So I guess I'm the delusional one this is aimed at?
Not just cowardly, totalitarian. They didn't like the influence he was having on their party and so they literally threw him out. He wants to shrink the corporatist federal government which would hurt the mainstream Republican Party, so they cast him aside, changed the rules of the game, cheated, whatever you want to call it.
First, I don't think he was talking to you.
Second, I think the Republicans did what they did to prevent another Ross Perot situation.