The rule-making body of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday defeated an amendment brought by Bernie Sanders delegates to abolish superdelegates — the unelected party elites who make up 15 percent of all delegates and are allowed to cast a vote for the presidential candidate of their choice, unbound by the popular vote. But the rules committee did approve a compromise measure that binds some superdelegates to the results of their state primaries.
The debate over the first amendment, which failed 108 to 58, pit insurgent Sanders backers against the party establishment.
Advocates of the amendment argued that it would make the presidential selection process more democratic, ensuring that all presidential delegates are elected by popular vote. Opponents of the amendment argued that the superdelegate system ensured a greater diversity of voices and that there should be more deliberation before it is changed.
“It’s been stated that if this resolution were adopted that it would pit elected officials or politicians against community activists who would be vying to become delegates to the convention,” said former Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia, an amendment backer. “As a politician and as a community activist in my community, all I can say is this is a silly argument to make!”
Garcia was referring to an argument first raised in a Congressional Black Caucus letter sent in June where the lawmakers argued that they preferred the superdelegate system because it allowed them to evade “the burdensome necessity of competing against constituents for the honor of representing the state during the nominating process.”
“I am fully aware of those who have concerns with the superdelegate process. But I’m also aware of the issues of diversity and the balance that superdelegates have given,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, defending the current system as allowing greater diversity. “I want no one left along the highway of despair because their voice was not heard.”
“On the issue of inclusion, on the issue of racial justice, this is not justice,” Lilian Sharpley, an African-American Ohio Democrat who backed the amendment, argued. “We need to trust the people to vote.”
Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, a superdelegate speaking on behalf of the Clinton campaign, offered procedural arguments saying that the issue itself was not germane to the committee.
“Everyone agrees that this is a complicated issue; it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. But it’s not an issue that this committee can definitely address today,” he said. He also went on to cite a Vietnam veteran he personally knew who was a superdelegate, saying that the system “has provided opportunities for participation.”
After the defeat of the first amendment, the Sanders and Clinton camps met and came up with draft language for a “unity commission” to meet shortly after the general election to draw up changes to the party’s nominating process.
As part of the language of that proposal, which passed the committee 158 to 6, the commission will be charged to “make specific recommendations providing that members of Congress, governors and distinguished party leaders … remain unpledged and free to support their nominee of choice, but that remaining unpledged delegates be required to cast their vote at the convention for candidates in proportion to the vote received for each candidate in their state.”
The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel reports that this would effectively bind two-thirds of superdelegates to voting as their states vote in the presidential nominating process.
This is why everyone should leave the Democratic party!!! I did years ago when Bill Clinton was President. I left because he signed bills into law that made lawyers and accountants un-accountable for company indiscretions!!!!! The other bill he signed allowed our government to get into our finances!!!! I’m gladly an Independent now!!!!
“Opportunities for Wall Street participation” and “a diversity of plutocratic opinions” is what the superdelegate system is all about. Of course the corporate establishment Democrats want to preserve it, even if this costs them the presidency this year.
Consider how the DNC (especially Debbie Wasserman Schultz) and the superdelegates rigged the 2016 Democratic primary:
1) Obama and Clinton were about equally matched in superdelegate support halfway through the 2008 Democratic primary. (Almost all the superdelegates started off pledged to Clinton in 2016)
2) Obama and Clinton had a total of twenty-five DNC-organized debates in the 2008 primary. (Clinton and Sanders had nine)
Now, why did this really happen? Well, Clinton and Obama started out with about equal amounts of Wall Street support; but in 2016 Clinton was Wall Street’s only candidate; Sanders took the populist line. Thus, the DNC and the superdelegates got behind Clinton. Compare this to 2008:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-obama_thuaug16-story.html
In contrast, Buffett (and many other Wall Street leaders) has only endorsed Hillary Clinton this season, and what does he have to say about Bernie Sanders? (via Politico)
Sure, no worries about fossil-fueled global warming, no worries about student loan debt, Wall Street profits are stable and could expand, so everything’s already great! Quit whining, America – austerity builds character!
