Dear Progressives: Don't Make the Perfect the Enemy of the Good

Guys, I'm pretty sure we all agree on the world we want to see. We just have a strategic disagreement on how to get there. I am frankly afraid of Left third party participation. Having lived through Bush v. Gore/Nader, LePage v. Mitchell/Cutler, and LePage v. Michaud/Cutler, there is no doubt in my mind that a third party or independent candidate can cause us to slide so far backwards we may never recover. Our problems are too pressing, too dangerous. If Trump wins, I am afraid to have children, I'm not kidding. It's okay to be motivated by fear, we should be afraid, there's a lot at stake. 

This does not mean I just don't want third parties - of course I want third parties. Of course I want more choices, better choices, that fit people better than the two parties we have. I just know, through observation and study, that wanting that does not make it so. Closing our eyes and voting our hearts does not make it so. Other societies have multiple parties without effort, without risk, without terrible loss, because they have different electoral rules. Our rules make third parties marginal, fringe, and ineffectual except as dangerous spoilers. If we want a true multi-party system, we will have to change some Constitutional rules (no easy feat), and in the meantime, we have to work within the two party system, where change is possible, though slow and incremental. 

To me, that is the beauty of what Bernie did this past year. He ran within the Democratic primary, and showed what a powerful agent for change the Party can be if we actually participate. He used the political leverage he gained to make real change. He lost, and he accepted the outcome of the primary process. He could have kept running as a third party or independent candidate and continued to ride that wave of glory. But he cares more about defeating Trump than his own pride, he knows a third party run is a terribly dangerous long shot with far too much at stake, so he gave it all up, for the greater good. And notice he did not say he'd vote for Stein, he said he'd vote for Clinton. Not because Clinton is closer to him in beliefs - but because she is the only candidate standing with a real shot at defeating some truly dark evil coming our way. And if you think Clinton is the same as Trump, I don't even know where to start. Do vote your fears, please, because they have never been more real.

But it's not all darkness and playing defense either. Yes, we need to win, because in American politics there is no second place. Which means sometimes we have to choose the winnable candidate we aren't crazy about over the impossible long shot we adore to avoid the terrible ogre. That much is true. But we can influence who the choices are, as we came amazingly close to doing in this primary. Bernie almost won. And every campaign cycle, all up and down the ticket, amazing people DO win their primaries, or run unopposed, and become the shining choice for their voters. Do you have any idea how many Bernie supporters are running for the Maine legislature right now as Democrats? A lot. Bernie's campaign has created momentum and funding to win more of these victories. We can shift the country left and put true progressives in power from within the Democratic Party, without being spoilers and handing victories to fascists. 

A Clinton presidency will help with that, not hurt. Having a Democrat in power, even a centrist one, will allow us to focus on making progress, not desperately trying to hold the line against regressing back into darker times. She won't take us as far as we wanted to go, but she won't drag us backwards either, and she will make it possible for others to carry us forward. Imagine a President Gore instead of a President Bush. Imagine a Governor Mitchell or Michaud instead of a Governor LePage. Forget the whole lesser of two evils thing, a more appropriate saying for the situation is this: don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. And a Clinton presidency would be good, even if it's hard for us hurting Bernie supporters to see it right now. 

JILL STEIN IS WORSE THAN DONALD TRUMP

Perhaps you've seen the video of her bouncing around Facebook talking about how bad the two party system is and how we need to start voting our consciences. This is all nonsense and a terrible idea. I think this strain of thinking is the most dangerous thing out there to our country and our future. More dangerous than the Bushes and LePages and Trumps, because THIS is what makes THEM possible.

It's not a conspiracy, no one's out to trick you or manipulate you, the system is not "rigged" and I am not "the establishment" whatever that means. There is no two party system imposed on us. It's not in the Constitution, it's not a law, it's not written down anywhere. It exists because it EVOLVED based on the election rules that we have in the federal and state constitutions: basically, whoever gets the most votes wins. Countries with this kind of rule have two parties, countries with other rules have multiple parties. It's a fact, not my opinion, in political science it's called Duverger's Law. The two parties are a symptom, not the cause.

It is dangerous and factually incorrect to claim that we just need to try harder and vote our consciences to have third party victories in this country. That will never happen without changing the rules (through Ranked Choice Voting for instance). Without changing the rules, you will have spoilers and the WORST of two evils (ala George Bush and Paul LePage) running our states and country, not some miraculous third party takeover.

I know it's harder, and less emotionally rewarding, but the way to make real change while this system is in place is to work within the Democratic Party (as Bernie and Elizabeth Warren so wonderfully demonstrate) to shift the debate left and support the candidacies of other progressives in the Democratic Party. The real way to make change TO this system is to work for electoral reforms such as ranked choice voting. I suggest you do both at the same time.

