Three absurdly unfair sets of rules in the Democratic primary process are going to leave whoever is not the nominee feeling robbed. In turn, the unfairness of the process will lead some Dems to resist uniting behind the eventual nominee. If enough do so, Dems will have locked up a third term for George Bush’s terrible policies.
The first three wrongs are all history, and neither Obama nor Clinton are to blame for them. The rules were set up decades ago, and there’s nothing that can be done before this August’s DNC Convention in
Wrong number one: the caucus system
Don’t confuse this wrong with the retail politics of
Caucuses are wrong because they exclude military personnel, families with children, the elderly, the sick, people who work swing shifts (including nurses, corrections officers, construction workers, police officers and fast-food and other restaurant employees), and people who work second jobs.
What do they all have in common? The excluded groups all break strongly for Hillary Clinton. The reasons? Irrelevant for the discussion here. The point is that the caucus system is absurdly exclusionary.
Want numerical proof? Iowa Dems had their strongest caucus turnout ever this year. 218,000 Iowans made it to the Democratic caucuses that night, in a state with 2.982 million citizens, for a 7.3-percent showing.
Meanwhile,
Want more evidence?
Barack won by only 5.5 percent in the Evergreen primary, but because only the exclusionary caucus counted, he picked up 52 delegates to Hillary’s 26. The primary showed Barack is only marginally more popular (39,000 votes) than Hillary in
Wrong number two: delegate allocation
Hillary won
It gets worse. Take
So in a state with just more than 20,000 total Democratic votes, Barack netted 12 delegates over Hillary. In a consistent, democratic system, using the
In this case, an Idaho Democrat’s vote counted for 16 times more than a Pennsylvania Democrat’s vote. The system rewards blowout wins in small states and minimizes wins even of 10 or 12 percentage points in big states.
One person, one vote? Not in the Democrats’ delegate-allocation system.
Wrong number three: superdelegates
In 1982, Dems did something terribly undemocratic and un-Democratic: they took 20 percent of the power to select the party’s nominee out of the hands of the voters and put it into the hands of political insiders.
That was just wrong. As James Madison said at the beginning of our Republic, “If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?”
Superdelegates do exist, though, and they have the monumental challenge of figuring out how to vote. Do you go with the popular vote nationally? The current elected delegate leader? What if the elected delegates aren’t fairly allocated? Do you include
What about the standard Governor Richardson once championed: Go with the Democrats in your state? By electoral vote? Do you weigh the chances of beating McCain in key states? Do you discount numbers from states that have gone Democratic once in 40 years?
It’s a tough decision, but let’s not have our superdelegates pretend it’s based on some democratic principle when the democracy arguments cut both ways. Especially in this state.
No matter what, it’s a dilemma we should never face again. No more superdelegates after this year.
Wrong number four: holding grudges
The ultimate result of the three undemocratic rules is that if Obama gets the nomination, Hillary supporters will feel (rightly) that it was unfairly stolen from them. If Hillary gets the nomination, Obama supporters will feel (also rightly) that it was unfairly stolen from them.
The supporters of the loser will have to make a decision: hold a grudge that Clinton or Obama was wrongly kept off the ballot, or unite behind the other candidate.
The first three wrongs are beyond our control for 2008. The fourth wrong is something we voters do control, and half the party swallowing its pride is the only thing that will keep the Republicans from extending the Bush nightmare of never-ending war, social and economic injustice, deficits and politicization of our judiciary and Constitution.
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in