Obama has of course done everything Buffett ever wanted, from not acting on climate change and fossil fuels in his first two years (when Democrats controlled the Congress), allowing Berkshire Hathaway to expand its private electricity monopoly (much of it based on coal and nuclear), not cracking down on Buffet-owned BNSF hauling coal and oil all over the country, promoting TPP and other free trade deals that benefit Wall Street while impoverishing the middle class – and Clinton will do the same, which is why Buffett and other billionaires are backing her.
The Democratic Party has turned around 180 degrees since the days of FDR, who enraged Wall Street with his pro-middle class policies (“class traitor”, they called him) – now they’re the party of entrenched plutocratic interests, overlaid with a shallow fake narrative of “social liberalism”.
P.S. I notice Zaid Jilani showed up on Democracy Now! and managed to get in a word about how the Clinton campaign blamed the DNC email leak on Russia, which is hilarious, but I also noticed that Amy Goodman seems to have no more interest in discussing the Clinton foreign policy agenda than does NPR or CBS News. Bit of a blind spot there. . . not going to be a convention issue, is it?
Posted 7/19/16 through today:
Blah blah. NOTHING today about Jill or Green in Alternet, Common Dreams, Truthdig, The Intercept, Think Progress, Mother Jones. and The Nation. How many days in a row is this? This is the progressive media. This is one more reason that the fabric of our society is scorched and burning. This is why the media is passe.
A lot of what you listed is neoliberal corporate media funded via “philanthropic foundations” as a cut-out. In many ways this is a “Dark Money” world (see Jane Mayer’s book for the exposé of how the conservative ‘philanthropic world’ works, the one run by Scaife, the Koch Brothers, etc.).
The neoliberal philanthropic world has tried to marry ‘social liberalism’ to a pro-Wall Street agenda that relies on boosting social issues (racial inequality, gay rights, women’s rights, gun violence) whose promotion doesn’t impact Wall Street profits or American Empire agendas in the post-Cold War era.
This is a bit over-generalized, but let’s take a specific example: fossil-fueled global warming. ThinkProgress just ran this article by climate activist Joe Romm boosting the DNC platform:
“Democratic Platform Calls For WWII-Scale Mobilization To Solve Climate Crisis, Jul 22 2016″
Sounds good, right? It’s actually total bullshit. Non-partisan web sites focused strictly on issues, not politics, have a somewhat different take on what the Democratic platform is all about on climate and energy:
http://cleantechnica.com/2016/06/29/hillarys-delegates-want-100-clean-energy-veto-solutions-get-us/
Now the reason behind this, as with so many other issues, is that a rapid transition to renewables inevitably upsets Wall Street profit models; many investors are looking to fossil fuels to feed them dividends for the next 20 years, and these are the people who fund the “philanthropic foundations” that so much of the “liberal non-profit press” relies on for financial survival. So you cannot rely on so-called ‘progressive non-profit media’ for honest coverage of issues that negatively impact Wall Street profit margins.
To get back to your point, when the Green Party presents a platform based on a FDR-style “Green New Deal” aimed at fundamental shifts (for example, moving Department of Energy funds from ‘clean coal’ and nuclear to solar and wind, eliminating all fossil fuel subsidies, etc.) in energy production in the United States to renewables, while also calling for large cuts in the foreign military budget to pay for domestic infrastructure, public health care, public education and job creation . . . well, the foreign military budget is key to Wall Street earnings via defense contractors, control of Mideast oil, etc. So are domestic fossil fuel sales. Renewables just are not as profitable for them.
Now the Green Party platform is the only one that makes fiscal sense; any expansion of domestic programs requires cuts to the foreign military budget (NATO, etc.) – but since it hurts Wall Street profits while boosting the middle class, it is anathema to Wall Street; hence the private foundations frown on it; hence the “liberal non-profit press” tends to keep silent about it.
