Posted by
Logical Party on Thursday, March 06, 2008 7:00:00 PM
by David DiBello
Hillary Clinton has won the Texas Primary by 99,000 votes out of 2.8 million votes cast. As of this writing, Obama is leadingthe caucus with 37% cast by 1400 votes out of a total of 40,000 votes. The Texas Hybrid has served the purpose of proving how useless and undemocratic caucuses have become.
I’m sure there was a time, long before the advent of the internet, phones, transportation or candlelight that caucuses seemed a folksy, close knit way of airing debate and voting for a candidate. This was around the time of mass use horse drawn carriages when the population was around 80 million, and winners were reported via newspapers days later.
The population explosion has caused many people’s votes not counted due to the restricted nature of caucuses, usually the “party regulars” who attend and the limited number of caucus sites. 110,000 votes will be cast in the Texas Caucus, which is 3 percent of the total primary votes cast. Equally confusing in Texas is the same people who cast their vote in the primary, participate and vote in the caucus. It is an antiquated and absurd method in this age.
We already endured the perceived injustice of having a President elected by the Supreme Court in 2000. Many protested this non democratic way of electing the next leader of America. What about the caucus states which only represent a fraction of the overall state electorate? What about discounting Florida and Michigan. Is that democratic? Ridiculous rules established by Howard Dean and the DNC, and no candidate should have signed onto disenfranchisement. In Hillary’s case the error was being mesmerized by talk of inevitability and not thinking the caucus states would factor in the end result, while others were being mesmerized by Obama’s oratory. Fortunately she hedged herself by leaving her name on Michigan and Florida’s ballots.Furthermore, if pledge delegates don't have to follow the will of the electorate, why should the super delegates? Pledge delegates are awarded disproportionately, with candidates who win by a 58-42 margin basically splitting delegate count. The super delegates have the luxury of following their conscience, and at the last stage of the process. They will know at that moment the momentum of candidates, and which one can win general election; the caucus winning Barack, or Hillary the mega state victor?
This all will come down to the final and inevitable election reform, which will be switching to either a regional primary, or a one day national primary. This will be hard fought adjustment to be absorbed by those nostalgic states which have gone first for so long, but democracy dictates that we get a fair vote not influenced by prior states returns, the media, or a limited number of the electorate.