Support for long shot third party candidates without changing the system FIRST does not change anything, and has the potential to destroy a lot. Don't let impatience and frustration cause you to use your sacred, all important vote (and voice) dangerously and destructively. If you have two realistic contenders in a political race you should absolutely vote for the lesser evil, not the long shot who shares your values more, because in American politics THERE IS NO SECOND PLACE.

Stein WILL lose, all she can do by running and all you can do by voting for her is to cause Clinton to lose, and if that happens, progressives and the country and the world have lost everything, and will continue losing precious, possibly irretrievable things for at least four years. Who knows how far back we could be dragged.

DO vote your fears, because they could come true. Maine of all places should get this by now.

To my fellow Bernie supporters - please take off your tinfoil hats

Dear Bernie supporters:

The best thing about Bernie’s campaign is that he ran as a Democrat, and the best thing that will come out of his campaign is you getting involved in the Democratic Party and especially the gritty work of local politics, as he is ever so intelligently suggesting. You checking out of politics, hating on the Democratic Party, or going off into left field with moon shot third party candidates is not only missing the point, but doing the opposite of what Bernie did, working against what he is trying to achieve, and generally being selfish and short sighted.

Pissed? Good. At least you’re listening. The first important thing to understand is that the two party system is not a conspiracy. It is a symptom and a byproduct of one simple Constitutional rule put in place by the founding fathers. Whoever gets the most votes wins. It was a dumb idea, but in their defense we were first at democracy and didn’t have the benefit of watching other countries do it wrong. Other countries have had the benefit of watching US do it wrong, however, and very few of them adopted that dumb voting rule. Here’s why.

While it sounds fair and simple and straightforward, “whoever gets the most votes wins” is a terrible way to decide elections. Because only one candidate can win, and that candidate only needs the most votes, not more than half of the votes, entire elections - ALL the power - can be handed to one person that most of the voters actually don’t like and don’t want to represent them. But this only happens when there are more than two candidates. When there are two candidates, whoever wins will de facto have more than half the votes. When there are three or more candidates however, it is possible for the winner to have 40, 30, even 20% or less of the votes and still win the whole damn thing. A majority can lose to a minority by splitting up their majority vote. Hence the concept of spoilers - candidates who basically share the same beliefs of the majority but peel votes away from the majority candidate resulting in a split vote, and the opposing minority side winning. Totally sucks.  

The two party system evolved to avoid the crappy outcome that can be the result of three or more candidates under that rule. The whole point of parties, the reason they exist, is to win elections. If the only way to win elections under the election rules you have is to get behind one candidate and make damn sure your side is not the side splintering behind multiple candidates, you’re going to end up with the fewest possible parties: two.

And since there are only two parties, each party needs half the votes plus a little more to win. Therefore, the parties are going to shift left or right as needed to claim their 50% + 1 of the electorate. No matter what the overall spectrum of beliefs in this country is, be it from communist to centrist Democrat, or from socialist to right wing nut job, our voting system will split us basically right down the middle and one party will claim either side. The spectrum changes, the names of the parties change, but it’s always two parties, from the beginning until now. That is why we have two parties, why our national candidates are so annoyingly middle-of-the-road, and why election results on the national level are usually very close.

Third parties crop up from time to time and make a go at it, but they are generally unsuccessful and fade away unless one of the two biggies collapses and there is a vacuum of power they can step into to become one of the two biggies. Other countries that have similar systems have the same problem. It’s math, not the man.

So, while it is frustrating and annoying that we only have two parties, getting angry at the Democrats is not productive. They can’t change it any more than you can. Democrats are simply the left side of the spectrum. When the overall beliefs and conversation in the country shifts right, Democrats shift right, because they have to in order to win more than half the votes and win elections which is - remember - the point of their existence. If the conversation shifts left, as it did thanks to Bernie, Democrats can shift left and still win elections, as Hillary Clinton is now able to do.

If you are unhappy with this reality, then seek to change the dumb rule, don't get angry at the inevitable byproduct of the dumb rule. The simplest fix is ranked choice voting, which changes the rule from "whoever gets the most votes wins" to "whoever gets more than half the votes wins." It eliminates the whole concept of spoilers, and the resulting incentives for two parties, opening up the field to independents and third party candidates. Instead of pointlessly railing against Democrats, why don't you volunteer for the ranked choice voting referendum effort in Maine? Here you go: http://www.rcvmaine.com. You're welcome.