There is no “progressive media” really, that means nothing. There are just media organizations trying to pay their writers by collecting funds from various sources. Dependence on foundations and advertisers is the norm, and of course those foundations and advertisers have agendas of their own, which often deviate from those of the media’s “content creators.”
This is why it’s always a mistake to be loyal to a given media source; you really have to look around at different sources and think for yourself, if you don’t want to end up as another spoon-fed media zombie (aka the “loyal New York Times reader”).
If they have to vote the way the people vote, then what’s the point of them to begin with?
It’s like this weird system where the superdelegates are ideally irrelevant. So you may as well get rid of them altogether. It makes no practical sense and looks ridiculous.
Bernie has been corrupted after joining Crooked!
It seems he wanted free use of a plane in exchange for his support. Wow! What was wrong with Hillary taking bribes from Wall Strwet?
If it was really about diversity and not party power over the outcome, there would be a better way to address it than with superdelegates positions that are obviously handed out as rewards.
Allow the party to replace delegates only if diversity is not represented in state delegations. The delegates who would be replaced would be the most wealthy and powerful.
Of course this won’t happen in this new Clinton/Obama DNC.
Personally, I am done with this party: time for a big shake-up in this nation. Funny that the Republicans were smart enough to recognize their immense the demise if they ignored their voters, but the DNC is not…
Sorry Bernie…no unity with corruption…they are not trustworthy. How can we believe they will do anything differently when the first words from Hillary were how awesome her handmaiden is and her plum new job?
I will stick with my registration as a D just long enough to vote for Grayson in the FL down ticket primary, just because the party prefers someone else. That will be my last vote for a Democratic candidate.
Wonder if the Russian government will sue the Clinton campaign for slanderous statements accusing it of spying on its emails.
That’s about as close as we’re going to get to the Clinton foreign policy agenda of re-starting the Cold War with Russia and China in media coverage of the Democratic National Convention – not like media coverage of the Republican foreign policy agenda was any better.
NATO is a bloated Cold War dinosaur that should have been dissolved the same time the Warsaw Pact was – but media pundits just nod and smile when Clinton attacks Trump for talking about spending less money on NATO. Oh well, I guess it’s PR monkey season in the corporate media world, aka “an election year”.
How about some interviews with Victoria Nuland and Michele Flournoy, Clinton’s almost-assured picks for State and Defense? What do you think, Intercept writers? Some coverage of the Clinton foreign policy agenda during the Democratic National Convention seems, I don’t know, appropriate?
Go to Google News and enter this:
nuland flournoy clinton
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/22/how-hillary-turned-into-a-neocon/
No, linking Hillary to the neocons is just not acceptable, even if it is the truth. Doesn’t fit the liberal media narrative, doesn’t fit the conservative media narrative. People might suffer congnitive dissonance, causing them to start asking uncomfortable questions. . . and who knows where that might lead?
… and another blow back for Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton. But, but TRUMP!
We are witnessing live, how the DNC turns Sanders and his “insurgents” into spineless appendices.
ps:
Vote because of ideas as “well-informed voter”, not out of hate. If that is not possible – you have the right to refuse to vote! Like if you were arrested, you have the right to remain silent – and you should until your attorney arrives. If somebody plays good cop, bad cop – smaller vs bigger evil, you can choose not to fall for it.
Wow, they sure spewed a lot of bullshit in arguing to keep these crooked superdelegates in power. Who are they? A bunch of lobbyists and corporate assholes and other anything-but-representative scumbags.
And the black caucus letter, complaining about having to put up with democracy? WTF.
This is an excellent Truth-Out video that talks about the filthy superdelegate system, among other corrupt practices surrounding Clinton: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35790-hillary-clinton-s-business-of-corporate-shilling-and-war-making
or perhaps what we have here is a very large organised crime operation that no prosecutor would prosecute.
@TISocPups Waiting for wikileaks on you.
Too bad they weren’t scratched entirely. But I’d also like to see a gag order in effect, where the DNC would know who delegates have pledged for prior to the convention, but that isn’t made public, and delegates have to shut their mouths.
