Local Pressure Builds On Superdelegates
Above, you can watch a the local story that led the news last night here in Colorado - a local news story that is likely coming to your state as the Democratic National Convention approaches. What we have on our hands is a potential back room effort to use undemocratic "superdelegates" to anoint a Democratic presidential nominee - with many superdelegates potentially using their power in defiance of how their states and communities voted.
As a good example of what I'm talking about, consider what's going on here in Colorado. On February 5th, voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama in the caucuses. However, as Channel 2 News reports, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) has already endorsed Hillary Clinton and is refusing to say whether she will cast her superdelegate convention vote with Colorado voters, or for Hillary Clinton. DeGette refused to comment for Channel 2's story.
The question is whether politicians and party officials with superdelegate votes will be loyal to a fellow politician or loyal to small-d democracy. The history of the superdelegates, which I trace in my upcoming book The Uprising, is one that designed the superdelegates to thwart democracy.
In order to stop that this year, I have written that we need to start pressuring superdelegates to do what the Maine Democratic Party chairman did: pledge their superdelegate vote to whomever their voters support in primaries and caucuses.
You can bet this kind of story will be reported throughout the country - with the same kinds of issues popping up lots of places. Miles Mogulescu at the Huffington Post is starting a petition that you can sign to demand your superdelegates vote the way your state's voters voted. Go check it out here. Also, make sure to check out the Superdelegate Transparency Project.
UPDATE: Another interesting idea has been floated that superdelegates should all go with the candidate who won the most total delegates. This is certainly another way to do it, in that it prioritizes democracy over any one candidate. The issue with this is organizing all the superdelegates to do one thing, rather than creating local pressure to support who local voters supported. This plan certainly has its merits, but it might be more difficult to build local pressure for it because in many instances local communities will have voted for a different candidate than won the national delegate count. But bottom line: Any plan to consistently demand a loyalty to democracy across the board should be acceptable, whether that is getting all the superdelegates to vote for the overall delegate winner, or getting all superdelegates to follow the will of their local voters. And remember, this is not about rigging the nomination for one candidate or another - it is about making sure democracy is the most important thing to the Democratic Party.
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Those of you who are concerned about the super delegate situation, I urge you to lodge your opinion with the DNC ... http://www
Remember, bringing our voices together is the only way to rock the establishment.
The issue with having superdelegates support the candidate who won the local popular vote is that it gives disproportionate advantage to the winner of the population-dense states... Wasn't there a reason the Dems assign delegates proportionately, rather than the Republican-style winner-take-all delegate allotment?
Either the "super-delegates" ratify the popular will or a "race-man" like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton will no doubt ask why have Blacks been carrying Democrat water for sixty years only to be thrown out of the truck with predictable results.
While you are at it, ask HRC why she and WJC threw Marian Wright Edelman, Lani Guinier and Joycelyn Elders over the side without a word of comfort or support? And she presents herself as the feminist advocate and 'Wild-Bill' as 'America's First Black President'.
Balderdash!
Why all the obsessive race baiting?
I wonder if Sirota would feel the same way if Clinton lead the pledged delegate count and Obama lead with superdelegates? Me thinks not. However, I'm certain Sirota would continue to pimp out his sydicated column using other bogus issues, like how Obama supporters should stay home this November to show the establishment that it's not ok to disenfranchise voters and elect a woman like HRC (which, no doubt, he covers extensively in his upcoming book).
Agreed.
Notice the example he uses is a Clinton endorser who's district voted the other way, while the first paragraph describes some sort of secret behind-the-scenes conspiracy to ahdn the election to Clinton.
He could just as easily have chosen John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Deval Patrick, all superdelegates from MA, a state that went overwhelmingly for Clinton. But no, its the Clinton supporter who deserves to be singled out and chastised.
This is happening on both sides.
It boils down to fair vs. foul. If they vote with their common sense and the will of the dem. voters, there will not be a problem. If they go with politics, as usual, dems. will stay home and repubs. will win. It is as simple as that.
The candidates themselves could pledge to abide by the popular vote and pledged delegate count. Whoever had less would voluntarily withdraw. This take it all out of the hands of the superdelegates and no rule changes or power politics need be played.
