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LiberalFighter

(50,783 posts)
Mon Apr 18, 2016, 01:50 AM Apr 2016

Bernie is wrong about super-delegates:

This article was posted in the General Discussion: Primaries forum but does not appear to have been in this group.

Bernie is wrong about super-delegates: Why his tortured Dem Primary arguments try to have it both ways

1) MYTH: Statewide popular votes precisely determine the delegate split. This myth essentially goes like this: whoever wins the popular vote should’ve received a proportional number of overall delegates, even though that’s not exactly how delegates are distributed. Proportional, yes. But not according to statewide results. It’s like the difference between the electoral vote and the popular vote in the general.

So, contrary to the conspiracy theory that Hillary and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are “rigging” the primaries against Bernie by awarding Hillary with delegates she didn’t earn, the rules for splitting delegates were approved well in advance of the primary season. In fact, there was plenty of time for Bernie Sanders and his advisers to familiarize themselves with the rules since the latest version was approved by the DNC back in August of 2014.


3) MYTH: Superdelegates are evil. We’ve all seen the garment rending. The superdelegates, they say, are anti-democratic weapons of the establishment — except when the superdelegates can be exploited to Bernie’s advantage. First, let’s get this out of the way: Bernie Sanders is a superdelegate. That not only means he’s part of the establishment, it also means he’s part of the anti-democratic establishment plot. Bernie supporters have made lots of noise about how the superdelegates will swing to Bernie when they finally come around to recognizing his momentum. Likewise, as we’ve already discussed here, the superdelegates should only support whomever won their state. So, given how Bernie only has 31 superdelegates, he’d have to pick off Hillary’s superdelegates ostensibly from states where Hillary won the popular vote. Put another way, you can’t be revolutionarily opposed to the establishment while also manipulating it to your candidate’s advantage.

And regarding the anti-democratic thing, the superdelegates have never once overruled the candidate with a pledged delegate majority.
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Bernie is wrong about super-delegates: (Original Post) LiberalFighter Apr 2016 OP
Yeah, BS tries to have it both ways.. every which way but true. Cha Apr 2016 #1
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