If you have a beef with Democrats, let it be this - many of them, especially at the national level, are too focused on winning and aren’t brave enough about openly and eloquently stating a progressive vision for the future, which allows Republicans to control the national conversation. This causes the spectrum of beliefs in the country to shift right, causing both parties to shift right to hold onto their 50% + 1. Which is WHY we need politicians like Bernie, and other progressives to run in the Democratic Party and articulate that left vision so the country as a whole can shift to the left, forcing both parties to shift left. Eventually there may be a limit to how far left the Republican Party can shift, at which point it will collapse, leaving a power vacuum on the right side which will be filled by the Democrats, and the place on the left vacated by the Democrats will be taken by another even more left party such as the Green Party. Notice that’s still two parties, but the country as a whole is further to the left. It’s now a conversation between Greens and Dems instead of Dems and Republicans, as we are seeing in our more liberal cities. Voila.

This transition would be gradual and much easier if we had a better system that fostered third parties and allowed for partial wins and didn’t result in spoilers (such as ranked choice voting), but we don’t. We have this system, and it requires the nation as a whole to shift waaaay left before the Republicans collapse and it is safe for another party to step in without being spoilers. We aren’t there yet. I think we’re getting there, as evidenced by the Republican chaos this year, but we definitely aren’t there. The danger now is that third parties get impatient and run candidates in races they can’t win, and voters get impatient and vote for them, but not in great enough numbers to do anything but spoil the race for Democrats, and hand elections to Republicans. This is dangerous, because then a Republican has the power of elected office with which to control the all important conversation, and can shift their district - be it a few towns, or a state, or the nation - to the right.

Case in point - Paul LePage. A spoiler independent candidate by the name of Eliot Cutler split the left vote in 2010, and LePage won with less than half of the vote. We were a majority progressive state at that point with an unfortunate minority right winger representing us as a result of our dumb election rules. But then he spent four years spouting his ugly, hateful philosophies from the aptly named bully pulpit, and he got to us. In 2014 he won by a majority. He shifted the conversation right. Before 2010, no one cared about welfare fraud. It was a non-issue. Now, that’s all you can talk about to voters because Paul LePage has made scapegoating and hating on the poor our state sport. Democrats have to wage an uphill battle to change the subject and stop being on the defensive over welfare fraud and even begin talking about what a progressive future for our state would look like. In short, the independent long shot candidacy of Eliot Cutler screwed us for years to come by allowing a right wing Republican to control our state discourse and shift the entire conversation right.

Now, I don’t think third parties should cease to exist. I think they should exist, and build their organizations, and run in races they can actually win (as opposed to just spoil), and generally wait in the wings practicing their lines for the collapse of a major party or meaningful election reform such as ranked choice voting. Run for city council in liberal cities. Run for state rep in liberal districts. Run anywhere that it’s liberal enough that you will be one of two major candidates, not a third wheel peeling votes from another progressive and handing the election to a right winger. Do not run in swing districts. Such as the state of Maine. Or the country. Not yet, we’re not ready.

Back to Bernie supporters. My message to you is this: If Bernie was smart enough to understand these concepts, and run as a Democrat, why don’t you understand? If Bernie is now telling you to work within the Democratic Party to reform it and to support progressive local candidates, and to become one yourself if you can - why are you resisting that? If you truly support Bernie, then support his message and his work. Conspiracy theories and knee jerk cynicism and rebellious support for outsider third party candidates might feel good, but it isn’t what Bernie is about, and it isn’t what brings about true change. Bernie has spent his whole life working hard within the system, at boring things, without reward, to make this country a better place. True change comes from working within the system we have to make it better. It’s not easy, it’s not glamorous, but there is literally nothing more important.

Sure, the Democratic Party has some problems. But it’s the only viable organization for getting progressive candidates elected at all levels of government, and luckily it is somewhat - if not perfectly - democratic. So use that existing democracy to make it more perfectly democratic, as Bernie is doing. It is incredibly easy to climb the power structure of the Democratic Party because there aren’t a lot of volunteers for this somewhat boring but important work. If you want it, it’s there for the taking. Start with your County Democrats. Volunteer to be on the State Democratic Committee. There you go - now YOU'RE the establishment.

And don’t paint all Democrats, and all parts of the Democratic Party with one brush. Yes, we can all agree that DWS did a shitty job of running the DNC this election cycle. But the state Democratic Parties are separate from the DNC. The County Democratic Parties are separate from them. The town Democratic Parties are separate too. Each level runs in its own way, and the closer you get to local, the more accessible and grassroots it becomes until it’s just your socially conscious hippie neighbors running for office and trying to get other progressives elected. That’s what it IS, really. Listen to Bernie and take off your tinfoil hat and come to a local Democrats meeting and find out. We could use your help.  

The Canary in the Coal Mine: The Democratic Party's Failure of the White Working Class

The Democrats are losing the white working class. There are a lot of superficial reasons for that. Surface, culture war disagreements that get offered up as the real reason. But they’re not the real reason. It’s not racism, or sexism, or family values. It’s class. The Democratic Party has abandoned the working class, while at the same time choosing to focus on race, gender and sexual identity civil rights battles, leaving specifically the white working class behind completely.

