Apocalypse Now or Not?

To paraphrase Mark Twain the rumors of the impending death of the Democratic Party are highly exaggerated.  I’m not going to show off the amazing powers of foretelling the future that many others here like to exercise and predict what will happen between now and the convention but I will share a couple of thoughts.

We are going to hear many versions of tortured logic from both sides on what is the role and the responsibility of Superdelegates in picking our nominee.  A few observations are obvious.  First the idea that Superdelegates have to vote for whichever candidate has the most elected delegates seems illogical as if they’re just going to rubberstamp whoever has a lead at that time what use are they at all?  Just let whoever has the most elected delegates at the convention win and do away with the Superdelegates.  Since they exist they must be there to serve another purpose.  This purpose will be discussed by others in detail in increasingly vitriolic posts as the convention nears so I will demur from doing so now.

Having the Superdelegates throw their support to whoever has the most raw votes will be discussed, another interesting idea but should they vote the way of the total raw votes nationally or those from their state.  Is there any reason why a California Superdelegate should follow the lead of the voters of say South Carolina or Nebraska?  Another interesting question we will hear much about.

Another question is should anyone even be allowed tell Superdelegates how to vote?  Their constituents certainly have the right to ask them to vote a certain way on legislation or risk being voted out of office but what principle of democracy says they have to alter their vote for someone seeking office to satisfy others?  This too will receive scrutiny along with other slants on the issue but I said I wished to address the impending apocalypse we have been promised if Superdelegates don’t perform as some might wish them to.

The party, the country and the losing candidate will all survive no matter who the ultimate winner is this summer.  This has, in reality, been one of the mildest political battles of any length in our nation’s history.  It is only because it is becoming one of the longest nomination campaigns in memory and that combined with blogs, talk radio, network news, cable news and every other media and consumer outlet going 24/7 voters are being inundated with political chatter continuously.

The problem is too many people have mingled their own identity into the battle.  It should be left to the two candidates to slug it out however they see fit.  Instead we have become very much like the situation where two 8 year olds have a fight in the park and then the parents become involved and things escalate.  The next day the kids are playing together again but a life long blood feud has developed between the parents.  The one thing I can assure you is after the convention when people here and other blogs are still fighting like cats and dogs the two candidates will have moved on in their new roles.  One as the nominee for president and the other back to the Senate where he or she will be doing everything possible to defeat John McCain and put us in a position to appoint the next 3 Supreme Court judges and start restoring the good name of our country in the Middle East and the rest of the world.

Actually I might just have said, "Lighten up people" but then you would have had less to disagree with me on.