Super delegates, why they exist?

[SDANation]

Supporters, from one campaign in particular, now are complaining again about superdelegates, even though THE CANDIDATE himself agreed to the rules he wanted to change. I understand the idea is that the voters should decide.

But this is the reason they exist, “ The Democratic Party established the superdelegate system partly in response to the nomination of George McGovern in 1972 and Jimmy Carter in 1976. The nominations were unpopular among the party elite because McGovern took only one state and had only 37.5 percent of the popular vote, and Carter was seen as too inexperienced.

So the party created superdelegates in 1984 as a way to prevent the future nominations of candidates considered by its elite members to be unelectable. Superdelegates are designed to act as a check on ideologically extreme or inexperienced candidates. They also give power to people who have a vested interested in party policies: elected leaders. Because the primary and caucus voters do not have to be active members of the party, the superdelegate system has been called a safety valve.”

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-superdelegates-3367439

The superdelegates have poured and sacrificed years of their lives to supporting the party as a whole. That’s more than the American voter who generally votes every 4 years and if really involved every 2. But these people are deeply involved in fundraising, crafting policy and investing their entire lives into the advancement of the party. It’s hard for supporters of other candidates to understand the outrage, when these were the rules agreed upon to appease the only candidate that wanted rules changed. So now he doesn’t want to play by the rules he created. Got it.

[USALiberal]

1. Then skip the primaries and just have them pick! Nt

[SDANation]

3. Did you even read what I posted?

They have never had a role, ever, in deciding a nominee. They exist as a check on ideologically extreme candidates, that are viewed as unelectable.

[USALiberal]

4. "Viewed as unelectable" is what I do not trust! Nt

[MineralMan]

5. The answer is an obvious NO.

Clearly.

[AGeddy]

6. That's what happens in the Libertarian and Green Parties

The Democratic party has a hybrid. Members of the party represent about 1/7 of the delegates (unpledged delegates) and the voting public selects the other 6/7 of the delegates (pledged delegates).

[Cha]

16. Nobody is saying that.

[ehrnst]

18. Well....

On May 29, 2016, Sanders said superdelegates had the “very grave responsibility to make sure that Trump [is not] elected president of the United States. Vote for the strongest candidate.

And even as Clinton secured the Democratic nomination the following week, Sanders continued to push for superdelegates to vote to override Clinton’s pledged delegate majority.

Told on June 7, 2016, that his superdelegate convention push would defy history and the will of the voters, Sanders said, “Defying history is what this campaign has been about.””

Bernie Sanders pushed for a contested convention in 2016. Now he wants to avoid one. Feb 27, 2020.

[DanTex]

2. I wouldn't quite describe a GOP-donating corporate lobbyist as someone who "poured and sacrificed"

to support the Democratic Party. In fact, I would argue that donating to Mitch McConnell's re-election is precisely the opposite of supporting the Democratic Party.

WILLIAM OWEN, a Tennessee-based Democratic National Committee member backing an effort to use so-called superdelegates to select the party’s presidential nominee — potentially subverting the candidate with the most voter support — is a Republican donor and health care lobbyist.

Owen, who runs a lobbying firm called Asset & Equity Corporations, donated to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and gave $8,500 to a joint fundraising committee designed to benefit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in 2019.

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/27/dnc-superdelegate-convention-gop-donor/

[MineralMan]

8. That is one out of over 700, Dan.

So far, that's the only example you've been able to find, and it's from The Intercept, of all places. You have posted it more than once, but it is still just one unpledged delegate out of hundreds.

Look some more. Find some more examples, please, if you want to make a point.

[DanTex]

9. Really, you think it's just one?

https://truthout.org/articles/top-dnc-committee-is-packed-with-fossil-fuel-and-bank-lobbyists/

[SharonClark]

20. Well, then there's Nina Turner who voted for Jill Stein.

How the hell is she a super delegate?

[ehrnst]

22. Truthout... another "Journalistic" bastion of anti-Democratic Party

brogressives.

Why am I not surprised?

[SDANation]

10. William Owen

“ “I am a committed Democrat but as a lobbyist, there are times when I need to have access to both sides and the way to get access quite often is to make campaign contributions,” said Owen, in a brief interview with The Intercept.“

Unfortunately this is the way our political system is.

[showblue22]

11. That's a debate to be hand when we are not in the middle of the election.

Major rules changes should not happen in the middle of the game.

[DanTex]

12. I think it's good for everyone to be aware of just who these superdelegates are.

That way, during this election, when people see articles like the NYT one about superdelegates prepared to "damage the party" in order to stop Bernie, people can get an idea of just why they might want to do something like that.

[AncientGeezer]

15. Bernie is a SD. He should join the Party...and stay in the Party

Not just when he's running for POTUS

[ehrnst]

23. Superdelegate Ocasio Cotez has already endorsed BS before she knows the will of the people she

represents.

Bernie Sanders a superdelegate. He hired superdelegate Nina Turner to run his campaign.

And just this month, superdelegate Rashida Tlaib (who has also already endorsed BS before the people she represents expressed their will) led a crowd booing our 2016 general election candidate Hillary Clinton, who is not a superdelegate.

Superdelegate Tad Devine will be at the convention as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2020_Democratic_Party_automatic_delegates

[ehrnst]

19. One out of 771. But keep on sharing the Democratic Party hating Intercept

anti-Democratic Party propaganda on Democratic Underground.



But since redirecting is now in play... any thoughts on NDAs and settlements paid out on harassment/discrimination lawsuits?

