’s making, and if it’s published, journalists may pick his returns apart and prove (more) tax fraud.
I doubt that; he already more-or-less bragged about doing exactly this during the 2016 debates. I don’t believe that he believes he has much if anything to be ashamed of, other than not being as wealthy as he pretends to be.
He of course doesn’t have shame and has no fear of legal consequences, but if exposed, he might have to slow down the pace and magnitude of his graft. And paying “very little” is something to brag about, but at times he’s talked about how much he pays for taxes. If a Democrat can point out he’s paying less proportionately in taxes compared to 40 or 80% of Americans, or whatever it is, it might matter to some people.
I’m going to humor you and take the comment seriously
I’m not a fan of their candidates, but the process of selecting a candidate does seem a lot more fair. Nobody in the GOP wanted Trump and yet het still got to be their chosen candidate.
I don’t know enough about their respective selection procedures to make a definite statement about this but they do look to have the fairer process.
What is your basis for that belief when we only got to sift through one side’s dirty laundry? For all we know the RNC employed all kinds of sleazy tricks in attempts to manipulate the outcome of their primary process.
Concluding that the Democrats’ selection process was more tainted than the Republicans’ when we never got a look at the Republicans’ server seems incredibly naive.
Nobody is obligated to be unbiased, and, if you don’t think that what was released was actual dirt, then, as long as it’s factually correct, no harm done, right?
I’m concerned that you think it shouldn’t be allowed to critque something when there is another thing that is worse.
We know one team cheated and got the outcome they wanted. We don’t know if the other team cheated but the don’t seem to have gotten the outcome they wanted. That is all the belief is based on.