This is why the white working class is abandoning the Democratic Party, and simultaneously expressing disgust and anger towards the causes that replaced their interests. But instead of addressing their economic pain and reinstating class concerns as a central tenet of Democratic goals, Party elites are instead scolding them for their lack of enthusiasm for these civil rights battles. The tone ranges from condescending to contemptuous. While it is true that racism, sexism, and narrow mindedness are not admirable qualities, contempt is not going to change minds or stop the hemorrhaging of votes. Acknowledgement of their suffering, and hard work towards addressing their struggles might, however.

For a long time now, starting at least as early as the 1990s, the Democratic Party became dominated by “centrists” more interested in winning elections than in defending and fighting for the working class. Due to the daunting popularity of Reagan and his free market ideologies, they abandoned defense of workers and the poor as a central pillar of what the Democratic Party is about, and started embracing conservative themes of welfare reform, weakening unions, free market ideology, and corporate-friendly trade deals. The Clintons of course were central to this shift.

The Party did, however, continue to fight civil rights battles. This didn’t conflict with embracing conservative, corporate-friendly economic principles. It gave the Party a cause, something to fight for, a moral purpose. And a worthy one, to be sure. In the past two plus decades, the Party has embraced and fought for gay rights, gay marriage, gender equity, reproductive rights, and racial justice to name a few. It has also become the party of environmental consciousness, both protecting the environment and addressing the looming danger of climate change.

All that is good, but we left behind white working class people. Of course, the Party also left behind female, black, minority and LGBQT working class people, but at least it continued to fight for them on some fronts, if not class. It gave them some reason to continue identifying with the Party. Not so for white working class men, and even many white working class women who don’t benefit as much from policies that break a glass ceiling they never get close to.

As their economic pain grows, so too does their resentment of these causes unrelated to their own experience that the Democratic Party fights for while ignoring them. If they aren’t a minority, a middle or upper class female, LGBQT, or an endangered species, it’s as if they don’t exist to the Party. The actions and causes of the Democratic Party have become increasingly distant, unrelated, and irrelevant to these people. And they start to resent both the Party and the groups and causes the Party has chosen to focus on to their exclusion.

I believe this exclusion is what has fueled the recent outburst of racism, sexism, anti-gay and transgender sentiment, climate change denial, and anger towards the environmental movement among the traditionally Democratic leaning white working class. Also the more general backlash against “political correctness.” But rather than realizing this and working to address the pain of this group, the Democratic Party has chosen to scold them. No, what they’re saying is not okay, not morally defensible, and not factually correct. But before you get huffy, listen closely. Under all that anger and resentment and culture war, you will hear real suffering, real fear.

What if, rather than leaving them behind for the past thirty plus years, we had worked to defend and strengthen and uplift the working class? What if we had fought like hell for union rights and trade deals that benefited workers over corporations and refused to attack the poor, no matter how popular in the polls? What if we had done all of this while also fighting our civil rights and environmental battles? Would the white working class have such resentment towards these groups and causes? Would they be so easily convinced that these groups and causes are the source of their suffering? I don’t think they would.

Bernie Sanders has done an excellent job of speaking to this group. He comes to them with compassion and empathy. He feels their pain. And at the same time he speaks with conviction about civil rights and the environment. And many white working class voters have abandoned their racism and sexism and climate denial to embrace a Jewish socialist candidate with a liberal resume a mile long. He brings all of these groups together in a remarkable coalition, which is what the Democratic Party as a whole should be doing.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is probably going to nominate Clinton instead, one of the best known faces of the Democratic Party’s abandonment of the working class. Clinton has emphasized race and gender over class throughout her campaign, except when forced to acknowledge class by Sanders. Clinton was so lacking in sympathy for the working class that she chose to phrase her support for environmental causes by stating that she’s going to “put a lot of coal companies and coal miners out of business,” in coal country, where a lot of coal miners have lost their jobs, and many are about to.

More troubling, we have chosen contempt over compassion. There is contempt from establishment Democrats towards the more working class Sanders supporters. There is contempt from Democrats in general towards the working class voters who are turning to Trump. Accusations of racism and sexism abound, while empathy for working class suffering seems to be in short supply.

While we gloat about the Republican nomination of Trump, that Party seems to be coalescing around him and boosting him in the polls. And whatever you want to say about Trump, he speaks to the white working class. He speaks to their pain, and he stokes these resentments created by the Democratic focus on civil rights to the exclusion of class. I don’t believe he has any intention of actually helping them, but he certainly knows how to use feigned compassion to gain their allegiance, and inflammatory rhetoric to channel their anger. I don’t think we can or should count on their votes, union or otherwise, if we nominate Clinton and she doesn’t change her tune fast, along with the DNC and the rest of the Party establishment.  

