Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Chaos and bedlam. Haven’t we had enough already?
I, like millions of other Americans, honestly believed that when the voters overwhelmingly sent Donald Trump packing in November 2020, we could start to get this country back to a place of sanity and relative calm. That the chaos that defined every day of the Trump administration would subside and some kind of normalcy would take hold.
President Joe Biden has done his best to bring calm and decorum back to the White House, but I think it is clear to everyone paying attention that the chaos in the country continues. And, in a significant part of the Republican Party, it continues to gain momentum.
I have always been proud of Nevadans for being able to see through most of the charades of charlatans who come to the Silver State seeking our votes. We have been smart enough to turn Trump away twice. So far.
With Gov. Joe Lombardo and other GOP leaders contorting themselves and any remaining moral clarity they could once claim into pretzels in order to fall in line behind Trump, it remains to be seen whither goest Nevada this coming November.
In the meantime, chaos continues. And bedlam has joined the fight.
These are not my words or the descriptors used by Trump detractors. Nope, these are the former president’s predictions — as told through his lawyers to the Supreme Court of the United States — about what Americans will certainly face if Trump doesn’t get his way.
In a court filing this past week, Trump’s lawyers predicted that the country would be consumed with “chaos and bedlam” if the states are allowed to read the Constitution of the United States and do what it says. You know, the part about not allowing anyone who participated in an insurrection against our country to be allowed to run for president.
Now, I don’t pretend to understand what the high court will do when it is faced with the words as written in plain English. I suspect the judges will do their best not to decide, which means Trump will go before the voters yet again in his quest for dictatorship — if only for one day!
But, what none of us should pretend is to not understand just who is causing the chaos and who is leading us toward bedlam. Here’s a hint: It ain’t the Democrats. Although, I must admit, they have their share of crazy too. Eyes left. Way left.
The headline in Friday’s Las Vegas Sun read, “Voters rage over GOP primary ballots in Nevada; party officials mum.” This proves, yet again, if you want to know what’s really happening in our state, reading the Sun is a must!
The story quoted some outraged Nevada voters who, following their God-given right to believe and create whatever conspiracy theories they think helpful to confirm their own world views, wanted to blame Democrats and others for the debacle that is shaping up in Nevada. It is called the Republican presidential primary on Feb. 6 and the Republican presidential caucuses on Feb. 8.
If ever chaos had a face, it is Nevada’s attempt to choose a GOP presidential candidate this year. Actually, the face seems to be that of Republican state chairman, Michael McDonald.
How else can you explain why McDonald’s Republican Party would decide to hold caucuses two days after the state-mandated primary voting day for both Democrats and Republicans? Well, if you thought you could better manage the coronation of Trump in Nevada through caucuses than through a secret ballot primary voting system that works without fraud and fake, then you wouldhave caucuses.
The result of all this is that voters on Feb. 6 can vote for Nikki Haley and a couple of other also-rans. Or they can caucus for Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis on Feb. 8. But the candidates can’t participate in BOTH. McDonald’s rules!
So let’s consider this: I know it’s a long shot but let’s assume Haley either wins or comes in a close second in the New Hampshire primaries this coming week. That means she has a real shot at upending the Trump train toward the White House.
Next up is Nevada which, as has been the case in past elections, can make a real difference in who the candidate for president will be. Except, we can’t.
If Nevadans want the saner choice of Haley, they can cast a ballot for her in the primary on Feb. 6. But even if she wins, she can’t get Nevada’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. Why? I refer you to McDonald’s rules. Only the winner of the Nevada caucuses on Feb 8 can get those delegates. So, even if Haley is the choice of the majority of Nevada Republican voters, she will not get our delegates.
Is that a recipe for chaos?
All this from the mind of the man who has been indicted for the fake elector scheme in 2020 that would have — if it had worked— given us a Trump dictatorship four years earlier. Now, Mike has pleaded not guilty so, of course, we will await further court proceedings regarding his criminal charges. But that doesn’t relieve Nevadans from the very real possibility of having their votes ignored because the Trump puppets in the Silver State have manipulated the process for the once and would-be king.
Is that a recipe for bedlam?
I looked up bedlam in the dictionary. Yes, I still have one of those. There are two definitions. The first is “ a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion.”
That fits the current scenario to a tee and describes what could happen in Nevada should the voters’ choice be trashed by the GOP leadership.
The second definition of bedlam is “an asylum for the mentally ill.”
That just about says it all.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun
