Even though Bernie Sanders has long caucused with the Democrats in the Senate, he was always officially an independent in a nod to his avowedly socialist beliefs.
But now that he’s running for president, he’s getting a pretty rude welcome from the Democratic party. That’s because in the Democratic primary the actual voting is essentially the talent portion of a beauty contest. No matter how much you impress the audience by juggling chainsaws while singing a Bellini aria, all that really matters is how a handful of judges think you look in a swimsuit. Indeed, thanks to the capricious insanity of “superdelegates” — party insiders who get to award delegates all by themselves—Sanders won the New Hampshire primary election by a whopping 22 points, and still came out of the election with fewer delegates than the loser.
If anything, this is adding a lot of resonance to Sanders’s main campaign theme: Too much of what goes on in this country is controlled by influential elites. It’s a bit awkward for him to explicitly note that the Democratic party is Exhibit A for why this is a problem, but the critique is obvious and quantifiable. So far, Hillary Clinton has the pledged support of 359 superdelegates. Sanders has all of eight. (There’s more than a little irony to what’s happening now, given that in 2008 Obama won the nomination even though Hillary Clinton received more total votes.)
And if you look at how the party bosses have behaved toward Sanders it’s pretty clear they’ll do whatever it takes to stop him from getting the nomination. They scheduled just a few debates in prime time Siberia to protect Hillary Clinton. It’s taken months of pressure to get the party to schedule more debates. Heck, at one point Sanders had to sue the party in federal court to get access to the party’s voter database.
Say what you want about Republicans—and the Democrats do like to say they’re the party that doesn’t respect voters—but the stupid party is on the verge of letting the literal embodiment of the oafish bully Biff Tannen from Back to the Future be their standard bearer because the voters have taken a shine to a guy whose favorite word is “classy,” yet is so uncouth he orders his ribeye well-done. Sure, Trump is only winning because he’s capturing a plurality in a race where too many candidates insist on hanging on, but that’s democracy for you.
What Republicans should particularly resent is how the Democratic party’s own process makes a total mockery out of their accusations the GOP is racist. For years now, Democrats have complained that, even though you have to show ID to use a credit card to buy a pair of jeans at the mall, asking to verify someone’s identity to ensure fair elections makes you George Wallace.
Besides, as we all know, voter fraud doesn’t exist. It’s not like we’d ever see anything happen where a senator from, say, Minnesota would be whisked into office by a likely illegitimate 312 vote margin, where he would then cast the deciding vote for Obamacare. Thank God that didn’t happen!
But the truth is that despite feigning concerns about process, the Democratic party isn’t interested in counting every vote. They’re much more concerned exerting control over how they’re counted, even when it means obviating the will of their own voters.
If and/or when Sanders loses, maybe there will be some real pressure to make the Democratic party actually Democratic.
But don’t count on it.
