FINALLY a petition to DUMP the SuperDelegates SYSTEM Nationwide !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ISeeA BrightFuture]

Maine's Democratic Party has asked its superdelegates to vote for a presidential nominee in proportion to the actual results of the state's caucuses.

If Maine can dump superdelegates, so can every other state Democratic Party.


Click below to add your name to the following petition going to every state Democratic Party:
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12237

Democratize your Democratic Party by asking superdelegates to vote in proportion to actual primary results in their state.

We all can be like Maine: Dump Superdelegates
Maine's Democratic Party has asked its superdelegates to vote for a presidential nominee in proportion to the actual results of the state's caucuses.

This amounts to eliminating superdelegates by turning them into ordinary delegates pledged to follow the will of the voters.

[Betty Karlson]

1. I can get behind that. K&R

[Arkansas Granny]

2. The will of the voters has netted Donald Trump for the Republican party.

The role of the super delegates, as I understand it, is to keep something similar from happening to the Democratic party.

[Lizzie Poppet]

11. Something similar HAS happened to the Democratic Party.

We have a candidate with unprecedented negatives, under federal investigation, and beholden to a tiny segment of American society for millions and millions of dollars. If horrorshow candidates are what the superdelegate system is supposed to guard against, then it's looking like an epic failure of a system.

With Trump the nominee on the other side, this election should be an historical landslide. Instead, the party manages, via stacking the deck, to likely nominate the one contender that can make this a close race. Suicidal...

[Hortensis]

17. Not exactly. A Senator who despises Democrats

and the liberals who make up the majority of Democrats, who only registered as a Democrat to use the party's national platform and hugely expensive apparatus, and who drew a bunch of left-wing anti-Democrat extremists out of wherever they've been vegging to throw rotten eggs at the Democrats for him, came close to being our nominee.

Good luck on thinking THAT is going to convince them to get rid of the superdelegate system. And that's not even considering a nutcase hijacking the party on the right.

Everyone agrees the system is due for some tweaking here and there, but that's a different matter.

[Lizzie Poppet]

20. "A Senator who despises Democrats..."

Stopped right there. No time or inclination to attempt discussion with someone who pikes a whopper like that onto the plate right at the start.

Buh-bye...

[Hortensis]

32. We all should respect party professionals more.

Most of these political insiders know far more about political realities than the typical voter does. They eat, drink, breathe, and live by them. They also are all either directly acquainted and perhaps have worked with with one or both of our presidential candidates, or they are acquainted with others who are and talk about them.

Seriously, why would an amateur outsider assume she knows more than senators, congressmen, cabinet officers, governors, and many others? Hundreds of highly accomplished Democrats who want to accomplish things in office and know that depends on the strength of their party, but some of whom are also immediately concerned with staying in office, endorsed Hillary. Almost none endorsed Bernie.

That should have given you great pause and caused to you wonder why. Repeatedly over the election season.

[1StrongBlackMan]

31. Hortensis, Just a quick question ...

If I started an on-line petition demanding that you, from this point on, eat only purple cauliflower every Tuesday, and it was signed by millions of anonymous strangers, who will neither purchase, nor cook the cauliflower ... would you give damn?

[Hortensis]

34. Lol. I think I'd have trouble sleeping. Reassure me

these purple cauliflower cultists won't come for me next and, no, I wouldn't give a damn. It'd make a great post for DU, though.

[bigwillq]

3. It should follow the will of the voters

Case closed

[anotherproletariat]

15. The voters have proven time and time again that they cannot analyze and discern fact from fiction.

Heck, people are blindly and violently loyal to some old guy who promises them free stuff without even looking into the feasibility of such promises. (And yes, I know this can refer to the fringe candidates on both sides of the spectrum.) This is clearly a result of shifting our focus away from education for so many years. If we don't educate our people, we cannot expect them to vote based on anything more than basal instinct.

[dreamnightwind]

36. Pathetic, and for your rejection of democracy in favor of wealthy insiders, ...

welcome to ignore. Shaking my head.

