The Democratic candidate should be chosen by a majority of elected delegates. Non-elected Superdelegates have no place in a democratic (small d) convention. Their existence tells the world that the Democratic party does not believe in government by the people and that the leaders of the Democratic party believe that they should act as fathers who know best. Primaries are supposed to let rank-in-file party members chose their candidate. The Democratic primary lets the rank-in-file chose as long as the choice is acceptable to the party leaders. How are voters going to trust a party that acts like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip? (Remember Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown only to snatch it away at the last moment?) Have the establishment leaders ever considered how many rank-in-file party members they will lose by being undemocratic, untrustworthy, paternalistic?
Note that I did not say that the candidate with a plurality of elected delegates should win the nomination. A majority of elected delegates should be required—majority rule is a basic precept of democracy. If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, bargaining among the elected delegates should take place until a candidate finds majority support. The choice should be up to elected delegates and the Superdelegates should stay out of it. The decision should be made by delegates who represent the current views of the rank-in-file.
"We know best who will be a winner" these establishment leaders say. Well, let us look at the record. Of the five elections since the millennium—five elections in which advocates of The Third Way have been dominant among the establishment leaders—the candidate favored by the establishment has lost in three (Gore, Kerry, and Clinton). The other two were Obama victories. Barack Obama was his own man and was not part of the Third Way crowd. He won by taking strong, clear positions on issues such as getting out of Iraq and calling for universal health care. The Third Way calls for middling positions on issues. (Mush does not attract votes.) Obama also had a very appealing slogan "Yes, We can." Other than Sanders and Warren, the crew of current Democratic candidates often put down new proposals by saying they cannot be done.
Many of the Sanders and Warren proposals are reminiscent of New Deal policies such as social security and regulation of banks—policies to protect and help the working man and woman. These were revolutionary at the time and often called "socialist" by the Republicans. But these policies must have been popular—by the end of the 1930s (New Deal period), 50 percent of the electorate identified with the Democratic party. Under current leadership, especially since the 1990s, identity with the Democratic party has declined to only 38 percent. The establishment leaders are certainly not fathers who know best how to choose winning candidates and increase the ranks of Democrats.
Finally, why are Democratic leaders so afraid of Donald Trump? He only had the votes of 46 percent in 2016. He would not have had that many votes (enough to win in the Electoral College) if he was up against a strong, decisive, well-liked candidate. He was up against Hillary Clinton who was indecisive and not well-liked. Apparently, the Democratic party leaders who backed Hillary Clinton did not see from the earliest polls that she was greatly disliked. This was a serious oversight on the part of those who claim to know best.
Trump has never had a job approval over 45 percent. There is strong evidence that he is highly disliked. For example, the Million Women's March a month after he was inaugurated and the Blue Wave in the 2018 election. What has Trump done that would attract more than his loyal minority of followers? What he has done is put children in cages, given huge tax benefits to the wealthy—a tax cut that hardly showed in workers' pay checks and greatly increased the national debt, forced soybean farmers to seek government handouts because of his tariff policies, did not keep factories from outsourcing, denied global warming when more and more voters are becoming aware of it, etc., etc. Trump is defeating himself.
Superdelegates do much harm to the Democratic party. Make them wallflowers at the convention by not asking them to dance.