Our Revolution entered into racial discrimination NDA

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287596746

[ehrnst]

29. I guess that explains why Tad Devine, former partner of Paul Manfort is a superdelegate.

Can you IMAGINE allowing that kind of Repub-friendly hired gun anywhere NEAR a progressive organization?

[ehrnst]

32. How about a superdelegate that used to be a BUSINESS ASSOCIATE and advisor to Paul Manafort?

Thanks to Robert S. Mueller III’s prosecution of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman and sometime business associate of Devine, we now have an unusual glimpse into the role the Democratic ad man had in electing and preserving the power of Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych, a crooked pro-Putin autocrat. Though American political consultants routinely rake in cash from foreign leaders — even shady ones — Devine’s seamless pivot from advocate for antidemocratic thug to champion of a principled democratic reformer shows extraordinary flexibility.

Devine wrote with Manafort a January 2006 memo when Russia was cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine, showing Yanukovych how to ride his “good neighbor” policy toward Russia to victory. He became prime minister. Devine drafted a presidential victory speech for Yanukovych in February 2010 (“We are all Ukrainians first,” the American wrote) and later that year wrote talking points showing how Yanukovych and his party could attack the opposition.

Yanukovych’s fraudulent election in 2004 as Ukraine’s president was invalidated, but not before his opponent was poisoned by dioxin. Yet testimony in the Manafort trial and documents released by Manafort’s lawyers show Devine helped Manafort on Yanukovych’s comeback as prime minister in 2006 and successful presidential run in 2010. Devine produced a memo of advice for Yanukovych’s party in 2012, even though by then Yanukovych had thrown the leading opposition politician in jail and had built a $100 million mansion — complete with zoo, helipad, golf course and replica galleon on an artificial lake — while his people were, in Devine’s own words, struggling with “joblessness, hunger and the general despair.”

By April 2012, Yanukovych had jailed his opponent and become an international pariah. Devine told Gates, “I regret that we will not be able to work with you” on Ukraine’s parliamentary elections. But four months later, Devine wrote a strategy memo for Manafort. “The number of people who admit they are having difficulty feeding their family throughout Ukraine today is stunning,” he wrote, urging Yanukovych to “signal” his concern and calling for his party to attack. “I would recommend a roughly 3:1 negative to positive ratio in the advertising,” he wrote.
.....................................................................
Manafort, who worked for the world’s sleazebags, made no pretense of scruples. But Devine was the guy molding the Sanders campaign as a righteous, everyman’s insurgency against the corrupt, wealthy establishment. Devine, who had worked on Sanders’s first campaign for the Senate in 2006 (the same year he plotted Yanukovych’s comeback), earned more than $5 million for his firm from the populist Sanders presidential campaign and at least $10 million in commissions split with another firm, according to a Slate tally.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-bernie-sanders-ad-man-who-played-paul-manaforts-game/2018/08/01/0df78c18-95c7-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html

[The Mouth]

7. The 1972 convention

made the Democratic party look utterly stupid and unorganized.

I've suggested that the supers should be required to vote for the candidate with the most delegates on the first ballot. If someone has a clear plurality but not a majority that might make it a first ballot selection.

[More_Cowbell]

13. "safety valve"

"Because the primary and caucus voters do not have to be active members of the party, the superdelegate system has been called a safety valve.”

I can see that coming into play this year, with some states not even having a GOP primary and some GOP voters voting in the Democratic primaries.

[marybourg]

14. To prevent a Democratic Party Trump.

[ripcord]

17. Super delegates were put in place to stop someone like Carter

Why do we want to stop someone like Carter from becoming President? I can't think of a more wonderful person. How sad is it that democrats are catering to the elite?

[SharonClark]

21. Carter? First time I ever heard that one.

[ehrnst]

24. Where on earth did you hear that?

[ripcord]

25. From the article this thread is based off?

The Democratic Party established the superdelegate system partly in response to the nomination of George McGovern in 1972 and Jimmy Carter in 1976. The nominations were unpopular among the party elite because McGovern took only one state and had only 37.5 percent of the popular vote, and Carter was seen as too inexperienced.

[Malmsy]

26. That's really strange.

[lapucelle]

27. BS's 2016 chief advisor created the superdelegates, and BS's 2020 national chair

is a superdelegate.

The superdelegates became part of the Democratic nominating process in 1982 to ensure the Democratic party has input on who the nominee is. They wanted to prevent another election like 1972's when George McGovern won the Democratic nomination, but lost every state minus one.

Ironically, Tad Devine, Sanders’ top adviser, who was instrumental in the creation of the superdelegate process, defended their existance.

“It’s pretty hard to win a nomination in a contested race and almost impossible to win without the superdelegeates,” Devine said in 2008 in an interview on NPR.

Now, Devine’s boss, who is running on an anti-establishment message is losing the superdelegate race.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/super-delegates-center-democratic-nomination-fight-again-n516891

[ehrnst]

28. Yes, Tad Devine....superdelegate.

[treestar]

31. Conventional wisdom seems to be that a good person

cannot be a good President. You have to be a bit of a bastard to be President. Very cynical. And Carter did only get one term. 40 years later we keep hearing that he was a good person, but (and therefore) not a good President.

[treestar]

30. Does the Republican party have superdelegates?

Seems like they would have stopped the Dotard from getting their nomination.

[SDANation]

33. They do. But far less. And trump had a stranglehold

on the voters.

[treestar]

34. Thanks