And contrary to establishment opinion, we need their votes. There is a lot of press lately about how diverse the electorate is becoming. Sometimes it gets lost in that discussion that 70% of people who vote are white. No, you no longer need to win a majority of white voters to win, but you do need to win a heck of a lot of them, and you could lose by losing too many of them.

It’s easy for Democrats to feel superior by dismissing this group as nothing but a bunch of dying off racists, but what they’re actually doing is dismissing the control group for identifying how we’re doing in the class struggle. This is the group that suffers from class, and only class. How are we doing on that front? Not so good, apparently.

By simply paying serious attention to class and making working class struggles a central element of Democratic values once again, the Democrats could regain the votes of many working class whites and overcome much of the racism and narrow mindedness that is overtaking this group as a substitute for the anger that rightfully should be aimed squarely at the corporate and ruling classes. It can’t be a side note, but must be a central theme, expressed with the righteous anger it deserves. And it doesn’t have to be Bernie Sanders as the presidential nominee expressing it, but it must be expressed. It’s the smart thing to do, and the right thing to do.

Taking the Training Wheels off Democracy - Time to Get Rid of Superdelegates

Here we go again. Another close Democratic primary, another bitter intraparty fight over superdelegates. We have Sanders supporters crying foul, and Clinton supporters rolling their eyes. So what is it? Oligarchy or no big deal? To understand today’s debate, it’s necessary to understand the history of how things were before superdelegates, why they were created, and what has happened since.

Here’s the history: Through 1968, party insiders picked nominees in smoke filled rooms. Some states did hold primaries, binding their delegates to vote the way the people of the state voted, but they were the minority. The majority of states used the caucus system, which was far less democratic than it is today, and allowed Party insiders and elites to control the nomination process.

In the 1968 Democratic primary, Hubert Humphrey was the establishment candidate, running against several anti-Vietnam war candidates, including Senator Robert Kennedy, who was tragically assassinated in June of that year. Hubert did not bother to campaign in a single primary state, and won only caucus votes, but was nominated at the convention nonetheless. Anti-war and civil rights activists rioted outside the convention and were brutally attacked by police under orders from the Democratic mayor of Chicago. Humphrey went on to lose the general election to Richard Nixon.

After 1968, the Party did some soul searching, and introduced a number of reforms that made the Democratic primary system much more democratic, removing the excessive power of Party insiders and giving most of the power to regular rank-and-file voters. Many states, in response to the new rules, switched from caucuses to far more democratic primaries to allocate their delegates.

In the 1972 Democratic primary, under the new rules, Senator George McGovern won the nomination. McGovern was a very progressive, anti-war candidate, beloved by the left and especially the youth. But the Party elites were angry at their loss of status under the new rules (partially authored by McGovern). They had preferred Ed Muskie for the nomination, a more establishment politician, and after Muskie’s campaign fizzled, supported Hubert Humphrey despite his previous loss. They refused to give McGovern their support, either in the form of a qualified VP, fundraising, or even positive statements to the press. Some even supported Nixon in the general election. Without backing from the Party establishment, McGovern lost to Nixon by a landslide, dashing the hopes of the anti-war movement.

In the 1976 Democratic primary, an unexpected upstart senator from Georgia, Jimmy Carter, won the nomination. He also was not the Party establishment favorite, but gained more grudging support from them than McGovern had. He won a close victory and led what was, in hindsight, a very progressive Democratic presidency. But Carter made no friends in the Party establishment during his tenure as president, and in the 1980 Democratic primary had a rare challenge against a sitting Democratic president from Senator Ted Kennedy. Carter won the primary, and eventually the nomination, despite an attempt by Ted Kennedy to change the rules at the Convention to undo the will of Democratic voters. But Carter’s image was weakened by the lack of support from Party leaders and the bruising primary, as well as historical circumstance, and he lost badly to Ronald Reagan.

At this point, Party leaders had had enough of democracy. They blamed the last two losses on the new democratic system and sought to install some safeguards against the will of Democratic voters. Enter superdelegates.

Officially known as unpledged delegates, superdelegates are federal elected officials, former major elected officials such as presidents, and leaders of the Democratic Party. They get an automatic vote for the candidate of their choosing at the Democratic National Convention where the presidential nominee is chosen. Their percentage of the total number of delegates has fluctuated, from 14% when the system was implemented, up to 20% in 2008, down to 15% in this election.

Since their adoption, superdelegates have not decided a single nomination, though they become controversial whenever there’s a close race. In 2008, superdelegates were a major topic, with an early lead for Clinton, defections to Obama, and a primary race close enough that superdelegates could have decided it if they exercised their power. No one was very comfortable with that, and there was a concerted effort by Party reformers in 2010 to get rid of superdelegates.