Hundreds of delegates pledging for a candidate months before any debates is ridiculous and likely to sway at least some voters to believe their candidate doesn’t have a chance against the “inevitable”. It also allows the media to conflate super delegates and normal delegates in their little graphics. A lot of people don’t understand the difference and think that count reflects what common voters want, instead of being made up largely of the establishment. Just one more finger on the scale, and it shouldn’t happen.
hellery has been blabbing how much support she inherited for some time now from the super dooper delegators.
Stinks, but do trump et al write the platform or just have to endorse it for now? I was under the perhaps misguided impression that the platform was written by party aparatchiks.
This weekend,
after the leaked disclosures about the DNC and
after Clinton chose another right winger as her running mate
(to reinforce her appeal to republican right wingers and piss on
the pseudo-left democrats),
Bernie Sanders,
who more than earned a chance to be her running mate in
his pseudo-left posturing,
has stated that he is “disappointed” with the DNC and their
not choosing someone like Elizabeth Warren
(who hasn’t actually done much to earn a leadership position)
instead of himself –
as if saying he is “disappointed” is anything more than
AGAIN holding his punches in the name of protecting a
corrupt corporate party.
Rotten.
Stinking.
Fakers all.
“Party Unity” will be the anthem of both
the democrats and the republicans and
Party Unity is what they both share in their united corruption.
They are united to rob the return of productivity of American workers and to rob the future earnings of students to employees. Normally, that is called organised crime and prosecuted as a conspiracy under the R.I.C.O. statutes but hey, someones made an exception.
Toilet debris is the DNC
Flush the problem; scrubb the rim, use freewill and vote for Jill over Hill-
Knot that hard for ALL to understand why n o w-
:?)
Just did a little stroll around the internet and what did I find?
The mainstream media is actually covering the Green Party! Actually printing Jill Stein’s name, putting her picture in the stories. In July! This has never happened before.
In 2012 she got arrested at the debates, and the media wouldn’t even cover it! pretty much ending the relevance of the old showbiz phrase “you couldn’t get arrested.” Jill Stein could get arrested, but she couldn’t get arrested, if you get my drift.
It is entirely because Sanders challenged the Democratic Party but he doesn’t get all the credit: they were genuinely freaked out, and pulled all kinds of obvious shenanigans and made themselves look even more corrupt than they already did to millions more people who had never noticed before.
They were so freaked out that they did something I have never ever seen in big time politics before: they spent most of the time attacking the supporters! The very same supporters they will need later!!! Absolutely astonishing, and a testament to just how out-of-touch they are with reality of any kind.
Amazingly, their one hope is Donald Trump — that he is scary enough, that is. And here he is, just about as scary as advertised. And on the eve of their convention it may not be enough. Ha ha ha ha ha.
With my perspective on the slow surrender of the Left in America over decades and decades, I am nothing but happy about the discord in the Democratic Party: it is the best thing in ages. Thanks Bernie.
Time to turn the page now. Vote Jill Stein!
Re attacking Sanders supporters: There’s a good chance that the Democratic Party establishment would rather have a Republican president than a socialist like Sanders. Trump might not be what they had in mind, primarily because he strongly opposed their trade crap and because he doesn’t want to start wars everywhere, and secondarily because of his hateful rhetoric toward traditional Democratic constituencies. But if their priority was not to prevent Sanders from becoming president, they made a huge mistake by choosing Clinton — and make no mistake, she was anointed by the elites, not legitimately elected. Sanders would easily beat Trump, but Clinton may very well lose to him. And if these idiots couldn’t see that way ahead of time, they’re incompetent and need to be replaced.
in 1789, the 99% of people of France had their own party.
A user named moonbeam found that Boeing commercial and posted it to my comment thread on that Oil Lobby and Climate Change Deniers article. I think my mind heard free when they said unlimited, and you were right there’s really nothing truly economy upsetting, just future pie in the sky. That’s exactly why I wanted to see it again so bad. They’re actually talking 100 years.
Shout-out to moonbeam!
