Big Dogs Weblog

The DNC and the Will of the People

by Big Dog on Apr 23, 2008 at 15:03 Political

For the past several months we have heard the leadership of the Democratic Party say that the will of the people should not be undone.  We have heard that super delegates should vote for the person that the people selected and that those super delegates who are in elected positions should follow the will of their constituents.  I believe that the super delegates should select whomever they personally want regardless of the will of the people but only because that is how the rules are written for the super delegates.

However, If the Democrats decide that the will of the people must be obeyed then they need to come up with a way of looking at the people as a group of subsets.  Just because a state voted for Obama does not mean that every elected super delegate from that state has to go for him as well.  Suppose a state has 10 Congressional districts and 2 of them are in heavily populated areas and the population of the 2 is greater than the population of the other 8 combined.  Now, suppose Obama wins the 2 heavily populated ones and Hillary wins the other 8.  Obama would have enough votes to “win” the state but in reality he only won two Congressional districts out of 10.

If the DNC wants the elected super delegates to follow the will of their people then, in the above case, Obama would get 2 of them and Hillary 8.  I wonder how many states are actually like this?  Barack Obama won a few of the southern states because heavily populated areas of black voters voted for him.  I have a suspicion that if they go back and look at all the states to see how the Congressional districts played out they will find that Clinton won more of them than Obama.  This would mean that she would have more super delegates from among the elected ones. 

If they truely want to have elected officials represent their constituents then they need to ensure that they look at each Congressional district to ensure the will of the people of those districts is followed. By playing this will of the people per state outcome, many people will get shortchanged.

I also want to see how John Kerry and Ted Kennedy handle this idea that the will of the people should be heard. Hillary Clinton won their state handily so, given the whole will of the people mantra, those two should be casting super delegate votes for her. They both endorsed Obama. I bet they both will say that the will of the people must be followed and they will cast votes for Obama anyway and they will justify it by saying he won the national number. Kerry and Kennedy do not represent the nation, they represent the people of their hjome state and that is the only will that these two should be ensuring gets followed.

The Democrats are crafty and no one has ever challenged them on these things. I would like to see the MSM actually look into this and show the numbers if the elected leaders are forced to follow the will of their constituents (and only their constituents). I am surprised the Clinton camp has not pursued this route.

For political masters they sure do make a lot of mindless mistakes.

Tags: Clinton, congressional district, Obama, super delegate