“If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this,” Donna Brazile told CNN this week. Brazile, who managed* Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000, is herself a super delegate.
This is an important statement from someone I don’t much care for, but that completely agree with, no matter how the remaining primaries go.
I’m serious about that. If Hillary takes a majority of delegate votes, she ought to get it. If it’s Obama (it totally will be), then he should get it, and be damned to the back room machinations of elected officials that have, for the most part, already proven that they can’t handle the responsibilities of governing as Democrats.
Chris Bowers over at Open Left wrote a post that I’ve been kicking around but lacked the ability to articulate through the red haze of my precognition.
I agree with him. If this nomination swings on the purchased votes of super delegates, and not on the democratic process of the Democratic voters, especially after the 2000 election, then WTF is it all about?
*mismanaged.
Exactly. I have talked to so many people, and everyone has said the same thing. It’s just wrong for it to be that way.
Totally agree. I posted it earlier but I want to say it again (or rather steal it again from Democracy for America): “This is not about Senators Clinton or Obama. This is about who chooses the Democratic Nominee. Should it be the 20 million Democratic voters so far and the millions more yet to vote? Or should it be the less than 800 party insiders?
We believe the answer is obvious. Let the voters decide.”
They have a petition to sign too.
Ye of little faith. As Bob Marley said, “every little thing is gonna be alright.”
Yeah, I’d wait and see if a problem actually develops before getting too exercised about it. As for me, I am so disturbed about what the Republican Party has done to this country in the past 7 years that I will put my loyalty to the Democratic Party this year above personal desire for a particular candidate, and will vote for whoever gets the Dem nomination.
It would be one thing if the popular democratic primary vote were exceptionally close between the candidates, but it’s not so far, and it’s not likely to become close.
If superdelegates give this election to Clinton when the popular vote had been given to Obama, I think it is time to dissolve the Democratic Party and form a “Progressive Party.” The Whigs of the 19th century doomed their own party by ambivalence. If we as a party enable an unpopular candidate to be our nomination, our only recourse is to start from scratch and create a new party.
Just saying.
Voters should consider a class action lawsuit to end the process of super-delegates. A case can be made that the super-delegates degrade, and are intended to dilute, the weight of our votes to allow the party elites to determine who gets the nomination of the party. It doesn’t matter whether Hillary or Obama gets the nomination, both will be great democratic leaders. However, the fact that super-delegates have the power to overrule the voters is against the concept of democracy, and harms the voters of this country. A single super-delegate vote can carry as much weight as 50,000 citizen votes.
Do not lose focus on this issue after the primaries are over. While it may turn out that this process does not override the American vote this year, the chances are there for the future. Our votes must be equal to those of the Washington insiders.
I really like what you write about here. I try and read your site every day so keep up the good writing!