I don’t think Bernie has his best talking points with respect to the Democratic Party super delegates. \u00a0I would respond to questions with this:<\/p>\n
It’s important to understand what a super delegate is. \u00a0Democratic Party activists who have put in the time and effort to elect Democrats, and the men and women who have won elective office as Democrats, should have plenary votes at their national convention along with delegates selected by voters in primaries and caucuses. \u00a0It makes all the sense in the world for party officials, whether selected at the county level or by winning elections, should have a voice in nominating the Party’s candidate for President. \u00a0But I see a disconnect when I win a primary in West Virginia by 60% but the Democratic Party officials who serve the state support my opponent, and I wonder why they don’t support the choice their own constituents prefer. \u00a0It seems to me that they open themselves to challenges from inside the Party. \u00a0I’m not threatening to support primary challengers, but challenges would not surprise me if voters want to move in a new direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I am active in the Democratic Party at the county level in Virginia, and I work to elect candidates from within my Party. \u00a0Bernie Sanders has caucused with Democrats but is not an activist Party member, and this makes me wonder why I should support nominating him for President on our ticket. \u00a0The answer of course has to do with policy. \u00a0I agree with his rejection of neoliberal economic policy – free trade, lower taxes on the wealthy, personhood for corporations, among other things. \u00a0I also agree with his rejection of foreign policy as usual, where many Democrats look all too much like GOP neocons. \u00a0This resolves \u00a0my concerns, and I would personally prefer to see Sanders win the Democratic Party nomination. \u00a0If he does not, I want to see his candidacy move my Party toward support for his policy proposals.<\/p>\n
In the end, however, it’s no surprise that core legacy Democrats – long time activists and elected officials – want to stick with someone who has supported Democrats her entire life. \u00a0If Bernie wants to influence the Party he needs to join it officially, and direct his supporters to likewise join its activist ranks. \u00a0They can then compete in Party politics, including local level primaries and elections for grassroots Party positions like the one I hold: district chair.<\/p>\n
I voted to send a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention last weekend. \u00a0I welcome his supporters to the Party and their efforts to remake it according to their policy preferences. \u00a0If they do well, the super delegates will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t think Bernie has his best talking points with respect to the Democratic Party super delegates. \u00a0I would respond to questions with this: It’s important to understand what a super delegate is. \u00a0Democratic Party activists who have put in the time and effort to elect Democrats, and the men and women who have won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,67,75,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-democratic-nomination","category-2016-presidential-race","category-bernie-sanders","category-hillary-clinton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foggybottomline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}