Last week I celebrated the joy of baseball’s official return. This week I crash back to grim earth, where domestic politics seem to have taken another ugly and menacing turn. Veteran political hit man Roger Stone, friend and confidant of Donald Trump, declared publically last week that “the fix is in” by “the kingmakers [who] go all out to cheat, to steal, and to snatch the nomination from the candidate who was overwhelmingly selected by the voters...."
Stone means to do something about it. He’s urging wronged Trumpsters to descend on Cleveland en masse in July to confront the conspirators and duplicitous delegates. “We will disclose the hotels and room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal,” Stone told a Freedomain radio audience. “We urge you to visit their hotel and find [the culprits]." Anyone who has seen any Trump rallies on television knows the potential for sudden violent outbreaks when the mob and the mob leader are in sync and a perceived enemy is present.
Are these fears without merit? Am I taking these threats too seriously? I think not. We all hear accounts of how “Lyin” Ted Cruz has been rounding up delegates on the sly, taking advantage of the political novice Trump’s incompetence in tending to his ground-game. And we can’t help but read of the desperate measures being considered by the Republican Establishment to halt Trump’s destruction of “their” party. Add to that last Friday’s release of Paul Ryan’s remarkably sane and civil video touting compromise and your suspicions soar; Ryan keeps insisting he is not a candidate for president, but then he was not a candidate for Speaker of the House either, until he finally gave in to his party’s wishes and reluctantly (?) accepted the position. Might he not be the perfect stealth candidate for an establishment GOP with a depleted bench?
Adding to the gathering cloud of unease, a shadowy group called Americans for Responsible Open Carry have petitioned (with over 45,000 signatures at last count) to bring weapons to the Grand Old Party’s party in July. The Secret Service has balked, banning the bringing of any guns to the Quicken Loans Arena. (Another attempt by Obama to take our guns away?)
The ban may apply inside the convention hall. But what about delegates’ hotel rooms and other public places? Then again, when I really think on it, I don’t see why the conventioneers should have their Second Amendment rights suspended inside the convention hall. I would only add one proviso: if you bring a gun, be prepared to use it.
I am thankful my beloved losers, the Cleveland Indians, will be on a road trip during the July 18-21 convention, well out of the line of any fire. They’ll be in Kansas City getting hammered by the World Champion Royals. As for me, I’ll be vacationing in New Zealand...or maybe Kwajalein.