On occasion, someone or some group will not be able to get what they want through the political process (whatever that might be in their state or country). Usually, those people will try to obtain what they want through negotiation and reform, but occasionally they will resort to violence or threats of violence.

By definition, such a person is a terrorist – a term which encompasses anyone who uses violence or fear of violence to achieve political ends. What we are learning is that many Trump supporters are terrorists under the classical definition of the word, as Indiana GOP delegate Craig Dunn has learned the hard way.

Dunn expressed his opinion, in an interview with Politico, that he would not vote for Donald Trump at a contested convention. He stated that if his district voted for Trump, he would vote for Trump in the first round of voting, as he is legally required to do, but that after that, he would vote for Kasich (as he is legally allowed t0 do). Since then, Trump supporters have responded by trying to make Dunn’s life a living hell.

They do the same thing to us here at RedState on a regular basis. The number of profanity-laden and borderline threatening emails we get from Trump supporters every day is ludicrous. Just today we got such a missive full of thinly veiled threats to “See Ya in Denver” (at our RedState Gathering) because “It’s time you see us face to face.”

Let’s get something straight, here. If Trump was able to get 50% of the Republican delegates, as every front runner for the lat 40 years has done easily, this would not even be a discussion. The Craig Dunns of the world would be able to do absolutely nothing to stop him from getting the nomination. That’s the way Trump and his supporters COULD win this thing legitimately – by getting more people to vote for Trump.

However, if no candidate reaches 50%, then delegates must be free to switch their votes on subsequent ballots, otherwise no nominee ever will be selected. So, an alternate (and completely valid) strategy for Trump and his supporters to undertake would have been to do what Cruz did, which is to try to stack the other candidates’ bound delegates with their own loyalists. Yet a third option would have been to make a persuasive case as to why Trump should be the party’s nominee despite not getting 50% of the delegates.

Instead, Trump and his supporters (led by the odious Roger Stone – and by Trump himself) are using their unique ability to act like garbage human beings to try to intimidate delegates who wouldn’t otherwise want to vote for Trump into doing so.

Negotiating with terrorists begets more terrorism. If the GOP delegates are cowed by these threats, then no GOP nominating process will ever be binding ever again. Next time, all a candidate will have to do will be to accumulate 10% of the GOP electorate and whip them all into a violent frenzy. This is something that, for all his warts, Trump understands, and yet his supporters want GOP delegates to forget this basic premise.

Just remember: negotiating with terrorist begets more terrorism. If the GOP doesn’t want an unending cycle of violent protests at their convention, then they have to stand firm this time.