Did you know that you never voted for the president in your life? You can’t vote for president. The president is voted in by the electoral college. You vote for the party’s electors in each state in November, they in turn vote for the president in December. Most often, you don’t know who these electors are or how they were selected.
In the Democratic Party presidential caucus and primary process, a candidate must secure the majority of delegates to win the party’s nomination. There are pledged delegates (delegates that candidates win by way of a voting process such as a caucus or primary) and there are superdelegates (delegates selected by the Democratic Party by way of some internal party process who can commit to any candidate). The superdelegates are a slap in the face to democracy.
Let’s examine the electoral college process in the presidential general election and the delegate election/selection process in the Democratic Party caucuses and primaries. Is this really democracy? Or is it blatant hypocrisy?
In the general election, each state is assigned a number of electors based on the number of U.S. senators (each state has two) and the number of representatives. The number of electors from each state ranges from three to 55. For example, as of the 2010 census, these are some of the electoral numbers in a sampling of states: California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20) and Pennsylvania (20). On the lower end is Alaska (3), Delaware (3), New Hampshire (4) and Iowa (6).
I find it quite suspect to say the least that the first presidential caucus and primary, which get all of the national attention, are held in the smallest and whitest states with a small number of electoral votes, that is, Iowa and New Hampshire. That’s because they want issues that concern the white population front and center. They should start it off in a state that has a multiracial population so that everyone’s issues can be addressed.
The way that this racist, capitalist system assures that it will be ruled by corporate, Wall Street-controlled parties, Democrats and Republicans, is by the winner take all policy regarding securing the state by state electoral votes to become president. In other words, the party that receives the majority of popular votes in any given state receives all of the electoral votes. There is no proportional distribution of electoral votes. There are blue states (Democrats) and red states (Republicans), and they win all of the electoral votes, assuring and securing the two party system in America.
Case in point: In 1992, billionaire businessman Ross Perot launched a third party effort. He founded the Reform Party and was on the ballot in all 50 states. Even though Perot received nearly 20 million popular votes, he received no electoral votes. These were the results of that 1992 presidential election: Bill Clinton, electoral vote 370, popular vote 44,909,326; George Bush Sr., electoral vote 168, popular vote 39,103,882; Ross Perot, electoral vote zero, popular vote 19,741,657.
There are a total of 538 electoral votes; to become president, you must receive the magic number of 270 electoral votes. That’s why candidates campaign in only 11 to 15 states in order to secure the 270 electoral votes. There is a history of candidates winning the popular vote and losing the electoral vote. Al Gore did it in the 2000 presidential election. Gore won the popular vote with 50,992,335 to George W. Bush’s 50,455,156. However, Bush was selected president by the courts, winning 271 electoral votes to Al Gore’s 266 electoral votes. Is this democracy or blatant hypocrisy?
To secure the democratic nomination in the caucus and primary process of the Democratic Party, a candidate must receive a majority of the delegates. Once again, the people are not voting for the candidate directly, they are voting for the pledged delegates of the states. There are a total of 4,763 delegates. A candidate needs 2,382 delegates to win the Democratic Party nomination. There are 4,051 pledged delegates won by voting and 712 supersaturates selected by an internal party process that can commit to whomever they choose. Pledged delegates are proportionally distributed based on the percentage of the votes a candidate receives in any given state as long as they get at least 15 percent of the vote. There is no winner take all in this process for Democrats. The Rev. Jesse Jackson championed this change, from winner take all to proportional distribution of delegates, during Democratic Party rule change battles in 1968, 1972 and 1976.
In 1984, the Democratic Party created a new group of superdelegates—party and elected officials who would go to the 1984 convention uncommitted and cast 14 percent of the ballots. This had the effect of stabilizing support for establishment candidate Walter Mondale over insurgent candidates Gary Hart and Jackson.
This process is so flawed that Bernie Sanders can win an overwhelming majority of the rest of caucuses and primaries by 51 percent to 49 percent for Hillary Clinton and lose the nomination because Clinton can secure an overwhelming majority of the 712 superdelegates. Case in point: Sanders virtually tied Clinton in Iowa and trounced Clinton in New Hampshire and yet Clinton was way ahead in the delegate count after New Hampshire, with 394 for Clinton and 42 for Sanders. That’s because Clinton already secured 360 of the superdelegates, who can choose whomever they please. Something’s wrong with that picture.
In terms of who I am voting for in the Democratic presidential election, I say this: Clinton is a conservative Democrat who, if elected, will be serving with a Republican Congress. That’s a dangerous proposition! Neither Clinton nor the Republicans are an option for me! Sanders was a possibility. However, I learned that he said no to a study on reparations for people of African descent. He said it was divisive. Are you serious? He also supports the state of Israel, the Afghanistan war and voted for the crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of Black people. Unless Sanders commits to a targeted agenda for Black people, like he does for every other group, my write-in candidate will be a protest candidate that goes by the name of “Reparations now!” I am tired of the Black vote being taken for granted. Stay ready for the revolution, that’s the only solution!
