The True Purpose of Superdelegates or How the DNC Lies to Convince You They Know Best

This whole election cycle has convinced me that the corruption (that I always knew was there) truly runs deep. The system is rotten to the core. So I decided to look up a brief history of superdelegates.

The history is a bit involved but the basic premise is that the Democratic Party, in the wake of presidential campaign losses beginning in 1968, wanted a system that would insure that the best candidate was put forward.

Really.

Okay, stop laughing. Lol

Anyway, in 1968 Hubert Humphrey was nominated despite not running in any of the primaries. This was due to party insiders. After he lost, a commission was put together to make the choice

“less subject to control by party leaders and more responsive to the votes cast in primary elections.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdelegate#Origins

This change was to try giving more power to the voters. After Carter lost in 1980, they then decided that the voters had too much power so they needed to boost the influence of the party insiders. And hence the superdelegate was born.

Well this still didn’t do the trick. The Democratic candidate lost in 1984 and 1988. The fact that both Mondale and Dukakis were lackluster candidates didn’t help, but in 1984 Mondale used superdelegates to push him over the top. Gary Hart’s foibles certainly helped in that regard.

An important point to remember is that the influence of superdelegates is moot when the candidate can win enough elected delegates but when that doesn’t happen and the superdelegates become involved, they invariably choose poorly. Between bad candidates and insider influence, the only chance a Democratic candidate ever seems to have is when it is a charismatic person, like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.

There is something about having “star quality” that seems to really move the American public. It should come as no surprise in this election cycle that given the choice of Trump or Hillary, many will gravitate to Trump. They have seen him on their TV and for many that is all they need. Add in the fact that he appeals to large sections of the populace that believe in going back to the good old days (when white was right) and that Hillary is well and truly disliked, untrusted, even hated and you have a recipe for another Democratic loss.

The 2016 primary season resulted in a contested convention and if the Democratic establishment was serious about winning the presidency, the superdelegates should have gone with Bernie but then again, they couldn’t. He is not the right type of insider (all that socialists talk, don’tcha know). He has experience but for whatever reason, the ones crying out “it’s her turn” won out over common sense. So Clinton will lose and they will blame it on everything but themselves because they know best.

Is there a solution to this? I don’t know. If there ever was going to be a solution, one of the first things that needed to be done was to revamp and clean up our system of voting. America should practice what it preaches to the rest of the world about exit polls. Instead TPTB insist on a do what I say, not as I do approach because it makes it easier for them to cheat. Yeah, I know. Tin-Foil Hat (TFH)

Of course when the elections were finagled with in 2000 and 2004, the cry, especially at TOP, was to ignore the evidence of election fraud. We were told that we just didn’t have good enough candidates or there were third party spoilers. The proof of that is the election of Barack Obama. So, the system works according to them.

We couldn’t foresee that the refusal to fix the problems in our elections would lead to the major election fraud in the Democratic primaries of 2016. It’s almost as if the Democratic leadership knew all along about how this stuff works and decided against a real remedy so that they could cheat their favored candidate into the nomination. Oops, there goes that TFH again.

I will end with this final thought.

When Obama was running in 2004, there was a cry for the end of dynasties. We had Bush, then Clinton and then Bush. This benefited Obama because many people wanted ‘change’ and didn’t want another Clinton. This got me thinking about how to avoid dynasties.

People have spoken of having a constitutional convention to impose term limits for Congress. I like the idea but I believe we also need to have an amendment to the Constitution in regards to members of a Presidents family being able to run for President at a later date.

This would have two parts. The first would be that the spouse of a former President is ineligible to become President themselves unless the former President is dead. This would make it far harder to have a presidential dynasty. It also prevents a third and fourth term of a former President by proxy.

The second part would state that a child of a former President could not run for President until a set time period had passed. I believe the minimum should be 20 years. So this would mean that Chelsea could not run for President herself (if she was so inclined) until 2020.

Had this amendment been in place in 2000, GW Bush, the worst presidency in modern history, would never have happened and Hillary could not run because Bill is still alive.

I can dream, can't I?

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The last diary (essay) I wrote was years ago on TOP. I have refrained from writing for many reasons, but I just had to get this out. Also, I find it interesting that I capitalized 'Hillary' in the tags but no matter how many times I saved, it would revert to 'hillary'. Hmm.