In light of the bias proven by the DNC, it seems that this compromise is too little, too late and still allows for the thumb on the scale. Indeed the emails reveal the fraudulent nature of the harpy’s victory, from the beginning, through the shenanigans in Iowa and Nevada to the provisional vote fraud in California.
Wow–sure alot of bitter Bernie bitches up in here!
Let me say it in the simplest way possible.
Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be the next
President of the United States of America.
If you’re not doing everything you can to get her elected
YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT.
The 1% Republican Circus is over, let’s welcome the 1% Democrat Circus. This summer has been a lot of fun so far, lot of circus in town. Plutocracy works just fine.
So now “diversity” is defined as including representatives of the rich and powerful? What utter BS.
Everyone arguing against this amendment is a LIAR. The reason for the super delegates is to prevent candidates who are outside of the establishment, like George McGovern or Bernie Sanders, from getting nominated. This diversity crap is just that and those liars should have been called out on that totally meritless claim.
The rich and powerful do deserve equal representation. But that’s the issue, Super delegates gives them an unfair advantage.
I didn’t say the rich and powerful should not be “equally” represented. But equal representation for the rich and powerful would be between 1% and 0.1%, depending on how you define “rich and powerful.” The super delegate system gives them about 15% representation.
I guess I missed your definition of “Utter BS”.
You did say diversity including the Rich and Powerful was Utter BS, did you not?
In any case, thanks for clarifying. I suspected as much.
The common understanding of “diversity” is multiple colors, ethnicities, religions, etc. What it does NOT mean is maintaining control by the rich and powerful, which is the ONLY purpose of the super delegates. The people who claimed it’s about diversity are lying big time, and tat’s why I called BS..
Your comment reminds me even our constitution contradicts itself. It promotes democracy, yet guarantees inequality.
To protect incumbents from the “grassroots”
Debbie Wasserman Schulz stated with shocking candor why they love superdelegates:
Remember folks: The Democratic Party is the champion of the regular man and woman.
Great post!. Thanks.
I read that in 1968, Humphrey was the nominee, not having won any primaries. Now, that’s, your party hard at work preventing democracy.
Yes. RFK was assassinated and Humphrey entered the race too late to win primaries. So he lobbied the delegates.
That she actually said that, without a trace of irony or self-awareness, perfectly sums up the whole escapade. Right up there with Clueless Clinton picking Timmy “The Banker’s Friend” Kaine as her VP.
Oh no she di’nt.
oh yes she did
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/12/we-need-more-questions-like-this-one-from-jake-tapper-to-debbie-wasserman-schultz-video/
i had to see it to feel it.
No one is going to lose bets underestimating your gullibility.
Please start covering the Jill Stein campaign because that is where we are going now.
We were with Bernie because it looked like he might have a better chance, now we will return to Jill with greater numbers.
Many of the young people who entered this race with Bernie didn’t know about Jill Stein, now they know.
Do we want peace, justice, and climate protection?
Jill is our only hope now.
Please cover the Jill story.
The Bernie supporters are having that wake up moment that the establishment has been stealing elections, stealing jobs (through NAFTA and TPP), they understand that Wall-Steet pays off Politicians (for personal gain), ect….
I see this and feel there is some hope. At least they are trying to learn and understand the political system.
The Bernie supporters biggest problem is they do not understand “FREEDOM”. His supporters believe in theft. Stealing through taxation is theft. When you steal the fruits of another man’s labor, that is theft. It doesn’t matter if it is to help better others lives. Let’s say (hypothetically) I rob a bank at gun point, to help feed my starving mother. Is this not a crime? If that is theft, please tell me why using armed government thugs to do this, is legal? Why do you “Un-FREEDOM” loving people try to enslave others because you want free stuff?
Minimum wage needs to be abolished, along with business rules and regulations. As long as your business isn’t hurting someone or someone’s else’s property (directly) , then you shouldn’t have to pay shit. What will this do might you ask?….open up the barriers of entry on small businesses, the backbone of America.
