A Contested Convention Is Exactly What the Democratic Party Needs

[Ferd Berfel]

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/contested-convention-exactly-what-democratic-party-needs


Bernie Sanders will go to Philadelphia with more pledged delegates than any insurgent in modern history. Here’s what he could do with them.

Joe Biden understands something about the Democratic Party and its future that his fellow partisans would do well to consider. “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big—we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic,’” the vice president told The New York Times in April. “C’mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I’m not part of the party that says, ‘Well, we can’t do it.’” Mocking Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Bernie Sanders for proposing bold reforms, Biden dismissed the politics of lowered expectations. “I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” he declared, leading the Times to observe that, while Biden wasn’t making an endorsement, “He’ll take Mr. Sanders’s aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton’s caution any day.”

Unwittingly or not, Biden made an even better case than Sanders has for taking his insurgent campaign all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. If the party is going to run in 2016 on a “do much more” agenda—as opposed to triangulating around the center—the Vermont senator’s supporters and like-minded Democrats, including Clinton’s progressive backers, will have to force the issue. Taking the Sanders insurgency to the convention is the paramount vehicle for placing demands that are ideological and, as Biden’s comments suggest, also strategic. That’s one reason why Sanders promised in a statement on April 26 to go to the convention with “as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform”—despite the fact that Clinton’s delegate advantage now all but guarantees that she will win the nomination.

What Sanders is proposing is a necessary quest—and a realistic one.

[Metric System]

1. So the Republicans have a unifying convention, while Democrats fight? Batshit crazy.

[floriduck]

6. Take it up with VP Biden. Those were his words.

[Metric System]

7. That was an interpretation of his words. Biden has not called for a contested convention.

[JoePhilly]

8. He said no such thing.

The fantastical thinking around here as become astonishing.

[JPnoodleman]

11. Not everyone is down with GOP Part 2 Electric boogaloo.

[rhett o rick]

16. You don't seem to like the democratic process. Why am I not surprised. I bet you would just

like Goldman-Sachs to pick our candidate. That's exactly the big money fat cat corruption we are fighting.

By the way Democrats have always fought, it's the conservatives that have always marched in line.

[Metric System]

24. Democrats haven't had a contested convention in decades. Kennedy vs Carter was damaging.

[rhett o rick]

25. Are you afraid? Maybe Hillary should just drop out and go to work for Goldman-Sachs, directly. nm

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. It's also what the country that's supposed to be a democracy needs. K&R

[CrowCityDem]

3. Again: with only two candidates, it cannot be contested. Someone wins on the first ballot.

[Metric System]

4. I can't even imagine the outrage if Hillary had tried this in 2008, even though she was much closer

in the delegate count.

[rhett o rick]

17. She acquiesced so she could get the SoS job. Win-win for the oligarchs. nm

[Metric System]

23. Oh, so we're just making stuff up now.

[msongs]

5. I bet the donald would pay to have that happen nt

[tritsofme]

9. This is Fantasy fiction. There is no contest, Hillary won.

[Vincardog]

12. A candidate needs 2,383 votes to win. How many does Hillary have?

[tritsofme]

13. More than enough for a ceremonial first ballot victory.

SDs will ratify en masse the winner by hundreds of pledged delegates and millions of votes, they will not endorse the loser of the contest.

This convention will be no more contested than 2008, you are living in a fantasy world if you think otherwise.

[Vincardog]

35. How many delegates is that?

[HubertHeaver]

10. I was an Obama delegate at the Texas State Convention in 2008.

Hillary had not yet conceded and the PUMAs were out in force trying to turn delegates to Herself. Being day-glo white, I was a target and heard a lot of "those people" comments.

Rumor had it that the candidate herself would attend in order to fight for delegates and carry the fight to Denver.

Another rumor said she had already conceded. When the limo arrived and Chelsea got out, I figured the concession rumor was true. I didn't think she would pull the rug out from under Chelsea.

[Mz Pip]

14. We were gleefully cheering

when it looked like the GOP would have a contested convention because it would create such a shitstorm of negativity.

Why would we want that for the Democratic convention?

1968 was a fiasco. We ended up with Nixon for 8 years.

Be careful what you wish for.

[bvar22]

15. I'll stand with Joe Biden.

Unlike the Obama v Hillary Primary of 2008 where they both agreed on most policy positions, there is a World of difference between Hillary and Bernie Sanders. Those differences need to be spotlighted on the national stage.

The DNC Clinton surrogate, DWS, did a good job hiding Bernie Sanders from the voters during the early Primaries. I believe many would change their preference had Bernie been given a level field from the DNC, and the Convention is the last place where minds can be changed.

“Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

--- Frederick Douglass



[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center]
[center][/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]

[rhett o rick]

18. Thanks for the post. I like your quote. It's generally the conservatives that hate debate and

the democratic process.

Here's one of my favorites:

“Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.”

Eugene Debs

[anigbrowl]

32. 'hiding Bernie Sanders from the voters'

[Dem2]

19. This is actually an opportunity for Hillary

Of course, now that I say this everybody will hate the idea, but it's quite simple.

She could use this as an opportunity to show magnanimity toward Bernie and his supporters.

[PufPuf23]

20. Short of violence and other criminal acts, I would be pleased if supporters of

Sanders and other Democratic party members that do not support Clinton or are displeased with Democratic leadership raise major ruckus.

Then at the convention, the dread duper-delegates switch their vote to Sanders for the good of the Democratic Party, USA, and world.

How can the super-delegates be held to votes when they did not know Bernie Sanders as a candidate or the other issues that have taken place since Fall 2013?

The super-delegates should do their job.

[Demsrule86]

22. Delegate count

He made his case to the voters who actually choose the nominee...they voted for someone else...end of story.

[PufPuf23]

31. However unlikely, the super-delegates could decide to vote for other than Hillary Clinton or

for Bernie Sanders at the convention.

Isn't that the reason for the super-delegates?

In the event that Democratic voters select a poor candidate, the wisdom of party elders and insiders can correct.

[yourpaljoey]

26. agreed

[Demsrule86]

21. Had Hillary had the temerity to stay in the race

She would have had the most delegates ever for a second place candidate...but it does not matter she lost and so has he... ...first ballot ...Hillary is the nominee and I would have Bernie escorted off the premises. If he risked the general in that way he is dead to me and I would think the Democratic party that was stabbed in the back.

[Gothmog]

27. Sanders is lying about a contested convention to keep the small dollar donations flowing

[COLGATE4]

33. Well, you know that Weaver and Devine aren't going to pay

themselves! Keep those $27 flowing up to the very last possible minute. Milk it.

[oberliner]

28. "more pledged delegates than any insurgent in modern history"

What about Jimmy Carter?

[brooklynite]

37. Carter wasn't an insurgent; there was no leading candidate in 1976.

[baldguy]

29. Too bad that the rules don't allow for it.

[Skink]

30. Kind of hard to have riots in free speech zones

Let it play out. Let's watch and see what happens in Philly the cradle of our Republic.

[LiberalFighter]

34. John Nichols is way off base on this.

[brooklynite]

36. Too bad they won't have one

"The most pledged delegates for an insurgent" isn't the measure we use for nominating a candidate. Clinton will have the most pledged delegates, and notwithstanding Sanders talking about contesting the race, the Superdelegates will stick with Clinton because Sanders won't be able to make s compelling case for them to do so (hint: tlking about national head to head polls will result in derisive laughter).