this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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[–] Melkath@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

it’s “broken legislative systems are vulnerable to facists”.

She would know all about that. Bernie was killing Trump in the polls. Hilary was neck and neck with Trump.

The DNC cast their votes for who was going to General. A winner was announced. Everyone started to go to the announcement and for the only time in DNC history, the announcement was rescinded and everyone was broken up into different groups. Hilary staffers were observed scurrying around between groups. Then everyone was forced to vote again. THEN Hilary was declared the candidate going to General.

It was all live tweeted. It was all loudly publicized, but noone seemed to notice. Noone seemed to care.

Of course she is now going to make a historically inaccurate statement that casts actual democracy in a bad light.

That hag needs to stay under her rock.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I mean, there was a court case...

DNC's lawyers used the legal defense that they're a private party and can run anyone they want in the general, and because of that, it doesn't matter if they influence a primary election.

They flat out said primary elections are just a performative act, and the judge agreed with them.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago

It's their party, their candidate, and they only let the people vote as a courtesy.

Our "free" country has been run by two private institutions interested only in their own popularity for over 150 years.

We lose. Everything.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which is correct if you look at the history of how primaries came to be. Parties simply nominating someone is exactly what used to happen. The first Presidential primaries started in 1901, and they still don't even happen in every state. Plenty still use the caucus system, where a bunch of insiders (usually local people who have volunteered for the party in some capacity) take off a day from work to decide on a candidate. The caucus system has historically been far more susceptible tampering by powerful interests. It literally was a smoke filled room, and is where that metaphor started.

Primaries aren't some system enshrined in the Constitution or anything. It's just how both parties have evolved over time. The general population gets its say in the election later on. The system now is far more democratic than the one that existed 200 years ago (with the caveat that we don't have to stop with progress here).

Obama would never have gotten the nomination in 2008 if the caucus system was still the norm. The leaders of the party wanted Hillary.

That said, I think this approach would work better if there were more than two viable parties. If you don't like who the Democrats nominated, look the Green Party or Progressives Party or Send Billionaires to Guillotines Party. If they all put a candidate out there selected by party insiders, that's fine, just vote in the general for whomever you think is the best out of a wide range of options. It's far harder for corrupt party insiders to game the system in this scenario--for example, it'd be harder to have a place in all parties and setup the candidates you want so you win no matter what. It's only a problem because we have exactly two parties that matter. Treating multiple parties as private organizations who can nominate whomever they want under any system they want would be fine.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Obama would never have gotten the nomination in 2008

Nope, Obama dominated the cactus states...

https://www.infoplease.com/us/government/elections/campaign-2008-primary-and-caucus-results

That's not the only thing you just said that I disagree with, it's just an objective fact and it's pretty much what the rest of your comment is based on.

[–] frezik@midwest.social -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Roll back to where caucus were 100 years ago. Obama would not have won those. That system was more grossly corrupt.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, if you had said something completely different you might not have been wrong, I agree with that.

But what you did say, is objectively wrong.

[–] frezik@midwest.social -2 points 1 year ago

Except that I was quite clearly citing historical context in everything.

[–] Melkath@kbin.social -3 points 1 year ago

I actually think I vaguely remember this.

Thanks for reminding me.

[–] Kid_Thunder@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't forget that there are many, many appointed superdelegates who each have around 8,000 voting power each.

There were 618 pledges from DNC superdelegates in the 2016 nomination, equaling 4,944,000 voting power (meaning votes equivalent to ~5 million regular voters in the DNC). These are not delegates assigned to states but to specific groups and people in positions in the DNC itself.

For reference, 16,917,853 of the popular vote itself went to Hilary Clinton and 13,210,550 went to Bernie Sanders according to this eye cancer of a website. If all of the DNC superdelegates voted for Bernie Sanders, he would have won the 2016 DNC primaries, even though the DNC voters regardless that the actual regular DNC voters voted for Hilary.

Anyway, I'm only making a point that system was broken.

The DNC did reform this afterwards, in that, if the first ballot doesn't have an absolute majority then superdelegates will cast votes but otherwise, cannot (as a superdelegate).

[–] Melkath@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Nice rundown.

At the end of the day, I think the United States is just too damn big to run this type of system.

Red states are so entrenched in their beliefs and blue states are so entrenched in theirs, there is no way to cap them off with one cohesive federal government.

By design, every advancement is a crucial blow to the other side.

And then the real rub.

We have been at it long enough that there are not 2 parties. There is one mob of selfish egotistical asshats who struggle and toil keep federal office the best place to get richer and more powerful.

We keep calling it a government divided. IT ISNT. They are of one mind, taking a foot but making sure not to take a yard. Giving up a foot but making sure not to lose a yard. And every time the ball moves one half of The mindless masses feel validated, one half of The mindless masses feel violated, and the whole effort had an earmark on page 1672 of 3000 that assraped EVERYONE except the rich and the politician.

My betting money is on the fact that we will crumble like the USSR before I die. No grand civil war two electric Boogaloo. Just a pathetic crumbling.

The difference between US and the USSR is that we don't have a pre USA history/culture to fall back on.