Superdelegates: The Democrat Aristocracy

The so-called "Democratic" party exercises some distinctly non-democratic methods in the choosing of it's Presidential candidates. There are people within the Democrat party whose opinions apparently matter more than those of the common people of the party. These people are known as Superdelegates.

The Superdelegates are basically an elite class of Democrats who have the option of overriding the popular will of the rest of the party by virtue of their status within the party. These elite individuals include all Democrats currently in Congress, all current Democrat governors, all current members of the Democratic National Committee, all former Democrat Presidents and Vice Presidents, all former Democrat Senate leaders, all former Democrat Speakers of the House, all former Democrat Minority leaders, and all former Chairs of the Democratic National Committee.

Each of these individuals is afforded their own vote as if they were a delegate. They are not obligated to follow the will of the party majority. If the race is close enough, they basically get to decide who the party nominee will be, regardless of who got the most actual (popular) votes. The technical term for this is a Brokered Convention.

The empty egalitarianism of the Democrat party is clearly exposed here. They are not really in favor of true equality, but only the illusion of equality. Granted the Republican party also exercises a variant of this system, but to a far lesser degree (due both to tradition and to the fact that Superdelegates have far less power and autonomy within the Republican party). While both systems should be abhorrent to everyone who values political equality, the Democrat system is far more offensive due to it's blatant hypocrisy. This is the party that claims to defend the rights of the little people, yet does not want to little people to actually decide who leads them. Made even more poignant in the wake of the 2000 elections, in which many (many) Democrats whined and complained about Bush's victory over Gore by an electoral majority. "He wasn't elected, he was selected" they said. Apparently is it not as offensive when it is Democrat Elites who are doing the selecting.

In recent interviews one Democrat Superdelegate was quoted as saying they intend to vote with the majority this time around, even though they are not obligated to do so. It remains to be seen if they will follow through with this promise. But either way, this twisted parody of democracy needs to come to an end in both parties. It can't happen soon enough for me.