What Does A Superdelegate Do?

[SecularMotion]

The Democratic Party's Rules Could Spell Trouble For Bernie Sanders

That was fun, wasn't it? After months upon months of campaigning, jockeying for position, attacks, concessions and twists of fate, you're finally right in the thick of presidential primary season, with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary in the rear-view mirror. Which means pretty soon, you'll be hearing about a familiar slew of nomination race verbiage. For example: what does a superdelegate do, and for that matter, what does the title even mean?

In case it's a completely foreign term to you, maybe the most recent national conversation about superdelegates came in 2008, in the context of the primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Back then, even as Clinton's hopes were flagging and fading in state primaries across the country, she and her supporters were holding out hope that the tide could be turned by the influence of the superdelegates.

So, what's the deal? Think of it like this: regular delegates are committed to a particular candidate, and awarded on the basis of who wins out in the primary races. In other words, you win, you get more delegates, and those delegates vote during the national convention to pick the nominee. Just like the general election and the electoral college, it's not actually a pure democratic process. You're just voting to pick the people who'll actually vote for the nominee.

But superdelegates aren't awarded through a primary vote, and they aren't committed to a certain candidate ― they're primarily made up of party and elected officials, and they get to support whoever they please. And for an insurgent campaign like, say, that of Bernie Sanders, that can be a huge problem.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/140894-what-does-a-superdelegate-do-the-democratic-partys-rules-could-spell-trouble-for-bernie-sanders

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Fight costumed delegate villains in Gotham delegate city?

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Superdelegates: Faster than a speeding building! Able to leap tall bullets in a single bound! nt

[enigmatic]

2. If Bernie wins the most states and committed delegates

and the superdelagates throw it to Hillary, you can kiss goodbye the millennial and Indy vote forever and fracture the Democratic Party beyond repair.

[gyroscope]

3. Attempt to steal elections from the voters

and void the democratic process?

[Hortensis]

8. Attempt to impose stability on a democratic process

that always has potential to get disastrously out of hand!

With the wrong press and propaganda, for instance, voters might have chosen Donald Trump or Scott Walker yesterday, had either been on our NH ballot. Of course, the national and state party structures would have looked for legal ways to keep them off the ballot, so they may have some say in blocking people's choice that way, too. If they hadn't, though, our superdelegates, typically political professionals, would be working to make sure we didn't end up nominating a fascist for president.

And, yes, this stuff diminishes what some mean by the "democratic process," but, after all, that process is not solely directed to the individual's right to choose. The democratic process is how we secure governments of the people, by the people, and for the people. It has to provide a stable structure to secure all the elements that go into local, state and national electoral wellbeing and prevent collapse, subversion or other disaster befalling the democratic process.

Though a lot of people feel various elements in many states can and should be improved, those improvements will always require tradeoffs of one good for another good, fixing one problem by creating or accepting another, hopefully lesser one.

[gyroscope]

9. The oligarchs get to decide the outcome!

The unwashed masses are too dumb to decide for themselves! So much for democracy.

[Hortensis]

11. Please. Hike up those panties or shorts? The "oligarchs"

are running scared. They have been since we elected Obama and their long happy run of gains under Bush threatened to come to an end. Sure, they're powerful and fighting BIG TIME.

In 2009, according to Jane Mayer's Dark Money, the Koch brothers held a conference which 18 billionaires attended and an unknown number of others participated in from the background. That count does not include attendees whose wealth is in the hundreds of millions. The conference's purpose was to organize to block Obama's administration, subvert Democracy by placing more of their paid choices in all areas and levels of government to impose their far-right ideologies, and of course continue accruing more money and power to themselves. And, I think we can assume, tamper with the vote.

They've had many successes, but they're scared anyway. That's because we have 150 million voters and they are only some of the 30,000 or so who control most of the wealth of our nation.

That they exist at all as a power block is OUR fault, a result of our negligence. But what we created in a couple decades out of ignorance, stupidity and laziness, we can destroy on purpose even faster. And We the People have an absolute duty to do so.

[white_wolf]

4. Subvert the will of the people?

That's the only logical reason I can think for a party to have un elected officials vote in their nominating process. I don't know why we tolerate it

[Hortensis]

16. Stabilize the process. Protect it from suversive

influences intent on destroying the party. Protect voters from the GOP self-destruction syndrome, though power to do this is actually extremely limited.

[Downwinder]

5. BMOC

Get a VIP ticket to the convention and all activities.

[azurnoir]

6. so what happens to the party if the people say one thing and the superdelegates another?

[CBGLuthier]

7. If superdelegates are used to overturn the will of the voters, the party is dead.

WTF would anyone in their right mind support a party that does not care about the will of the people. I know her followers are snickering and anticipating this as the Ace up their sleeve.

[99Forever]

10. Do it and see what happens.

I fucking dare them.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Right!

I fucking dare them!

[Gothmog]

12. Super delegates are most concern about the party as a whole

The Super Delegates are elected officials and party officials who care about the party as a whole. If these elected officials and party leaders believe that Sanders is going to kill down ballot candidates, then they will not support Sanders.

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. Switch horses in the middle of the stream.