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Voting With the People

By wt

Those who say the Super Delegates should vote with "the people" are doing a disservice to your intelligence.

They're pretending to be focused on democracy when, in reality, there are any number of ways to "vote with the people."

This article, which starts out well, ends up falling into the same trap (and ultimately exposing its bias toward Obama.)

But it's not a lose-lose situation. There is one way to escape this dreadful fate: vote with the people.

Choose the candidate who receives the most votes nation-wide. Or, at least, pledge to vote for the candidate who wins your home state of Wisconsin.

...

[I]f you and your fellow superdelegates decide this election by choosing the candidate of your own liking, I will hold you personally responsible for destroying millions of Americans' last remaining morsel of faith in our fragile democracy.

Wait, we're already seeing contradictions here. If Obama wins Wisconsin but Hillary wins the popular vote, which way should Jason Rae go?

What if Obama wins more states (as he likely will) but Hillary wins more voters? And how do you count caucuses in these equations, which typically have thousands fewer voters participating?

And what about the superdelegates who say they owe a commitment to how their constituents vote? Are they voting with "the people"?

Hard to know.

So if you're one of the many very biased people to tell others how to cast their vote, at least provide some clear framework for them. And, if possible, a framework that doesn't clearly favor your preferred candidate.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).