Anyway,

Hope the rant makes some kind of sense. Smile

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

We need to eliminate superdelegates. No, we need to eliminate the Democratic party.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

they are beyond hope of reform? Say it ain't so! Wink

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

Shahryar's picture

there's something slimy about this Clinton business. Oh how we in "the West" chuckled and tut-tutted when Putin's puppet, Medvedev, ran for and won the Russian presidency. Yet here we are. Bill and $hill have talked about how they're a 2-fer. That still doesn't give them the right to more than 2 terms.

Funny how this never comes up, especially in her press conferences. Oh...oh yeah...

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The only problem with term limits beyond that of the Presidency is that if voters finally find a representative who actually works for, rather than against, them, they can only vote him/her in twice or whatever and take their chances every time thereafter, so this limits voter choice whereas TPTB can bribe endlessly with the money their lackeys let/help them suck out of the people - and then there's virtually nobody who knows the ropes with newcomers typically confused as hell - and would that increase the numbers of ex-public-servants coming back as lobbyists against the public interest?

Why not work toward addressing the root causes of the issues toward getting big money and self-interests the heck out of politics and policy instead? Because the whole mess is so corrupted already that nobody knows what to do? Because under the Trojan Horse 'trade deals' the current and selected next Presidents are pushing/have pushed, elected reps might very soon become a thing of the past and in any event would be essentially imposing corporate 'law' and rendered superfluous when merely enforcement is required?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

My main point was more for changing the requirements for the president. I mentioned the term limits for Congress because I have been seeing that pop up frequently on Facebook (which I only use to play FarmVille - yes, I have no life). Smile

As to term limits for Congress, I would actually prefer what I would call a 'no confidence' limit. After 2 terms, if they cannot win their seat by a certain amount, say more than 10% over the challenger, then that would be their last term. They also could run again after the next election. So if they have been in office for 3 terms and didn't win their bid for a fourth term by the 'no confidence' limit, they would not be allowed to run for a consecutive 5th term. They could however run again after that break.

I think if we can do both, get the money out and adjust the length of time they serve, it would make them more likely to represent the people.

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

in controlled circumstances. On her plane. Oh, that doesn't count does it? Wink

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

Shockwave's picture

At best they should get involved in the case of a contested convention. It made me sick when they came out for Clinton at the beginning of the primaries.

The Democratic party is far from democratic.

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The political revolution continues

vote before the convention. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that they always choose badly. They will always support the insider party choice in a contested convention even if that person is the one who can't win.

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

But I would vote as you would force me to vote. To shove it down my throat, however, is just another way to rig the election. I would repeal the Roosevelt amendment also. Enough of "Daddy knows better than the public about how they should vote." Why not just eliminate elections?

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Repealing the Roosevelt amendment is something I could get behind provided a different type of limiter was put in it's place. I mentioned a 'no confidence' limit in another response. I think that could work here, where if they can't win by a certain margin, they can't run for another consecutive term.

Also, wouldn't eliminating elections limit choice as well? Just wondering.

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

BTW, I've advocated for decades for "None of the above" as a mandatory choice and if "None of the above" wins then a new election is to be held in 60 days with new candidates, rinse repeat until someone beats "none of the above".

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

This is a busy time at work for me.

I like your idea! Smile

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

thanatokephaloides's picture

I have one small problem with your proposal.

If you think we've got problems with a criminal as a Presidential Candidate now, just wait until a President's spouse can't run until her ex-President spouse is dead. We will have murderers (of family members) running as candidates then.

We've got trouble enough with the generic war-criminal kind of murderers running for the office now.

/snark

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

how do we know they murdered their spouse? Is there no trust any more?

Biggrin

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

If they knew a tenth as much as they believe they do, why can't they convince the voters to back Hillary in numbers that would bury Trump so deeply he'd never emerge?

They can't, because they refuse to face facts. Enough of us voters are on to them, and we aren't about to play LOTE anymore. They have no Plan B.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

before, the lesser of two evils is still evil.

I have never played that game. I was always an independent, which threw my mother for a loop years ago when I first voted. Oddly enough, she was a Democrat but always voted her conscience so she shouldn't have been surprised that I chose the path of not being aligned with a party.

This year, it's Jill, never Hill!

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

Hawkfish's picture

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

they know what the target is anymore.

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

A constitutional amendment? You are definitely dreaming. That said, the horrible thought of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton made Hillary unacceptable in 2008 and now she still is. Especially because Bill would be right there in the White House too.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Yes 3

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos