I forgot about this interview with DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
I get it, Sanders didn’t like superdelegates going in. Following the defeat in NY, he needs a credible narrative to winning the nomination in order to justify continuing his campaign. (It being his right, millions wanting to vote for him, or wanting to win delegates to influence the non-celebratory parts of the convention, isn’t enough.) So now he talks about getting superdelegate support.
It’s messed up, yo. But let’s at least acknowledge that, to many in the party, the primary season, is a coronation, not an election.
“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grass-roots activists.”
Love the internet. Those rare moments when people say it like it is won’t go away. And, with any luck, this one will get auto-tuned and mashed-up for more fun and views.
[Curious where you guys are on Kasich and Sanders staying in. Do candidates have a responsibility to drop out?
Also, curious about the accepted wisdom that long, hard-fought primaries weaken a candidate. I hear 1968 and 1980 as the examples – but did Dems lose because the nominating process was long? Do we really know that was the problem?]
In at The End of The World 
I totally support the idea of super delegates. I’m sure the GOP wishes they had s similar arrangement at the moment.
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I’m surprised. You don’t think it’s undemocratic or spins an illusion about it? I’ve lived most of my life supporting people who get crushed at the Super Tuesday gate, another defense measure, so maybe it bugs me more. I read somewhere and can’t find it, that HRC had half of the super-delegates locked up before Sanders had even announced . . .
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The Sanders challenge was the best thing that could have happened to Hillary. If she were running unopposed, who would be paying attention to her? How dreadful would it be to watch her move from state to state, accepting victory. All the excitement and spontaneity of an Egyptian election
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Hearing some shock and outrage from those newly engaged this election season–which obviously doesn’t include Laska, putting it mildly–about the ways parties maintain various degrees of control over who gets nominated. Even the phrase I just used points to a difference between the party and the people registered with the party who vote in the party’s primaries and engage in its caucuses. This subject feels pretty raw right now. The whole history of attempts to democratize, to a point, party nomination processes, via state rules, etc., boggles the mind. Or my mind. Raises questions about voting, structure, control, and democracy itself. It seems loony to me to imagine Sanders people inveighing on superdelegates to dump a establishment frontrunner with a popular majority–figure they’re being disingenuous–but I can see situations where sheer majoritarian considerations might not be the best play for more democratic outcomes.
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These discoveries are weird: “I’m shocked! Shocked to find that parties design nominations to ensure certain outcomes” But I think it empowers citizens to know how parties work, even if they can’t change it. (Or shouldn’t – parties are perfectly entitled to build these systems, and outsiders get to mess their stuff up.) In my cockles, I really do think it’s a way for Sanders to avoid saying “I know I’m going to lose, but I’m running anyway.” Might be better to just come out and say “I’m running because I want more power in the party and this is how you do it. It also shows support for my issues, and it seems to be improving the front-runner’s position.”
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Yeah, the “shock, shock” has been a bit weird, but actually I think it shows the presence of new engagement in new quarters–psyched for revolution, imagining it will come through a groundswell, finding itself not only up against party rules it never heard of, which in themselves are worth interrogating, but even worse, finding itself not in an actual majority after all anyway. All those people in the park and yet we’re x points behind? Some then say the game must be fixed, others get interested in how it works. (And find that its fixed! Ha ha ha!) If I were more of a party guy, with a more optimistic view, I’d say that from this kind of thing you might get new insurgents looking to work within the party.
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