The Rules and Bylaws Committee will be meeting this weekend to to determine what needs to be done with the delegates from Michigan and Florida.
Hillary Clinton’s people have been pushing for every delegate to be seated. She has demanded that every vote be counted and every voice heard. I agree, but unfortunately that will never happen.
We should all know the story by now. Florida and Michigan moved up their primaries so that they would be earlier in the process and therefore make a more visible impact. They were warned before taking such action that it would immediately elicit a penalty. They chose to move their primaries up anyway, consequences be damned. The irony of this is that they would have played a very big role in the primary if they had simply left everything alone. Now, they have become a lingering sore on the Democrat’s primary season.
So, count every vote – right? Wrong. Despite what has been labeled as a record turnout in Florida, the GOP had more people show up to vote than did the Dems. They had about 220,042 to be exact. This is a state that is home to more registered Democrats than Republicans but somehow more Republicans showed up to vote?!? What does that mean?
It means that, if you tell people they can show up and vote but that their vote will not count, a lot of people won’t show up. If you tell someone they can vote but that you will not count their vote – that would be voter suppression. Would you want to take time off from work or stand in a long line to cast a vote that you have been told will never be counted? Should votes from this type of election be counted?
Forget the fact that Florida knew there would be consequences to their violation of party rules. Forget the fact that both Clinton and Obama signed a form acknowledging that Florida’s primary would be disqualified. Let’s just look at it from the perspective that the results represent only a piece of the picture. Votes were suppressed, making the outcome highly questionable. What would we say of emerging democracies who conducted such an election?
Michigan? Michigan is even worse. Michigan had the same voter suppression measures in place. ‘Come and cast a meaningless vote!’ But their primary was even worse. They had a ballot with one name on it. Correction, technically Kucinich and Gravel were on there as well and both scored more votes than Obama…because he was not on the ballot. This was the only state in which either Kucinich or Gravel outperformed Obama and did so in spectacular fashion! Kucinich beat Obama by almost 22,000 votes!
Suppose that there had not been a penalty in Michigan and everyone was on the ballot but Kucinich somehow beat Obama by 22,000 votes. Wouldn’t we all find that a little curious, a little dubious perhaps? There would be a lot of head scratching and a lot of questions as to how exactly that happened. There would probably some type of formal inquiry, if only to confirm the results as correct.
Now, factor in that the DNC told voters in Michigan that their votes would not be counted and, moreover, not every candidate would be on the ballot. Again, think of an emerging democracy that holds an election in which only a few of the candidates were listed on the ballot. The US would be outraged! That election is obviously fixed! And yet, that is what we had in Michigan. If you liked Edwards or Obama…too bad. You can vote for Clinton, Kucinich or Gravel. OR if you are truly dedicated, you can show up and vote for ‘Uncommitted’ which is what 40% of the voters in the state did. That, my friends, is a protest vote.
So, we have two obvious cases of voter suppression, one of which, Michigan, is perhaps the most egregious example of a fixed election in our nation’s history, and Clinton is demanding that these votes be counted? All of them? Really?
Is this the kind of Democracy she favors? Those of you in Florida and Michigan – do you really think this is fair? Really?
The good news is that there are reasonable people who would not allow anyone to defile our democratic system with that kind of spectacular electioneering. Our system is not perfect, but we are smart enough to know that, to retain the respect of other democracies around the world as well as maintain our own internal integrity, we cannot trample all over our system in this fashion.
Furthermore, if the DNC did seat all the delegates from the two supposedly penalized states, could you imagine the ensuing chaos next year? Every state would move up their primary, each one-upping the other. The DNC has to make some kind of stand this year, if only to retain some level of control and respect.
What will happen is that a certain percentage of delegates from each state will be seated. I have no idea how these will be divvied up and I do not envy the task the committee has this weekend.
What I do know is that the Clintonian approach is wrong and undermines everything for which our democracy has stood. Bill and Hillary should be ashamed of themselves for pushing for such a travesty against fair and honest elections. Certainly, every vote should be counted, but count them fairly in a valid election and respect the very system that makes it all possible.
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