Most Bernie supporters don’t know how to operate and run a business that is truly Capitalistic. No one does, we haven’t had true Free-Market Capitalism since early 20th century, before the Federal Reserve of 1913.
Also, huge companies like (GE) pay no taxes because they have millions to spend on attorneys to dodge taxes. Small business can’t afford to pay attorneys just so government won’t steal as much from them. Wonder why the average man can’t start a business at home or in his neighborhood. Because of regulators, taxes, and licenses.
Say your 16 and want to make some money during the summer cutting your neighbors yard, so you print up some flyers, put them in mailboxes. The next thing you know you get visited by State agents and police and tell you that you have to have a business license to do that. This is the very exact reason that Porn is legal and Prostitution is not. The Porn movie is paying taxes through a business (so the government gets their cut). Prostitutes can’t get a license (much like drug dealers) so they sale pleasures for cash, which the government can’t tax. Only reason prostitution isn’t legal is because government can’t be that PIMP.
Wake up Liberals!!!!!!
Taxation is theft and the gig government that is screwing you will always screw you, the more power you give them. Why not man up and make something out of yourselves without having to steal from others.
Whatever, Mr. Libertarian. Is the tax system rigged and unfair? Sure. But taxes are the price we pay for civilization, like it or not. Easy does it with the all-caps and the exclamation points too.
You agree that the tax system is rigged and unfair, but you want more Government taxes, control, and regulations? And your philosophy is…..”this is just the price we pay for civilization”? What is civilized about stealing my money to give it to Planned Parenthood to kill over 50% of the unborn black population? What is civilized about stealing my money to fund ISIS? What is civilized about all the wars carried out by Government?
Have you ever heard of Operation Northwoods, Executive Order 11110, who owns the Federal Reserve, Tuskegee experiments, Margaret Sanger, George Soros, and/ or the definition of theft?
Definition of government- A group of criminals gangs that have a monopoly on force in a geographical territory.
And honestly, it is clear that you don’t know what THEFT is.
When you younger and learned not to hit, kill, or steal……..did they say “unless you work for the government”.
Why don’t you own a business yourself and create 50 +jobs?
I have 2 businesses where I want to employee more people but can’t afford it because of ObamaCare and Government regulations. And you liberals want the Government to steal money from my profitable business, just to give it to unproductive Liberals majoring in basket weaving? Why are school tuitions high when we have so much technology?
For example, when flat screen TV’s came out they cost around $2-5,000 each. Now you can get a nice one for $500. Why is this?
Why has school tuition continued to rise when technology is helping lower the cost in every other market?
This is because Government is involved and guarantee the loans. The schools all know that since the loans are backed by the taxpayer that they can charge whatever. The student doesn’t care the cost if he won’t have to ever pay it back.
Anything else you have trouble understanding? And the funny thing with you Liberals is you have no arguing points, just complain about something as silly as CAPS.
Grow the f*ck up little boys. No safe spaces here.
Oh, c’mon now. I support Stein, and will vote for her, but she has absolutely no chance of winning.
What we really need is a SuperDuper Delegate.
Someone who could fund the entire election, from candidate selection to voter suppression.
“Opponents of the amendment argued that the superdelegate system ensured a greater diversity of voices and that there should be more deliberation before it is changed.” More deliberation, yes that is what is needed. Just as on the issues of climate change or health effects of smoking, we need to be absolutely certain and have a perfect solution before proceeding. Unfortunately, the agreement of all parties that a perfect solution has been found will never occur, so we will just have to soldier on as we have. In this case, keeping the superdelegate system devised to prevent some irresponsible person derail the party over some trivial issue like our wars, or corporate person-ship or monopolistic trade policies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdelegate#Origins
Pledged delegates are actually more diverse than the SuperDelegates.
Sorry for double post.
The system is thoroughly corrupt.
First, “they” have the electoral college to override the will
of the people.
Secondly, even “pledged” delegates can and have changed
who they vote for after the “convention” begins.
