There is an election this year, and my fellow Democrats and I are preparing for the Wisconsin primary on Feb. 19.
If you didn't know before, now you do. I have heard a lot of talk - as I do every year - about how people aren't going to vote"" because the system is flawed or because their vote doesn't count. This kind of talk makes me sick.
Of course everyone's vote counts in the democratic primary (well, unless you live in Florida or Michigan). Let me start again - everyone's vote counts, some just count more than others. Much more.
What do I mean? Well, take Jason Rae, for example. He is a 21-year-old junior at Marquette University who has never voted in a presidential election. As a superdelegate, his vote is going to count this year - about 10,000 times more than yours.
Like most good stories, this one starts in 1968. Most of you are too young to remember that in '68 the Democratic National Committee nominated Hubert Humphrey. There was some disillusionment within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota ran a decidedly anti-war campaign calling for an immediate withdrawal from Vietnam. He was passed over in favor of Humphrey - despite the fact Humphrey hadn't entered a single primary and supported the war in Vietnam. In an appropriate gesture (which still brings a tear to my eye), Humphrey delivered his acceptance speech while protesting youth outside the Chicago convention were bludgeoned with clubs and tear gassed.
As bad as it seemed at the time, there was a silver lining to the '68 convention. The McGovern commission - staffed by Kennedy and McCarthy supporters - passed sweeping reforms to the nomination process.
The commission increased the role of primaries and decreased the power of party delegates in the selection process. These reforms returned some power to the general Democratic constituency. They aided the nominations of dark-horse candidates McGovern in '72 and Carter in '76, who before the reforms would have simply been passed over.
In 1980, however, the Democratic Party insiders struck back. Desperate to take back some of the power that had been ceded in '68, the 1980 convention developed ""superdelegates."" Don't get confused - they aren't really super.
That's just a euphemism. In my opinion, superdelegates are as 'super' as friendly fire is 'friendly,' but I digress.
These delegates make up about one-fifth of the approximately 4,000 delegates. The superdelegates consist of all
Democratic members of Congress, but at least half are DNC officials ranging from special interest advocates to local politicians.
It is estimated that the support of one superdelegate is roughly equivalent to 10,000 popular votes in a state primary.
They are free to determine who they will support despite the way their respective states vote.
In most years these delegates have little sway in the nomination process, but this year will most likely be different.
The race between Obama and Clinton is so close that, at this point, the nomination will most likely be determined by superdelegate counts.
These circumstances, in effect, take the nomination process out of the hands of the American people and lay it squarely in the hands of the superdelegates - the few individuals comprising 20 percent of the total delegates and representing only themselves.
To be fair, it should also be said that technically the general public calling themselves Democrats don't have a 'right' to decide who the nominee is or isn't.
A political party is an independent group and the general public is not obliged to be a member in any way.
Everyone is given the choice to decide on Nov. 4, but the nomination process is technically something in which the DNC allows us to take part. That is to say, we may expect to have a voice in the process, but it is not constitutionally guaranteed or protected - but even so, who would have thought the Democratic nomination process would be so undemocratic?
Matt Jividen is a senior majoring in history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