[anotherproletariat]

40. (I ignore ignorers) You just made my case. Clearly you don't even know what a "rejection of

democracy" means. If anyone has rejected democracy, it would be the socialist in the race.

[Thinkingabout]

26. Then the super delegates will flock to Hillary, she has over three million more votes, the will

of the people will have to go with the votes, its over, thanks for saying it is okay for the super delegates to endorse Hillary.

[bigwillq]

39. As they should.

The person with the pop vote lead should be the nominee.

[Faux pas]

4. Kickin' with gusto!

[firebrand80]

5. Maine's law takes effect in 2020

For this year they have asked their SDs to go along, but there's nothing binding them.

[brooklynite]

7. Maine DID NOT pass a "LAW"

The State and the State Party cannot override the rights that the DNC chooses to give to people it defines as Superdelegates. At best it can order its State Party officials to try to change the DNC rules.

[firebrand80]

9. I'm apparently misreading this

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/279194-maine-democrats-vote-to-bind-superdelegates-beginning-in-2020

Does the State party control it's own SDs?

[brooklynite]

12. No...they are appointed and empowered by the DNC

[LiberalFighter]

33. No they don't. The DNC determines the number of both pledged and unpledged delegates for each state.

They also determine how delegates are allocated to candidates. And the rules they must follow. Convention delegates don't get to make up their own rules.

If a state tries to change the rules the DNC can impose sanctions such as removing or reducing delegates like they did in 2008 with Michigan and Florida for holding their primaries outside the schedule.

Convention delegates don't have the right to change those rules either. That is done by DNC members after approval by the Rules & Bylaws committee. The DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee is different from the RBC for the Convention. Anything that delegates could do at a convention could not apply to future conventions. They don't have that authority.

US Uncut is not a reputable media source either.

[snowy owl]

44. They are a club. An exclusive club. They make their own rules.

But SDs can choose for whom to vote.

[brooklynite]

6. Yay! A meaningless online poll!!!

Let's each fill it out a dozen times! AND, let's give our contact information to an organization so they can ask us for money!

I suppose we could actually get involved in Party organization and leadership and lobby the DNC to change the rules, but that sounds like hard work...

[NurseJackie]

13. Promptly followed by endless whining about ...

... "why am I getting emails from XYZ asking for money?"

Even the sites that let you "login with Facebook" get info about you.

These online polls are as useful and effective as standing on one's front porch and screaming their demands.

[MADem]

16. +1,000,000! GRRRR GRRRR -- How did THEY get MY name!!! LOL!!!! nt

[Tarc]

8. Too bad that you can't see how ill-advised it is, and how it has no teeth unless

condoned by the DNC.

All it does is add more proportionally-won delegates to the ones that the state already...has.

No one is gaining or losing anything under this equation. Also, not all superdelegates are elected state officials, many are DNC members, former chairs, and so on. Should Walter Mondale's superdelegate vote be forced to be committed to Sanders just because Mondale still resides in Minnesota?

Larry Cohen is an adviser to Sanders, the former Communication Workers of America union head, and a superdelegate, but tied to Washington DC for his "home". If Clinton wins DC as expected, might Cohen be compelled to vote for her?

This is like a Trump-esque proposal that's a big piece of red meat for the diehards, but which is almost comically short on practicality.

[Land of Enchantment]

10. K&R and signed. nt

[MADem]

14. I think the super delegates are a separate entity from the pledged delegates.

I don't think the voters of Maine have a say in that. It's a club, the DNC--a private club. It's not a government entity. THEY are the ones who assign these delegates--they have nothing to do with the voters. Their job is to support the PARTY, not the voters.

So I'm having a hard time understanding how "Maine" can dump super delegates. I am also challenged to understand how putting your name on a "Yell/Shake Fist at Sky" petition-cough/mailing list so that you can be trolled for dollars based on your POV/cough--will do any good.