That effort was scuttled by the DNC Rules Committee, which decided that it would never pass through the larger DNC organization, since everyone in the DNC is a superdelegate, and wouldn’t vote against their own interests. One DNC Rules Committee member, James Roosevelt, Jr.,  turned logic on its head by stating that, “Clearly, the people at the grassroots level should be the predominant voice. But if you don’t give elected officials a real voice, they are basically second-class citizens.” As a compromise, the DNC Rules Committee simply increased the total number of delegates to decrease the percentage of superdelegates from 20% to 15%.

And now here we are in 2016. The difference is that in 2008, both candidates were fairly establishment. While Clinton held an early lead in commitments from superdelegates, her advantage was 169 to 63 (3 to 1), not 359 to 8 (45 to 1) as it is in this election. As Obama gained momentum, it was not difficult for superdelegates to start defecting his way, adding to his momentum until he beat Clinton on both fronts. This time around, the superdelegate opposition to Sanders, a true outsider, is staunch and unwavering. But the basic arguments for and against superdelegates remain the same.

The main argument against superdelegates is pretty straightforward: democracy. It is an uncomfortable fact that the Party that purports to be the champion of democracy, the Party with the word “democracy” as its root, would give a group of powerful, generally wealthier and more privileged people a much more powerful vote than rank and file voters.

In 2008, over 35 million voters voted in the Democratic primary to elect 3,434 national delegates, meaning each of these delegates represented over 10,000 votes. Therefore, each of the 823 superdelegate votes, which carried equal weight as elected delegates, was worth about 10,000 regular votes. Since we won’t know overall voter participation until this primary is over, the math for 2016 isn’t yet available, but should be right in that neighborhood or worse. Think about that: Every superdelegate vote carries the same weight as 10,000 regular votes. So much for one person, one vote.

But in practice, the major harm of superdelegates takes place long before the bigwigs start filing into the National Convention. Superdelegates sway the results of primary elections by publicly “pledging” their votes to a particular candidate before the regular voters have made their choice. This can certainly bias voters who are highly engaged and educated about Party rules, if they weigh approval by Party elites heavily in their decision. But the most insidious consequence is the reporting of the superdelegate pledges in the press, and how that influences voters less familiar with Party rules.

Most of the time the press either doesn’t understand or doesn’t bother to fully explain the difference between pledged delegates and superdelegates. The fact that superdelegates can and do switch allegiance, or that they have always voted with the winner of pledged delegates often goes unmentioned. So when a voter who doesn’t understand the arcane rules of the Democratic convention reads that so-and-so has a huge lead in total delegates, or superdelegates, that voter is apt to be misled into thinking the race is all but decided, and may not bother to go vote at their local caucus or primary.

On the other side of the superdelegates debate, people defending the system often point to ensuring electability of the eventual nominee. They hold up the losses of McGovern and Carter as proof that superdelegates are necessary. But these candidates may have fared better if Party elites had gotten fully behind them, or if historical circumstance had been a little kinder.

Putting all that aside, here is the record: While the no-superdelegate-system was in place, Democrats won one out of three elections. Since the superdelegate system has been in place, Democrats have won four out of eight. One third (of a very small sample) to one half, hardly conclusive. Further, in the time since we’ve had superdelegates, they have always voted for the choice of regular Democratic voters. So apparently rank-and-file voters aren’t all that bad at picking electable candidates after all.

Which brings me to my next point. Regular rank-and-file Democrats also want to win elections, and consider electability as a major factor in supporting a nominee. It is certainly plausible to suggest that we may not weigh insider status as heavily as superdelegates, but that is not necessarily a problem, as long as Party insiders are willing to follow our lead and get behind our democratically chosen candidates.

Supporters of the superdelegate system also point to a scenario in which a nominee who is far ahead in delegates has a scandal late in the campaign. In this scenario, it certainly would be useful to be able to reconsider our choice. But superdelegates are not a good way to do this. How and by whom would it be decided that the scandal was big enough to warrant overturning the democratic will of the voters? We aren’t able to take back our choices in other campaigns, and a primary campaign should be no different. It is an inherent risk of elections, and means that we must carefully vet our candidates, but is not a good excuse for propping up an undemocratic system.

There is a good argument to be had for giving Party leaders an automatic seat (if not a super vote) in the idea that Party elites should not have to go to caucuses and compete against regular voters to get a seat at the convention. It would certainly be awkward for President Obama to have to go to the D.C. caucus and compete with regular Democrats for a seat at the Convention, and it would also be wrong for him not to be at the Convention. I believe this is what Debbie Wasserman Schultz was trying to say in her much-maligned statement about Party elites not having to compete with grassroots activists.

