Anyone else having buyer's remorse over the delegate situation in Florida? The national party was right to penalize the state party for jumping their primary forward as it did, but on the other hand is it really appropriate to completely take away the voice of voters on an election day?
While party politics is different than actual elections, they don't call it the Democratic Party for nothing. Obviously, Ryan's Take is not to prod Hillary closer to actually winning this thing, but a full majority of Florida's Democratic voters felt that way. Should the party really be in the business of telling them otherwise - of party-sponsored voter disenfranchisement? Regular Democrats, after all, had absolutely no control over the state party's decision.
This could be the first time it's ever been uttered on this blog, but perhaps here's one instance where the Republicans had it right: penalize Florida by stripping them of half their delegates. Or, better yet, strip the state of it's Super Delegates - the people who actually pushed moving the primary up - but let the people still have their just votes. Either way, it's a stiff punishment that sends a message to state parties everywhere, yet still honors the will of Florida's voters. Anyone feel differently?
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3 comments:
You're right, Ryan. Punish the superdelegates. Democratic voters in Florida are somebody we are going to need this November.
True, the DNC said if they moved the primary they'd strip the delegates. But didn't Florida know that before they decided to move it? Doesn't that make them partially responsible?
I don't know that stripping all of the delegates is the answer, but I wouldn't put it all on the national folks.
Absolutely, Ernie - it's the state party's fault and they should pay some of the price.
But I think the national folks have given the wrong prescription. Joel is right: we need to count on Florida's voters in '08 - and telling them that their votes don't count, because of what their politicians did, isn't exactly a recipe to help them pull the lever for a Democrat in November.
Personally, stripping the state party of its super delegates - the people who broke the rules, or could have spoke up and stopped the nonsense - makes a lot of sense to me. If that makes too much sense for the national party, then at the very least don't take away all of Florida's voice at the convention, because it's not a good way to reward people for actually caring enough to vote in the Democratic Primary.
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