Michigan and Florida stuck it to the Man and moved their primaries forward. Oh God no! Our precious system of giving Iowa and New Hampshire an unbelievable level of control over everything is at risk!
Seriously, I’m not buying the alarmism. The Iowa / New Hampshire bullshit is the most undemocratic part of our entire electoral process—topping even the incredibly evil concept of the electoral college. Two million people speak for three hundred million? I’m calling foul too. This is the most heinous shit on the concept of one-man-one-vote that we have ever defended as sacrosanct. Mad propz to Michigan and Florida for saying “fuck that shit.” Their decision was civil disobedience at its finest.
Further, our IA / NH circle-jerk is actually counter-productive. Would Kerry have been so unprepared for Republican onslaught if he’d been tested by more than two million Democratic voters? Or might the Democrats have selected a better candidate than a walking pair of Botox jowls? Unquestionably.
At this point, Obama can seat the delegates gracefully. Clinton is too far behind for them to make much of a difference. And that allows him to appear conciliatory without actually conceding anything of value, like when he declined to argue over the difference between “rejecting” and “denouncing”, conceded Clinton’s nitpick that “denouncing” was more thorough, and just “rejected and denounced”. Obama is a good strategist—I hope he’ll see this option.
And the reason I hope he sees it, is because they’re swing states—the Democrats cannot afford to snub them. Further, Obama can’t, because he’s the nominee. Clinton has gotten into the rule-breakers good graces by going back on her own word and saying she was always for seating them, which is bullshit, but it’s worked—Obama has more catch-up to do. (This is another great reason to put Clinton on the ticket.)
However, I am totally against using the results of their “elections.” No candidates campaigned in either state (a dynamic which favors Clinton due to her higher name recognition), Obama’s name was not on the Michigan ballot, and people were told the election didn’t matter. The last is the most crucial, because if you tell people an election doesn’t matter, and they stay home, and THEN you count the votes, that is when you have disenfranchised voters. Further, and less importantly, it’s unfair to Obama demographically, since Hillary voters are the kind who show up to every election regardless and Obama’s are the new ones who only show up for him; beyond that, smart people know not to vote in pointless elections and dumb people support Hillary. Call me a latte-sipper, but you know I’m right. (And I don’t drink coffee anyway.)
Thus, the only fair way to seat them is a 50/50 split, reflecting both their lack of legitimate elections and their legitimate claim to need to be seated, but I’ll have to live with whatever Obama magnanimously accepts. The bottom line is just that they MUST be seated.
And Clinton MUST be the VP.
I will accept nothing else.
