Super delegates, why they exist? [View all]

[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.