Oh, and it's not like the people arrested were "thugs" nor were they really trespassing. One of them, Brent Stafford, is a member of the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee. The caucus was being held at a high school and it was within the rules for caucus goers to reconvene on the premises. Besides, it's public property. What representative of the school ordered him to leave? Imagine the audacity of St. Charles County Republicans exercising their rights to not be railroaded by the well-connected stooges of a certain political candidate!

Looks like you're wrong. People there who supported Paul, Romney and Gingrich have all reported that the Santorum-supporting St. Charles County party leaders tried to break the rules and run roughshod over every else. In defiance of the rules, Eugene Dokes appointed a chairman with an aye vote from a colleague nearby. He ignored the thousands of nays coming from the audience. They are supposed to get a vote. Do we still follow the rules and let the "little people" have a voice? He then had his anointed "chairman" appoint committees. The people there at the caucus were being ignored. When they dared challenge the proceedings, he declared it disbanded. An illegal straw poll showed Santorum wouldn't win, so they tried to throw it for Santorum.

Obviously he/she did not. It's so much easier to stand firm in your misguided beliefs if you refuse to examine the evidence.

It didn't count, so few voted. He won a beauty contest with no delegates.

This was apparently after a straw vote was taken early on, in which Romney and Paul got more votes than Santorum.

Actually, in St. Charles County (the one with the most delegates at stake) it was the county Republican establishment who openly support Santorum who were trying to pull a fast one. They disenfranchised the largest Republican county in the state by disbanding without a vote. http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-st-louis/largest-mo-caucus-adjourns-without-conducting-business-no-delegates-selected

Actually, at least in the county with the largest number of Republican delegates, it was the Santorum-supporting county pols that were manipulating things. They tried to run roughshod over the will of the caucus goers, appointed a chairman (instead of electing as they're supposed to) and then disbanded the whole thing without a vote when caucus goers objected to the strong arm tactics. Lest you claim that, since Santorum won the primary, he should get the delegates anyway please remember it was a beauty contest. Most didn't vote in it since it didn't even count. http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-st-louis/largest-mo-caucus-adjourns-without-conducting-business-no-delegates-selected

Thank you for an excellent column. Neither party has the best interests of the average American at heart. It's all about what is best for political class and their benefactors. They'll spend and spend, deflate the value of our money, leave us with rampant inflation and promote bigger and bigger government to oppress us. We'll be allowed to vote but, at the national level especially, we'll never be given a real choice other than their establishment candidates. Any candidate who goes against the status quo (see Paul, Ron) will be pilloried by both parties and their media surrogates.

destroy us, not destroy it

Actually, China adores Obama, Bush and anyone else who will spend us into oblivion on never ending warfare. Since we're bankrupt and borrowing the money from China, among others, to fight all these wars they make a nice profit. Additionally, we're destroying our country through debt. They and the Russians love that. They don't have to use their military to destroy it. We're committing national suicide through our own policies.