I have a slightly different take on this whole Florida Primary delegate seating issue than what I've been hearing in the news and in the forums. I was not happy when I found out Florida's January Democratic Primary would not count. For Florida, there would be no campaigning, no chance to get to know the candidates, no organizing on the local level, and perhaps worse of all, no voice in who gets to be our Democratic nominee.
At the time we were told in no uncertain terms by Democratic party leadership and by the candidates themselves that Florida was off limits and the votes would not be counted no matter what. Many people I talked to just decided to stay home, if their vote wouldn't count, why bother.
I thought about whether to vote in the primary long and hard. I felt at the time the National Democratic Party was making a big mistake by dis-enfranchising the people of Florida, dis-enfranchising me, and I was mad. But again, this was Florida where voting fraud and errors is part of our past. So perhaps it was to be expected.
In the end I decided not to vote. Sort of my own form of useless protest in the face of a useless, meaningless vote. Besides, even if I had voted it would not have been a meaningful vote as I had no chance to see how the candidates would campaign to get my vote.
The fact that Clinton won the primary is 100% moot. We will never know if full and free campaigning by all the candidates would have changed the course of the Primaries. I don't think it's any one's place to interpret the results either. Nothing short of a full and clear re-vote with full and free campaigning by all nominees would be able to tell us that. Even then the results would be tainted by the aborted earlier attempt.
So I was dis-enfranchised once and now I am in danger of being dis-enfranchised a second time.
Tomorrow, if the Rules Committee decides to seat any members of the Florida Delegation, they will, in essence, be voting for Florida. I don't get a say in their decision. But it will count as my vote none-the-less. It's as if I went into the voter booth and the ballot was already marked for me by the party. That's no vote at all.
Aside: I was totally in favor of holding a re-vote. A full election, not in violation of party rules, is the only way to officially count the will of the party. But that too is a moot point now.
I understand the Democratic Party is between a rock and a hard place. They don't want to upset Florida Democrats even further by refusing to seat them. But they have to be careful about not going back on their word too. After all, Florida continues to be loom as a swing state in the Presidential election. Voting to seat some or all of the delegates tomorrow may seem like a way to placate the democrats.
But we were told the January Primary was no primary at all. The votes would not count, the primary was a sham, and Florida would have to live with the decision it made to break the rules. For the Rules Committee to go back on that now would make the rules look more like guidelines. It would encourage future attempts to circumvent the rules. It would do absolutely nothing, since at this point the nominee is a political and mathematical conclusion anyway.
Hillary has burned too many bridges behind her as she marched forward in her campaign of mutually self-assured destruction. Even if she does pull the rabbit out of her hat at the convention, the supply lines of voters won't be there, unable to overcome those burnt bridges.
At this point I think the Rules Committee's only move is the uphold the rules and vote not to seat Florida or Michigan at the convention. Sure the delegates can come and have a voice on all the committees and such, but when it comes to counting the vote for the Presidential nominee, sorry.
Florida Democrats made this bed. Now they'll have to lay in it. They have a lot of work ahead of them to get Democratic Voters excited about November no matter who the nominee is. When it comes down to it, what happens at the Convention no longer matters anyway. What matters now is November.
All I ask is that the Rules Committee does not attempt to vote for me and dis-enfranchise me a second time. If they want to have my vote, then they needed to hold a free and full Primary election with full participation from the candidate's campaigns. Anything else is a sham.