No, the Democratic Party isnt divided or in disarray

[Jim Lane]

34. The DNC doesn't -- and can't -- make the rules.

There's this persistent view on DU that, in 2015, the DNC magnanimously voted to let Bernie Sanders run in the primaries, and that in 2019 that supposed mistake should not be repeated. There was no such vote.

In fact, ballot access is in the hands of the state governments that run primaries. (Caucuses may be a different story.) Qualifying for the ballot of a primary usually depends on paying a fee and submitting enough petition signatures, with the precise rules set by each state legislature.

The DNC's only power would be to go totally dictatorial: "We will not seat, at the Convention, any delegate who has been chosen in the primary but who is pledged to support a candidate we disapprove of." The Republicans would just love to be able to tell the people of, for example, New Hampshire (heavy Sanders win in the primary, narrow Clinton win in the general), that the Democratic Party refused to seat their chosen delegates. "The Democrat [sic] Party doesn't care about the people of our great state!"

It's hard to imagine a course of action better suited to hand the election to the GOP.