Lastly, the “superdelegates” are a reflection of how the
church of capitalism known as the “USA” has reached such
a level of arrogant imperialism that it created another
cynical safety valve for its most predatory clergy show
how little is the regard they have for their servants.
It’s like compromising with Republicans back in the day, yet it’s the Democratic Establishment! Oh, ok, that’s where they all went. The Republicans that is.
Greenwald tweeted this morning about the likelihood neocons will all be behind Hillary by November, and I believe he was referring to Trump thinking Putin isn’t such a bad guy. There’s no doubt the establishment hawks on both sides of the illusory isle have long wanted their Cold War back, and much of the old-guard media’s also still behind that just like Hillary, delusionally seeing the Reagan years as some sort of “glory days.”
Sooooo……we have “votes” and “super-votes”…
“Votes” that are “important”, and “votes” that are “super-important”!
Great ideas for “democracy”!
Exactly. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, really. Elitism in a flavor Ds like better than Rs is still elitism.
“Greater diversity of voices”
The Super delegate system is an unbalancing mechanism in the same manner as the electoral college. Each normal delegate’s vote is worth X amount of votes from their respective state by population.
A Super delegate’s vote is equal to any other vote and thus worth X from ANY state. In addition, a Super delegate ONLY represents themselves or their lobby that controls them. Lastly, they DON’T represent the population of ANY state.
They are a state unto themselves and diminish the value of the popular vote by virtue of their value.
They also ensure that the special interests tied to the Super delegate will continue to maintain control over the selection of presidential candidates.
Anyone wishing to be the DNC nominee must have at least a 15 point overall advantage in the primaries.
I don’t know the history, but i’ll take a wild guess and presume no candidate in history has overcome that sort of mathematical hurdle.
And that what the system is, a mathematical hurdle designed to prevent or subvert the popular vote by the Political Elites.
Prologue: Those greater diversity of voices you hear from the Super delegate are the voices of Special Interests.
It’s my understanding that Pledged delegates are actually more diverse than the SuperDelegates.
A change I’d like would be the elimination of business lobbyists as any sort of delegate.
You can bet the lobbyists and those concerned with doing what “the money” says are very happy with this outcome.
At the national level the Democratic party is just as corrupt (and invested in that corruption) as the Republican party.
The common belief that the democrats and/or republicans
are somehow different at different levels within their machinery
is one of the chief delusions which is used to maintain both
corporate owned predatory agencies.
This notion is a display of willful ignorance which allows
people who identify as one or the other to make excuses for
their own hypocrisy.
If the “national level” is not representative of the party as a whole,
then that would mean the local/regional “level” is composed of
people who are unable and/or unwilling to repudiate corruption,
just like the “national level” to which they cling.
The most you can expect from people who cling to such a
delusional and dysfunctional scheme is a continuing descent
into escalating abusiveness toward others in order to
camouflage their own self-abusiveness.
Supporting corruption on a “national level”
and pretending that you are not a part of the problem is
indicative of the worst kind of liars.
The poison travels throughout the machinery and the only
way to eliminate the toxicity is to remove yourself from
inside the foul machine.
What the democrat/republican machine depends upon is
exactly why it must be repudiated –
delusions of grandeur, fearful insecurity, and a lack of integrity.
B-U-T…. there is a class action law suit against the DNC…….they blocked Bernie –
not exactly impartial as required by their own by-laws……
Is the fat lady warming up backstage??
I hope the DNC knows what it is doing, and is not just yielding to popular pressure. The smaller number of unbound super delegates appears to provide an opening for the voters to choose the nominee. This needs to be counterbalanced by a new rule that elected delegates are no longer bound to follow the votes received by the candidates in their state.
I’m guessing the DNC professional staff will find a proper emoji for this sort of sentiment.
*… emojis are the answer to all ambiguous sarcasm./
This is the closest I could find.
Yes. I hope in the future the DNC will pick the candidate who very early in the process, gives the most money to the SuperDelegate’s pet causes, private foundations or whatever and then arranges things so the voters quickly agree with the DNC’ s pick so we can present a unified front.
