Lessons learned this primary season
Jamie Thomson
Issue date: 6/6/08 Section: Ed-Op
Part of living in a representative democracy is trusting our representatives to do the right thing, but more importantly, holding them accountable. If the superdelegates were to turn the tide of the election, there would be an uprising. People would question the validity of the system, and change would come about if deemed necessary. But for now, the party seems to be making decent decisions.
In 2006, the Democratic National Committee decided on a calendar for the 2008 primaries that aimed to reduce the power of Iowa and New Hampshire, who have traditionally dictated the direction of the primaries since they hold their contests first. Primaries should be spread out in order to give candidates time to campaign in all the states fairly; however, when a few states get all the attention at the beginning of the election cycle and the rest "don't matter" after a certain point, there is clearly something wrong with the system. It would appear that the party is slowly attempting to rectify this, but change can't be expected to come overnight.
This year, Florida and Michigan jumped the gun by moving their primaries up in defiance of the party mandate, and they were in turn stripped of their delegates. The candidates were effectively forbidden from campaigning there, though they were not required to remove themselves from the ballot. Senator Clinton was the only one on the Michigan ballot, and coincidentally the only candidate who has pushed for these two delegations to be reinstated at the convention. Interestingly enough, Clinton was quoted in an October 11 New Hampshire public radio broadcast as saying, "It's clear this election they're having [in Michigan] is not going to count for anything."
The party decided on a compromise May 31 that allows the delegations to be seated at the convention, but each representative will have only half a vote. It was a somewhat generous compromise given that the states had a clear understanding of the original penalty for moving their primaries up. There is no reason that they should be fully reinstated, as there must be some sort of sanction in order to discourage other states from defying the party regulations in the future and causing complete chaos in the primary calendar.
In 2006, the Democratic National Committee decided on a calendar for the 2008 primaries that aimed to reduce the power of Iowa and New Hampshire, who have traditionally dictated the direction of the primaries since they hold their contests first. Primaries should be spread out in order to give candidates time to campaign in all the states fairly; however, when a few states get all the attention at the beginning of the election cycle and the rest "don't matter" after a certain point, there is clearly something wrong with the system. It would appear that the party is slowly attempting to rectify this, but change can't be expected to come overnight.
This year, Florida and Michigan jumped the gun by moving their primaries up in defiance of the party mandate, and they were in turn stripped of their delegates. The candidates were effectively forbidden from campaigning there, though they were not required to remove themselves from the ballot. Senator Clinton was the only one on the Michigan ballot, and coincidentally the only candidate who has pushed for these two delegations to be reinstated at the convention. Interestingly enough, Clinton was quoted in an October 11 New Hampshire public radio broadcast as saying, "It's clear this election they're having [in Michigan] is not going to count for anything."
The party decided on a compromise May 31 that allows the delegations to be seated at the convention, but each representative will have only half a vote. It was a somewhat generous compromise given that the states had a clear understanding of the original penalty for moving their primaries up. There is no reason that they should be fully reinstated, as there must be some sort of sanction in order to discourage other states from defying the party regulations in the future and causing complete chaos in the primary calendar.
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