The Hypocrisy of Sanders's Superdelegate Push

[workinclasszero]

Asking Democratic party elites to support him after he garnered fewer votes, won fewer states, and earned fewer pledged delegates cuts against the core spirit of his candidacy.
CONOR FRIEDERSDORF 9:20 AM

As many Sanders supporters have bitterly noted, superdelegates provide an anti-democratic mechanism for the establishment to stop voters from making a choice they dislike.

If Sanders would have won more votes, more states, and more pledged delegates, but been denied the Democratic nomination by superdelegates, his supporters would have erupted in outrage, denouncing the nomination as stolen and illegitimate.

Those same supporters cannot in good faith support a Sanders push to secure the nomination with superdelegates now that he has won fewer votes, states, and pledged delegates. It would be farcical for a man who says he’s running to inspire a “political revolution” to ascend to power via party elites subverting the will of voters.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/bernie-sanders-superdelegates/486131/

[geek tragedy]

1. his superdelegate push is over, though technically it never existed

it was always nothing more than a talking point in order to keep people thinking his chances were greater than they were

[workinclasszero]

2. Did he say that he was going to stop trying to

flip supers?

[geek tragedy]

3. he never started.

there isn't a record of them contacting a single superdelegate trying to flip that superdelegate

[workinclasszero]

5. Well he sure has been selling a pack of lies about it for months then

The author of the article i linked to believes it obviously.

[geek tragedy]

6. he's a politician, it's what they do nt

[morningfog]

7. His comments on super delegates were contemporaneous with the primaries.

Not so much for after the primary votes end.

[pat_k]

9. The campaign has made it clear that they...

...are in the process of determining next steps. They've also made it clear that there will be NO decision for a least a few days -- and probably not until after the primary in DC.

In the days leading up to the California primary, aides to Sanders said that the senator was planning a rally in D.C. ahead of its primary-the last on the calendar-and would spend the next few days considering what his options are and preparing for the convention. link

As far as being hypocritical, that's bullshit. We may object to the existence of superdelegates, but the fact is they were put in place to overrule the pledged delegate outcome if they deem the candidate that comes out on top to be a loser. That's their frigging job. He's been working to demonstrate that he's a stronger candidate than Clinton. If he had won California, that case would have been strengthened.

Now he is deciding next steps. The only thing he has made clear is that he is still going to work to win support from DC voters to win as many pledged delegates as possible. There is nothing hypocritical or amiss about that.

And, if he does decide to keep lobbying superdelegates for support, there is nothing amiss about that either. Instead of "releasing" his delegates, he may decide he wants to go into the convention with as many delegates -- pledged or super -- as he can muster to demonstrate the depth of support for his New, New Deal.

Whichever way he goes -- releasing his delegates or not -- it will be his call. In the meantime, the pundits, party "leaders," and DUers, need to stop with all the premature reactions to a decision that has yet to be made.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. It was part of

[Agnosticsherbet]

8. He has also constantly bashed the party elites as corrupt.

Telling a superdelegate, your a corrupt SOB, so I want you to support me instead of Clinton, even though she has a majority of pledged delegates, votes, and superdelegates