Exactly why do we have Superdelegates? Can anyone provide a rational explanation? How in the f*ck does this twisted, prone-to-corruption scam conform to our basic concepts of representative democracy? It doesn't. It is pure political trickery, designed to subvert the will of voters.
End the bullsh*t Superdelegate scam now!
The Democratic Party has superdelegates for the same reason that the United States has an Electoral College.
Because pressure built after 1972 for the Democratic party establishment to reign in the party activists. Jimmy Carter's loss in 1980 after a bruising primary battle with Ted Kennedy sealed the deal. The party elders didn't want 3 electoral disasters in 4 elections.
So they nominated Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis in the next two races and made it 5 thumpings out of 6. And now their fix, which seems like it's never worked the way it was supposed to, is in danger of causing the most severe split in the party since 1968.
If superdelegates catapult the #2 candidate over the candidate who leads in delegates after the voting's done--whether that nominee is named Clinton or Obama--there will be Trouble in the Mile High City!
i think the super delegates will not go with the will of the people or the wishes of their loyal political colleagues. they will go with the money! how much money can you turn an ambassadorship into, or a cabinet position. ask rumsfeld, or bill cohen. sell your superdelegate vote to the highest bidder, work just a small amount, write a book and watch the cash register ring. what does it take to influence a superdelegate? i don't know, how much you got?
The system as a whole really doesn't have a little "d" in it, either. This debate is comparing apples and oranges, starting with how each state even selects its delegates. Don't let "proportionality" fool you. Nothing in this has been uniform.
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As a lifelong democrat I am appalled that the ploy launched by the MSM has worked. After starting this campaign ridiculously early, the Media set about winnowing the list to suit their needs.
Media destroyed Kucinich, media neglect marginalized Edwards, and the Medias oft repeated “top tier, lower tier” categories eliminated the remainder.
We are left with candidates who support and would expand NAFTA, candidates who would normalize illegal immigrant workers and would import skilled immigrant workers. Candidates who believe world trade, free trade, brings all things good to America.
This is not a progressive agenda. The only addition Clinton and Obama bring is a push for National Health Care; Clinton’s plan seems better.
What is truly ironic is that Huckabee has a better position on these issues than our candidates.
I don’t understand the latent furor over whether super delegates must choose between Republican lite or Republican lite. The damage has been done.
You made great points in the clip, David.
Local politicians like Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) will find their political careers cut short . . . fast, if they engage in backroom politics that pay lip service to the electorate. They engage in that at their peril.
Has there ever been a worse idea in Politics than the invention of the "superdelegate"? Oh... yeah... voting for George W. Bush.... Oh, my...
I think our entire election process bears scrutiny. I'd start with the public financing of elections so corporations and special interests can't buy elections and our elected officials are actually working for us rather than running around drumming up money for their re-election. We have a crazy system- it just invites tampering.
At the constitutional conventions we might as well address the electoral college, making all ballots for Federal elections the same and consider election day on a weekend.
Florida and Michigan will have to vote again any results for their previous primary will have to be thown out.
We "anoint" a candidate and "appoint" a president. Time for a new constitutional convention. The entire system needs a tune up. For example, why does Wyoming have two Senators? Answer, so that Cheney can be the acting president without being able to be elected.
What we have increasingly is a "sugar-coated" fascism where multinational corporations control the elections at the federal level. State politics are big money items, too.
The Bill of Rights is being eroded. The Fourth Amendment is almost gone. That impacts your right to peaceably assemble and to express your political viewpoints and your right to assemble without Big Brother. How about talking to the press?
If your telephone is being tapped you can't talk to your lawyer so there goes the Sixth Amendment.
If you don't have due process and equal protection there goes the Fourteenth Amendment.
Retroactive immunity for the telecoms who are listening in on your representative's telephone conversations (on behalf of the GOP).
Voting is controlled by Diebold and other such companies whose software is "proprieta
The United States is so far down the road to fascism that none of us can believe our government. Therefore, NATO is falling apart due to the "credibility gap."
No Democratic candidate is left who has any intention of turning back the Bush power grab. The seeds of our destruction may not be financial so much as a lack of credibility in the world among our allies leading to a loss of legitimacy. This is turn will cause a loss of both soft and hard power.
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