Party Over Principle? Where Democrats and Republicans Agree

FILE PHOTO. Presidential primary caucus (Photo credit: Joe Mabel)

Bernie Sanders “crushed” Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, so you’d expect him to have a big lead in delegates to the Democrat National Convention, wouldn’t you?

But he doesn’t.

That “crushing” defeat of Clinton garnered Sanders fifteen delegates, leaving nine delegates for Clinton.  But the Democrat Party has something called “superdelegates,” and six of the eight superdelegates in New Hampshire have already endorsed Clinton, so that crushing defeat actually resulted in a tie: each candidate has 15 delegates from New Hampshire, with two remaining ones yet to endorse either candidate.

Whoa!  But doesn’t that negate the expressed will of the people of New Hampshire, you ask?  Indeed it does…and that’s exactly what was intended by the Democrat Party.  Let me explain –

As Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor wrote (“Are Superdelegates Hillary’s Secret Weapon?”), the concept of superdelegates arose out of the perceived chaos of the party’s open nomination process from 1972 through 1980.  It was “chaos” as perceived by the Democrat National Committee and other longtime party leaders, who had been stripped of much of their old power to influence the nomination by post-1968 reforms.  Absent that power, in 1972 liberal Senator George McGovern was nominated, which didn’t make those leaders happy since they believed – correctly, as it turned out – that he’d be soundly defeated.  He was.

The party leaders were just as unhappy with the risk of outsider Jimmy Carter, and used the Reagan win in 1984 to institute reforms, including these superdelegates to “act as a moderating force.”  In other words, to return to the Party leaders the power to greatly influence who gets nominated, regardless of what the voters wanted.  You see, it’s about “winning” for the Party, either Party; everything else – the will of the voters, the welfare of the nation, etc. – is secondary.

So, who are these ‘superdelegates’?  Typically a Democrat luminary – usually an elected official or party official – who qualifies automatically as a convention delegate.  However, unlike normal delegates, who must vote for the candidate who wins their vote in the primary, superdelegates can vote for whomever they please.  Of the 2,382 votes needed on the convention floor to win the nomination, 712 are these superdelegates, almost 30% of the total.  Aside from the influence both Democrat and Republican Party leaders wield with campaign funds, endorsements, committee assignments, etc., having the power to direct a third of the convention votes goes a long way towards ensuring that the Party establishment, and not the American people, decide who the nominee will be.

To date, over half (394) of the superdelegates have pledged support for Clinton, whose ties to longtime Party bosses is well-established.  So, despite barely winning in Iowa and losing big in New Hampshire, Hillary already has a wide lead in delegates, despite the expressed will of the people!  This is the result of the “I’m not into politics” attitude of most Americans: it leaves political power in the hands of the political party bosses, who most definitely are “into politics”!

Are you beginning to see, American citizen, how the political game is played?  And make no mistake, the GOP plays the same rough game.  They, too, want to decide who is nominated, and to retain the inordinate power they wield over Republican Congressmen, Senators and officials, and over the nomination process.  This election they are also faced with the spectre of Republican voters nominating an “unelectable” candidate (read: not beholden to or under the power of the GOP establishment).  The media (the Communication Arm of the Democrat Party) are currently putting the major focus on Donald Trump, a political “outsider,” yet the GOP themselves have stated they can probably work with Trump, since he’s a “dealmaker” (their words, a particularly revealing, and ominous, statement).

The potential candidate the GOP establishment cannot and will not work with, however, is Ted Cruz who, even after winning Iowa and finishing third in New Hampshire (where Jeb Bush spent $36 million, Rubio $15 million, Trump $2 million and Cruz spent just $500,000), has suddenly all but disappeared from the media coverage.  Doesn’t it make you wonder why the leftist media is giving so much “free” publicity to Trump?  Perhaps because they see him as beatable in November, while it is Cruz, the real outsider, who poses a major threat to a Hillary regime?

Folks, politics isn’t complicated.  If you are a career politician, your first priority is your own position, power and future, not all those pretty promises made on the campaign trail in order to get that position and power.  And their political futures lie largely in the hands of the two major political parties, so like a former Democrat Speaker of the House intoned to every freshmen group of representatives, “Boys, in order to get along, you have to go along…,” most do just that.  Which is why you almost never see a true renegade oppose the Democrat or Republican Party establishments.  Bernie Sanders has been an Independent or Socialist his whole career until last year, so what does he care about riling the Democrat Party leaders?

Ted Cruz was elected as a Tea Party candidate, a Constitutional Conservative who has actually done what he said he’d do: oppose the spread of big government and un-Constitutional actions by Congress, even when other Republicans “go along.”  He’s the true outsider, and the one the GOP powers-that-be fear most of all; they’d rather lose with a Trump candidacy (which maintains their chokehold on the Republican Party) than win with a Cruz candidacy.  Think about that.  If you’re fed up with the “politics as usual” dictated by the amoral, unprincipled and deceitful GOP establishment, you vote for Ted Cruz.  A vote for any other candidate, including Trump, is a vote to continue politics as usual.

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Formerly a liberal and an atheist, Paul E. Scates served as a Marine in Vietnam and is a lifelong student of American history, politics and culture. A former contributor to national website TooGoodReports.com, he writes his staunchly independent Conservative and informed Christian commentary for his fellow ordinary, working Americans, the “we, the people” who are ultimately responsible for preserving our Constitutional liberties.

Paul E. Scates

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