Donald Trump is a monumental incompetent. There is no kinder way of putting it. His name, in business is associated with an excess of hype followed by abject failure and bankruptcy. He is the poster child for the small-handed rich kid, who, being born on third base, trips over his own shoelaces, does a faceplant, and then demands to be given credit for a home run because he really could have done it if things had gone the way he wanted.

His campaign is in crisis. He has divided his campaign staff into warring tribes that spend more time fighting each other for butt-kissing festivals with Trump than they do trying to run a national primary campaign. He is at the point where he needs a run of amazing luck to win the nomination on the first ballot and he has proved singularly inept a wrangling delegates to achieve that goal.

So Donald Trump does what he does best. He whines. He mewls. He snivels. He befouls himself and rubs it in his hair in rage. You really need to read this op-ed to appreciate what kind of a sniveling, cringing coward Donald Trump becomes in the face of adversity.

On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an “election” without voters. Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred. A planned vote had been canceled. And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined.

This is a lie that would have made Goebbels blush. Colorado Republicans were afforded the opportunity to vote on a candidate. They just couldn’t do it in the way that Donald Trump prefers. Nominating the GOP candidate is something that GOP voters are supposed to do. Trump brings in what can only be called carpetbaggers, that is, Democrats and independents, to vote in what is supposed to be a GOP event. The only people denied the opportunity to vote for the GOP nominees where people who were not Republicans and Republicans who had so little interest in the process that they couldn’t be bothered to participate. In other words, the quintessential Trump voter. As my colleague, Sara Gonzalez, points out, these rules were established last year and were, or should have been, well known to any serious candidate. Which is why Donald Trump was blissfully unaware of them.

I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated. No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice. Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide.

This system that Donald Trump is not interested in defending is one in which political parties are able to establish their own rules. No one forced Donald Trump to run as a Republican. In fact, his candidacy as a Republican is an exercise in the lowest kind of fraud… rather like the Trump University of voter registrations.

No one cancelled an election. The state party decided to go from a primary (I got this so wrong, see the comments for the correct version) to a convention system. Anyone in favor of a less intrusive federal government and the concept of federalism should applaud it. The fact that Trump criticizes it is hardly surprising. Trump’s entire life has a been a landmark to the use of government to expand his own business interests, destroy competitors, and seek a monopoly wherever possible.

Then he goes on to attack Ted Cruz for (Gasp. Clutch pearls. Look for fainting couch.) knowing the rules and playing by them.

Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district. That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters.

Trump has the same problem. He will arrive at Cleveland without enough delegates to win. Therefore, he, too, is mathematically eliminated. Following Trump’s juvenile logic, there can’t be a GOP nominee because each succeeding ballot would have to be the same as the previous. Will of the people, don’t you know. Trump will be getting exactly what he won: votes on the first ballot. The fact that his campaign was too lazy, too stupid, and too disorganized to actually care about delegate selection reflects upon the slovenly and unprofessional way Trump has run his campaign — rather similar to the way he’s run his business and personal life, when you get right down to it — not on some nefarious scheme by the GOP establishment, which supports Trump, or Ted Cruz to rob voters of their right to vote.

Trump is just being Trump here. He knows he’s losing and the only way he salvages his self-image as a winner (perhaps self-delusion is a better word).

Life is hard, they say. It is even harder when you are stupid.