Why Does the DNC fear Democracy?

I used to enjoy the lead ups to conventions.  This was especially true when I was much younger and they had less of an advertising feel and more of a rough and tumble display of democracy-at-work.  I actually enjoyed watching both Teddy Kennedy and Jesse Jackson try to pull stunts, and then the Ford-Reagan Republican struggle was classic.  I enjoyed watching Pat Buchanan make trouble and think I really got the message of how dangerous the religious right was during the convention that featured Pat Robertson prominently.   I think it was how I became addicted to politics they way many folks do to sports.  I remember watching all the old great news anchors, the balloons falling (all originally in black and white) and the silly hats and outfits.

Now conventions seem to have originated more from Madison Avenue than from Philadelphia and James Madison.  The DNC’s attempt to make this convention go as smoothly as possible for Obama has been farcical.  An extremely close primary outcome has–in the past–led to a very fractious convention.  The DNC is doing everything in its power to stop dissent and suppress the true workings of democracy.

I continually feel the need to say this to any one that will listen:  NO ONE PERSON GOT ENOUGH DELEGATES IN THE PRIMARY/CAUCUS PROCESS TO WIN THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION.  There is only a presumed winner.  There are no losers yet, other than perhaps the 18 million Democratic voters who are being tossed aside like road kill on a hot Louisiana highway.

Today’s CNN is just awash with the misinformation of winners and losers.  This from Jack Cafferty, curmudgeon of the Obama Cheerleading squad:

A humorless organization called “The Denver Group” ran an ad in a Capitol Hill newspaper demanding that Hillary’s name be placed in nomination at the convention and demanding that speeches be allowed in support of her nomination. They’re just full of demands.

And if they don’t get their way they are threatening a revolt. The ad says, “Will Howard Dean and the DNC turn the Democratic Party into the Boston Tea Party?” More demands. They demand a roll call vote on her nomination… presumably after those speeches they are demanding. This despite the fact that she lost and dropped out of the race months ago.

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/12/placing-hillary%E2%80%99s-name-in-nomination/

Cafferty calling the Denver Group humorless is about the definition of the pot calling the kettle black. Why is the press so willing to go along with subversion of the process?  I would think, at the very least, they would love their ratings if the convention would turn into a floor fight.  There have been MAJOR floor fights and the Democratic and Republican Parties have both survived just fine.  Both President Roosevelts are products of floor fights.  Teddy Kennedy had NO problem with floor fights when it was HIS name in nomination.   What is the deal with putting on a convention that every one knows markets a false unity?

The DNC and the Obama campaign have done everything in their power to trivialize Obama’s detractors. PUMA has been marginalized by the DNC as “Republican” phenomenon, a “New York” driven phenomenon, a group of “bitter-enders” from the Clinton camp and other more horrible names mostly having to deal with being racist or being a middle aged woman.  Can’t they just admit that the presumed nominee has serious flaws, began losing races after the Wright and Ayers associations came out, doesn’t appeal to blue collar voters, Jewish Americans, the elderly, older married women, and Catholic voters and figure out something to do OTHER than cover it up with folks bussed in from Illinois to fill a football stadium?

At a time when the polls are showing clear advantage to democratic candidates, why can’t the top of the ticket get over the 50% mark?  Why is Obama in a dead even race with an elderly republican white man, well-known for anger problems and pretty much party of the Republican party elite?  And quit saying RACISM as an answer for everything!  It’s deeper than that.

We need an OPEN, REAL democratic convention where every one can get their issues and agendas out on the table.  We do not need a suppression of democratic voices so that Obama’s massive ego can be fed and his small niches of constituents appeased like some group of demigods.

In another section of CNN’s site, this is posted:

It was a lot more common in the early days of the modern primary era. In 1972 (the first year when primaries, not conventions, determined the nomination), six losing candidates had their names placed in nomination at the Democratic convention.

In 1976, three unsuccessful candidates (including Brown) were placed in nomination at the Democratic conclave.

It didn’t happen at all in 1980. (Sen. Edward Kennedy, who ran against President Carter in the primaries, didn’t place his name in nomination; Rep. Ron Dellums of California, who was not a candidate in the primaries, did.) Former Vice President Walter Mondale’s two main opponents in the 1984 primaries — the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart — both went through the process that year, and Jackson did it again at the 1988 convention after losing to Michael Dukakis in the primaries.

Overall, between 1972 and 1992, 10 Democratic candidates who lost the nomination in the primaries went on to have their names formally placed in nomination at the convention. Significantly, however, none of them publicly endorsed their opponent months before the convention, as Clinton did in June.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/12/clinton/index.html?iref=werecommend

There is some real historical perspective in this piece.  Pep rallies for presumed nominees are not the purpose of national party conventions.  To try to subvert the political process into a marketing campaign for a candidate who is clearly NOT a consensus candidate is not only disingenuous, it is unspeakably un-American.

The democratic party and its leaders are coming perilously close to spawning a third party.  They are putting their fingers in their ears and singing la-la-la, while millions of democratic voters are speaking truth to them.  They trivialize us at their very peril!  Unless, they let all the crap they let go on during this election process float its way up to the top of the septic tank during the convention, they are going to be awash in the stink of suppressing voters for a long time.  By forcing unity, they are increasing the chances of a permanent schism within the progressive community.  One that a damaged, but still functional Republican party will run through with vehemence.

It is time to open the process up to democracy and let it work.  This is the only American and democratic thing to do.  We will not shut up and go away and you better be prepared to deal with it now or for a very long time.