Seib: Delaney's Complaint: Democrats' Primary System Tilts Left

[question everything]

(Gerald Seib is the WSJ political analyst and I have found his analyses interesting and accurate. Certainly not rabid like the rest of the editorial board and guest commentators.)

John Delaney has spent more than a year toiling in the Democratic presidential primary vineyard, working on the assumption that there would be—or at least should be—a place for a centrist not named Joe Biden. What he has found, he says, is a primary-season process that tilts toward candidates of the left, which, not surprisingly, is the direction the party has moved.

“Democrats I talk to I would describe as problem-solving Democrats, meaning they want their elected officials to just get things done that improve their lives,” says Mr. Delaney, a former congressman from Maryland and, before that, a successful entrepreneur. “And so I kind of think of most Democrats as centrist in that regard. But this primary process, I think, has skewed the process to the left.” The campaign Democrats set in motion for 2020, Mr. Delaney argues, “was nationalized way too early,” robbing some of the ability of the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire to do their traditional job of winnowing the field. “And I think that has skewed the energy to the left.”

He argues that a large reason for this early nationalization—and for the move left—has been the rules the Democratic National Committee established for inclusion in the party’s nationally televised debates, which provide the crucial oxygen campaigns need. Those rules set thresholds for both standing in national and early-state polls and, crucially, the number of small-dollar donors attracted. That requirement for many small donors, Mr. Delaney argued, pushes candidates to appeal on social media to the activists on the party’s left, who are most likely to jump in early with their dollars. “If you need to raise a dollar online, you don’t talk about bipartisan solutions,” Mr. Delaney says. “You talk about extreme partisan positions.”

He offers this example: “If I were to post something about getting rid of the Electoral College, it would do really well on social media among Democratic activists. If I were to post something about expanding early childhood education, and talking about a bipartisan way to make that happen, it would go over like a thud on social media. No one cares. So the feedback loop really encourages people to run on things that are more extreme.” If that’s the case, this dynamic has fed and amplified the rush of support for Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and pressure on other candidates to follow them leftward.

Mr. Delaney, by contrast, has predicated his campaign on the idea that voters, tired of extreme partisanship and polarization in Washington in the era of President Trump, actually are going to be looking for somebody who unites rather than divides. On the campaign trail, Mr. Delaney has laid out a moderate, bipartisan platform: invest in infrastructure and research, reform the criminal justice system, establish a national-service program for young Americans, support free trade and President Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, improve Obamacare rather than move toward a government-run Medicare-for-all system. Yet it has been hard getting a hearing. Mr. Biden takes up much of the space that’s available for such a message.

More..

https://www.wsj.com/articles/delaneys-complaint-democrats-primary-system-tilts-left-11572271810 (paid subscription)

[crazytown]

1. 'Making all his nowhere plans for nobody'

[abqtommy]

2. "Delaney's Complaint" sounds like a mental illness!

[redqueen]

3. He has misread the audience.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287327111

[ritapria]

4. Memo to John : It's over ...It never began

Join the GOP , Johnny : Challenge Trump in the Primaries

[Blue_true]

6. Delaney is a proven democrat.

I don't see him leaving the party or trashing it like Gabbard is doing.

Delaney has an issue with the race favoring the most involved party voters, but every single primary does that, the most activist party members are the most likely to vote and contribute money early on.

[Blue_true]

5. It is insulting how he dismisses anyone that don't agree with him.

There is a guy in the race who is far richer than him, so by Delaney's definition, that richer man has been rational and solved lots of problems, that man is also a definite lefty.

Hell, George Soros is certainly a lefty. According to Delaney, Soros massive wealth makes him far more of a rational problem solver than Delaney.