From: Goldie Sacks
To: Hillary Clinton
Date: 2011-01-18 00:00
Subject: mainstreet 99%
Dearest Hillary!
We havent finished stealing the properties of Americans on mainstreet and bankrupting the country so we can pick up all public property for pennies on the dollar, or less! We are counting on you to help us finish the job. We also have another plan we need your help with – that public college thing of Bernie’s – it’s bad. Please offer a threshhold value which is high so that subsidies will bankrupt the govt and privitisation at the high price threshhold can reap us really big profits while enslaving the youth of America, We’re counting on you!!
disclaimer: this email look and feel is an artistic rendering. All similarities to actual persons are not intended to reflect actual events. Hillary Clinton sucks but then again, doesn’t, but maybe should.
This whole money, election scam, business scam, thing that has been run in the US, being called capitalist democracy, is a lie and a scam of the highest degree! We don’t elect these people: they buy their way into office using all of the leverage that the corrupt already in office can muster! The perfect definition of crony capitalism if there ever was one! It is filth and it is killing our nation!
To me the stated arguments for unbound superdelegates are patently bogus. The truth is that powerful conservadem Rep. Jim Clyburn is blocking reform because he’s pissed off that in 1972 Democratic voters chose McGovern, who he personally opposed.
More fakery.
So ashamed of the DNC. So ashamed! I want no part of what this party has morphed into since Bill Clinton; Wall Street darlings who talk the good talk, but walk an entirely opposite gait. Don’t listen to a single word they say, watch what they do. Big banks are bigger. Wall Street profits, historic. Quite the “punishment” after a $Trillion dollar bailout. The DNC is backed by Hedge Funds, Banks and Financial firms, far worse than being backed by actual business and industry. They use abortion and LGBT issues to divert attention to what’s actually doing.
So, with a “party” like the Democrats, who needs Republicans, Khillary, Trump, Nazis – or even enemies? What a shame that Bernie wouldn’t and couldn’t renounce militarism and that he’d even consider turning his votes over to KHillary… and didn’t, doesn’t have the stones to run as an independent. The Empire’s New Clothes: man they ain’t one bit pretty, despite all cost and the globe-warming flatulent carping of hangers on.
When Sheila Jackson Lee says’
“I want NO ONE” (emphasis added) ” left along the highway of despair
because their voice was not heard,”
what she is actually saying is that
those NO ONES who oppose the will of the DNC should be
left unheard along the “highway of despair.”
The hall of mirrors which is shared by the democrat and republican
arms of the corporate controlled empire keeps their eyes from
seeing the injustice which they support beyond the
gilded walls of their vanity.
This is a good start. Hopefully this unity commission will also try to encourage State parties to have more democratic primaries. We need to get rid caucuses and complicated primaries like Pennsylvania’s.
I don’t know much about caucuses, never lived in a state that has them. But they seem MORE democratic to me, because they provide for discussion of issues, not just voting, the latter of which is far too often based on ignorance of those issues. I’m not saying that discussion of issues necessarily remedies ignorance of them, but discussion is better than no discussion.
This is a good start. Hopefully this unity commission will also try to encourage State parties to have more democratic primaries. We need to get rid caucuses and complicated primaries like Pennsylvania’s.
lol-
What you may learn is that as these cunning conniving cadre of cons cook when contested are complicated recreations with a different color.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, represents the general BLM ethos that caused the downfall of Humpty Bernie. Poor chap.
Conditions? As in not to disrespect the platform? Like on page 33 where it implies, “Genocide of Palestinians may continue as we recognise that Jerusalem is the capital of israel“.
Then again, supporting Hitlary who sustained a coup operation in the Honduras against a democratically elected person whereafter Berta Caceras was murdered along with hundreds of others, and whereas Hitlary disobeyed world recognized policy about coups, did choose a hovod lawyer who is in bed with wallstreet and wants to deregulate wallstreet to finish the job of robbing America, must be strictly enforced.
All the thieving dems need is a new party logo, like, svastika?
ja