If you’ve followed any progressive blog lately you probably noticed that things are heating up between supporters of Hillary and those of Bernie Sanders.
This is to be expected because until now, there has been little competition. The South voted Hillary, and the West and North voted Bernie. But now, in case you hadn’t noticed, we are in a Home State for both candidates… Bernie grew up there; Hillary was its Senator for a term…
So like a football rivalry would split a team of co-workers, one should expect the same to occur here.
And to cut to the chase here is what is at stake… Democratic voters had assumed Hillary would be this year’s nominee since Obama won in 2008. It had an inevitability surrounding it; one you could almost count on.
It’s like two high school lovers making plans since 5th grade to graduate high school and get married… They’ve literally planned their whole lives around it.
But then, in steps a college junior who becomes smitten with one of the two. They meet, talk, and he inspires the partner that settling is perhaps not the best idea as a plan A. Settling for Plan B may be advisable if one first fails at getting plan A.
Now friends of this person are divided. Should she go with her dreams even if they don’t work out, and take the chance for a wonderful life? Or…… should she settle and keep the loyalty of one who has been there since day one of puberty, knowing full well how it will turn out because it hasn’t changed any over 7 years?
And that is the dilemma in the Democratic Presidential Primaries. Those who put loyalty first over all else, are actually mad someone might take away what they’ve worked so long to obtain….
Those who care for the person herself, and want her to have a great life where dreams do come true, want her to follow her heart….
It’s a challenge faced by everyone, really… at some point in their life… You will always wonder what might have been if you never give it a try… But if you settle in a comfort zone, you do so knowing that you will be comfortable because nothing will change….
With Bernie, there is an amazing opportunity…. Absolutely amazing in its chance to benefit todays adults, their children, and grand children….
kavips 
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April 11, 2016 at 12:33 pm
john kowalko
The biggest threat to a Sanders’ primary victory is the taint of the “super-delegate” process, a perjorative of the status quo within the party that intends to preserve an aristocracy of power within the party that hinders any outside challenges to policies or power-brokers.
Nothing is more threatening to a representative democracy than discouraging voters or disenfranchising them. Another incarnation of voter suppression and denial of access to the ballot box has surfaced in one of the most unlikely places. It is created within the Democratic Party by party rules and under the guise of the privileged “super-delegate” appointment. Clearly a creation of homage to a bygone era of aristocratic recognition within the party powerful it allowed those at the top of the pyramid of power, often beholden to the status quo of party politics, to be given access to the party convention and front row seats from which to preen. This mimicking of the English style of a “House of Lords” and a “House of Commons” would seem harmless enough until the “super-delegates” presumed that their appointment precluded any vote of the party faithful yet to come.
Although legally placed as a democratic party rule it is no less offensive than abrogating the party memberships’ vote or simply putting a match to the ballot box when these “super-delegates” preempt the primary election and pledge their allegiance and delegate vote to one candidate or the other before the votes have been cast and counted.
Let me make it perfectly clear that my challenge to this system is not based, in any way, on the individuals who are seeking the nomination. I do not care, in the least, about which candidate or candidates will be named or chosen for this benefit. It is the fact that preemptive pledging of a delegate vote will result in voter disenfranchisement, discourage voters from going to the polls, (viewed as an exercise in futility thereby suppressing the vote), and render the ballots yet to be cast as meaningless. It is an almost arrogant presumption on the part of those appointed “super-delegates” to think that they have the right and/or privilege to force their personal choice (or that of the party apparatus that they feel allegiance to) upon the voters of record before their votes are recorded.
They can still enjoy the honor and recognition of their positions within the party but they should have absolutely no right to pledge their delegate vote anywhere other than to the majority dictate of the people who actually vote.
Representative John Kowalko