In her recent guest column on superdelegates, Jan Nettler misses one important point. As Lincoln said, the United States is supposed to have government “by” the people. It doesn’t say by special people or by people with certain knowledge or by a particular political party or by only those people who vote every year.
Otherwise, why have primaries or elections? Might as well let knowledgeable politicians and people in power decide on the nominee. Or better yet, have them choose the president.
In fact, we should be overjoyed there are excellent candidates that have gotten people to be involved and vote for the first time. Imagine how they’ll feel when the decision is skewed by a select group. By singling out Bernie Sanders’ voters and calling him an outsider, even though he has voted Democratic for years, and not mentioning that Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Republican as a teen, I assume Nettler is for Clinton.
Imagine how loudly Bill Clinton would be screaming for rule change if the superdelegates had declared early for Bernie Sanders.
I will vote for whichever Democratic candidate is elected because changes to the Supreme Court and majority change in the Congress is more important than which of them is elected president. But I wonder how the superdelegates and she will feel when many of Bernie’s supporters stay home because it will be proven to them that their vote doesn’t really count. And as for Jim McGovern, you bet next time he is up for re-election his vote as a superdelegate will factor into whether or not I vote for him. I want him to listen to his constituents, not just “carry out the goals of his party.”
Rob Rechtschaffen
Northampton