But there’s an easy solution to that problem that does not involve giving Party leaders super votes. We can reserve delegate seats for Party leaders (assuming a reasonable definition of “party leader” that is a good deal more restrictive than it is today), but make them go as pledged delegates from their respective states. Party leaders get their place at the Convention, while still respecting the basic democratic principle of one person one vote.

Finally, while superdelegates have historically always ended up voting as the rank-and-file voters voted, doesn’t mean they always will. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, has predicted that in a primary race where an establishment favored candidate loses the pledged delegate race by less than 5% to an establishment unfavored candidate, it is possible that superdelegates would in fact swing the vote in favor of the loser of the pledged delegate race. It would be hard to overstate how damaging and divisive to the Party that would be.

The superdelegate system is an unnecessary time bomb that predictably causes friction and division every time there’s a close Democratic primary. It causes far more problems than it solves, and weakens the position of Democrats when we advocate for greater democracy in other areas. How can we claim the moral high ground with this undemocratic system enshrined in our own nomination process? It’s time for the Democratic Party to take the training wheels off democracy and get rid of superdelegates.

Clinton supporters, your candidate just bragged about the approval of Henry Kissinger, can we talk about this?

Last night towards the end of the Democratic debate, Clinton trotted out the approval of Henry Kissinger to bolster her foreign policy credentials. I almost fell off my chair. Kissinger was - and probably still is - a peddler of the most murderous, human-rights-violating foreign policy doctrine the world has ever seen. The fact that he is being accepted, by progressives no less, as some kind of influential elder statesman is outrageous. He should be tried for crimes against humanity, not bragged about as an endorsement. Furthermore, the embrace of Kissinger’s approach to foreign policy by Clinton speaks volumes about her progressive moral compass in general.

A little primer on what Kissinger actually did is in order, since apparently progressives have forgotten. Kissinger was the United States National Security Advisor and Secretary of State between the years of 1969 and 1977, under Nixon and Ford. You might recall this was a divisive time in American history with Republicans embarking on foreign policy adventures around the world to slaughter communists with brown skin, using poor and brown Americans as cannon fodder, and American youth basically freaking out over it. You can thank Henry Kissinger.  

Kissinger was essentially a right winger who narrowly defined American interests as capitalist corporate interests, and used the full force of the American military to pursue those interests, international law and human rights be damned. He supported violent dictators, overthrew democratically elected leaders too far left for his taste, probably had something to do with a few assassinations, and is definitely culpable for millions of innocent civilian deaths. Here is a list of nations where his policy decisions led directly to massive genocide: Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, East Timor and Chile. And that is not an exhaustive list. The catchy name for this in foreign policy circles is “Realpolitik” because “crimes against humanity” would be too honest.

My heart literally sank when I heard Clinton mention his name. I did not think this was an issue of debate within the Democratic Party. I thought Democrats supported human rights and the rule of law. What have we come to?

What say you, Clinton supporters? You admire her for her hard-nosed foreign policy decisions? She has to be a hawk because she’s a woman? Okay, you asked for it. This embrace of Realpolitik foreign policy is itself part of a larger Democratic Realpolitik approach to politics in general. The essence of Realpolitik is the abandonment of principles in pursuit of raw self-interest. Democrats in general, and Clinton in particular, have a habit of supporting progressive principles when it’s beneficial and abandoning them when it’s not. Democrats, including Clinton, have a habit of ceding moral and linguistic ground to Republicans and basically failing to fight fiercely for progressive principles and those they protect, out of fear of electoral defeat. Hence “socialism” - the basis of progressive morality - became a dirty word. Until Sanders brought it back.

Sanders’ appeal lies in his principled approach to politics. He fights for progressive values and those they protect no matter what. He’s said the same thing for 50 years, in times of electoral victory and defeat, when it made him deeply unpopular, and now, when it’s finally working out in his favor. And he's a true progressive on foreign policy, a supporter of human rights and international law, not a Kissinger fan. I support Sanders over Clinton because, among other things, she just legitimized the biggest war criminal and violator of progressive principles of the 20th century in the interest of her own electoral success. Oh, and she also supports the death penalty, putting her in good company with the Saudi royal family. Not cool.

I'm With Him

Some women who support Hillary Clinton feel deeply, personally, betrayed that a big chunk of progressives prefer Bernie Sanders. They think she is having a harder time than is fair because of her gender. This post is written in response to this article: 

An All Caps Explosion of Feelings Regarding the Liberal Backlash Against Hillary Clinton

I agree that gender plays a role in Hillary Clinton’s popularity and her unpopularity. I think probably many or most of her right wing detractors consider her gender a point against her. Probably some of the independents too. I’m not so sure about progressives. Probably some progressives harbor unconscious dislike of her based on her gender. But I think, for the vast majority of progressives, her gender counts in her favor, especially amongst female progressives.

