Now that the actual contracts between the Hillary For America campaign and the Democratic National Committee have been made public and we are finding that Donna Brazile lied about what they said, setting off the Bernie Sanders dead-enders and their de facto Republican-fascist allies, it's clearer than ever that things have been screwed up at the DNC pretty much since Howard Dean stopped being the head of it. If Tom Perez can unscrew things, along with Keith Ellison, the deputy chair, remains to be seen. I think that both should use the occasion of the blow up over Brazile's book as a reason to cut ties with those who supported them but whose factions insist on doing damage to the Democratic Party in ways that will only benefit Republicans.
The rules and practices of the DNC have to specifically bar people in positions such as the one Brazile had from misrepresenting what happened during their period in the leadership. That should be in the contract with substantial penalties to be paid if they do that. They should also be changed to give the DNC more independence from campaigns and, sadly enough, sitting presidents. What Barack Obama did to the DNC during his tenure as the nominal head of the Democratic Party should be enough to prevent that happening again. For anyone like that slimy worm, Rahm Emanuel, to have had any influence in that shows that so enabling such people should be avoided.
With what Brazile left out of the book excerpt I read, important facts that the contract specifically stated that nothing in it impinged on the impartiality of the DNC during the nominations process, that other candidates could make similar agreements with the DNC, etc. it is plain as the nose on Rupert Murdoch's face that she's cashing in at the ol' Hillary hatin' gravy train. Someone who does that has made themselves entirely untrustworthy. I don't trust anything she says without verification, from now on.
Here is a summary of things I'd propose as ways to prevent this happening again and possible benefits:
- Bar participation of non-Democrats in decisions of the Democratic Party, barring people who have not been members of the Democratic Party for at least a decade or two from being eligible for the nomination for President, taking control of our nominations process through a by-mail vote restricted to people registered as Democrats on the last day of the year before the election for which the nomination is made, would go far in solving most of the problems with the nominations process.
- Insulate the choice from Republicans who want to screw with our elections in open primaries - and when I say "Republicans" you can read that to include Greens and other non-Democrats. It would ensure that only registered Democrats made that decision, bypassing state open primary laws and laws that effectively open our party up to ratfucking.
- It would shield the choice from Republican-fascist attempts to prevent legitimate voters from voting and would likely produce a higher turnout than traditional primaries and the anti-democratic caucuses. It would have that great benefit of getting rid of the caucuses altogether, removing one of the greatest travesties of the current system.
- It would fix the calender, making the Iowa and New Hampshire domination of the process moot and would give an entirely more representative sample of registered Democrats a determination in the process. I don't know when the process should start but there should be a time limit of when the ballots are sent to registered Democrats and when those would have to be post marked to be counted.
While it would be expensive and would have to be overseen by a disinterested entity known for its integrity (Elections Canada, for example?) if it were done with transparency and with integrity it might even quash the conspiracy mongering of assholes like Jeff Weaver and the pseudo-Democrats of 2016, many of whom were Greens trying to screw the Democratic Party. I doubt it would be as expensive, in the end, as what we've got now.
It certainly wouldn't be as bad as the insane Nevada system or any of the insane but less insane caucus insanity. It wouldn't be as insane as what happened in Washington State in which the far higher participation primary was discounted in favor of the pathetic turn out at the caucus.
For the life of me, I don't know anyone who thinks that caucuses aren't a travesty but obviously people who want to manipulate the system like them and have the power to retain them. Anyone who would do it out of "tradition" is an idiot who shouldn't be listened to. It's a tradition that like Jim Crow should never have been, to start with. Anyone who thinks caucuses are useful in organizing a local or state party is even stupider. There are better ways to do that than to screw with the party nomination for President.
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