Further, if you actually READ WHAT IS WRITTEN at the link, it's not telling "Maine" to "dump super delegates." The petition ASKS super delegates if they would please vote proportionally, thank you very much.

The super delegates, who represent the PARTY, and not the VOTERS, are under no obligation to do this--and most of them (the ones who have declared their preference, certainly) will likely not do that. Some do it as a matter of routine, anyway, but their vote is as a representative of the PARTY, not a representative of the voters or the state.

From the link:

Maine's Democratic Party has asked its superdelegates to vote for a presidential nominee in proportion to the actual results of the state's caucuses.

I suspect the super delegates are here to stay, at least in the near term, notwithstanding this petition to undo all of the changes the party has made to prevent another 1972.

[w4rma]

18. Hillary: The "No, we can't ticket". You Hillary supporters have serious authoritarian issues.

Hillary also says that no we can't do anything about Wall Street crime, either.

[MADem]

42. "You Hillary supporters" are DEMCRATS. Get over it.

The authoritarian is the one who bellows orders, calls names, and then accuses people of the behavior they manifest themselves.

I suggest you take a hard, hard look in your mirror.

[tonyt53]

19. Ain't gonna happen

Dream on Bernie-ites, this is not going to happen. The Democrat Party is not about to allow outsiders (independents, Republicans or whoever) to chose their candidate. And that is really what this is all about. Bernie, and his supporters, want to chose someone to run as a Democrat, that is not a Democrat. They just can't accept the fact that they are not going to get their way. Bernie has already lost two of his pledged supers, he is risking losing more or maybe even most of them before the convention.

[bvar22]

24. "Democrat Party"

When you signed up for the job, didn't they tell you it was "The Democratic Party" you would be disrupting?

"Democrat Party" is used by Rush Limbaugh, Faux News followers, and other hard right conservatives.

[dreamnightwind]

37. LOL, well done

[Bettie]

21. I want them NOT to be lobbyists

lobbyists should never be a deciding factor in any election.

They should not be given more of a say than their own vote in a primary or caucus.

[Jitter65]

22. That's ok but it won't happen for this election so get over it! nt

[CobaltBlue]

23. This has become a deal-breaker for me. (Meaning, get rid of the superdelegates system.)

[Ferd Berfel]

25. THey won't dump it before the Convention if they think

Clinton will need them.

....maybe for NEXT time

[enid602]

27. supers

Better yet, they should start a petition to get rid of superdelegates unless they go with Bernie.

[hrmjustin]

28. I have nothing against banning supers but just so we all aware Hillary

would win even if the supers were eliminated.

[Thinkingabout]

29. This is another attempt of oligarchy by a portion of the Democratic party and the smaller number

should not be trying the ruling portion.

[Demsrule86]

35. Maine?

You mean the Dems that let Lepage win wow..so not exciting.

[dreamnightwind]

38. This primary has revealed the absolute corruption of party insiders

I cannot in good faith support a party that uses superdelegates as a hedge against the people electing someone the corrupt insiders don't approve of.

We, being the Democratic Party, must get rid of superdelegates, and we need to loudly insist on it until it's done, or start an actual democratic institution to compete from the left (yes that is about the only leverage we have, we must use it, whether just as a deterrent or to actually do it).

[MADem]

43. LOL--if you're that worried about super delegates, then you will probably

go along with closing all primaries, too, hmmm? After all, parties SHOULD have the final say as to who their standard bearer is, right? You don't want Republican-leaners or right wingers picking OUR candidate, right?

Only way to prevent that is to close the primaries to REGISTERED DEMOCRATS ONLY.

The super delegates' job is to keep the priorities of the PARTY first and foremost in their minds. They use their best judgment to decide which candidate is best for the PARTY. Of course, if we kick all the independents and unaffiliated voters of libertarian/reform/socialist/green stripes out of "OUR" primary, we'd have less need for super delegates.

Can't have it both ways.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. What?!? And, make the Democratic party live up to its label!!!