I know it counts in her favor for me, but I still prefer Bernie Sanders. Gender is just one point amongst many. And Sanders’ many points in his favor include strong, consistent progressive principles. Standing up for his principles even when they made him deeply unpopular, a joke, an outcast. For decades he has been the lone socialist in Congress. Yes, Hillary Clinton has been attacked and ridiculed, but so has Bernie Sanders. And - what’s more - he’s been ignored.

What makes Sanders’ likeable is precisely the fact that he has never tried to be likeable. He’s spent his entire life being mocked and ignored while he stood up for his principles, stood up for us, even when we weren’t watching and didn’t care. And now, suddenly, people see him for what he is and yes, we LIKE him. We like him for his bravery, consistency, and strong progressive moral compass that has had him cast extremely unpopular and politically risky votes without concern for his own reputation and likeability.

The above article claims it would be impossible for a woman to act like Sanders’ and get anywhere, and excuse her wavering on progressive principles based on that. I don’t agree. I strongly disagree. And to explain and excuse a woman’s decisions based on her gender does a disservice to us all. We are big girls and we can take responsibility for our own decisions, and hold other women responsible for theirs. No free passes.

This discussion has also led me to examine why I am, admittedly, so much more emotionally drawn to Sanders, just as Clinton supporters are emotionally drawn to her. I think it has to do with which injustice we feel most hurt by. I am a woman, but I have always felt the weight of class much more keenly. I am a lower, or working class female, so perhaps that is why. I’d wager, in fact I know from the polls, that a lot of the women who so passionately support Hillary are not poor, and therefore of course gender is going to be the injustice they feel most keenly.

Yes, I’ve been disrespected, talked down to, probably paid less over my gender. But for me that is nothing compared to the feeling of poverty, which I’ve moved into and out of a few times in my life. I grew up in a working class household and I remember the panics over money, the discussions and fights about what we could afford. I am still enraged when I think about it. This during Bill Clinton’s presidency. I remember the social weight of class, the middle class friends and the shame of working class clothes, working class cars, working class homes. I remember how different I felt from other students at the private college I started out at, how far ahead of me they were with their private and elite public school educations, how much more at home I felt at a state college. I remember the lack of confidence in elite places, schools, employment situations. The set of unspoken things that made higher class people feel at ease. I know working class single mothers who cannot get a god damned break. I know how student debt has stunted and twisted my life path. Class is a reality, and it sucks. I remember losing a job at a bad time in rural Maine and the chronic feeling of panic that set in, just a constant underlying anxiety that made it hard to function. The idea that I might not make rent, might lose my apartment, the shame, have to move in with my parents...It’s a feeling of a wolf at the door, and I simply do not believe that Clinton gets that in the way the Sanders does. She does not know what it’s like to be poor, and her priorities and policy positions have shown that. I think a lot of her supporters, as shown in the polls, also do not know what it’s like to be poor, and therefore they are enraged that progressives would dare to turn their back on the injustice of gender by preferring a male candidate.

I do think some injustices are more urgent than others, and I believe that class is the most important injustice to address right now. It is the most physically and emotionally abusive, and it is the weapon with which other injustices are expressed. Women suffer economically, minorities suffer economically. In other ways too, but the economic suffering is the worse, and the most concrete thing that we can fix. I am not worried that women are making progress and getting closer and closer to true equality. I see it happening. I see female senators and governors and CEOs. I see the same for race. We’re making progress. I see the same for sexual orientation and gender identity. Sanders is also great on all of these injustices. Clinton's main claim to being better on gender is simply her gender. However, Sanders is far and away the best candidate on class injustice. The class problem is inextricably linked to the wealthy funding our political system, and Sanders is the only candidate NOT funded by the wealthy, and seeking to truly fix that problem.

I do not see the class problem getting better, I see it holding steady and getting worse. I want someone who cares about that, cares about that first, and will help us, instead of abandon us as Democrats have done for the past 30 years. They abandon us because they are funded by the people who want to hold us down, and Clinton looks like more of the same. We are never going to get a candidate who will go to war for the poor as long as they are funded by the rich. So, even though I am a woman, I prefer the male candidate for the Democratic nomination because he is running on a platform of really, truly speaking the truth about the suffering this shitty, “neoliberal,” capitalist economy that the Clintons helped build has unleashed on the poor and working classes of this country and the world. We are so tired of this, and tired of voting for Democratic candidates who betray progressive principles by never speaking of them for fear of their own electability, who betray us by voting against progressive principles to boost their own reputations with funders, and tired of the system, which perpetuates it. We want to flip this table over, and Bernie Sanders is our best chance to do that. I’m with him.

PS - I didn't write this in all caps because I think we should be able to express our passionate opinions without yelling. And I'm not "noping" out of the comments, because I think it's important that progressives talk about this.