# Superdelegates - again? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 1, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326 "2020-02-01T07:03:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/1 "2020-02-01T07:03:16Z")
Politico article: [DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/31/dnc-superdelegates-110083) > [@](#): > > A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention. > > … about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested. Can this make sense? My (probably naive) view is that this was a very questionable idea in 2016, and would be met with anger and outrage if used in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/2 "2020-02-01T10:09:04Z")
Yeah Bernie Bros would be even angrier this 2nd time around. That being said, it’s likely Bernie will never catch up to Biden “naturally.” The DNC ought to just let it play out. Even Bloomberg might overtake Bernie. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/3 "2020-02-01T11:30:11Z")
I’m starting to think that if the DNC take this measure, and if Bernie’s candidacy suffers in any way as a result, and as either a direct or indirect consequence, Bernie doesn’t get the nomination, the Bernie Bros should just disengage. If the DNC is going to use dirty tricks to disenfranchise Bernie _before_ the nomination, then they’ve no right to expect engagement from his supporters _after_ the nomination. Maybe four more years of Trump fucking the country up with scandals, unaffordable tax cuts, and a shoot first, ask questions later foreign policy will teach them not to impose their ideas about electability on the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/4 "2020-02-01T11:58:58Z")
“Small group”… I think this is nothing more than random chatter. There are hundreds of DNC members, and this seems to be talking about six. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/5 "2020-02-01T13:34:42Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > I’m starting to think that if the DNC take this measure, and if Bernie’s candidacy suffers in any way as a result, and as either a direct or indirect consequence, Bernie doesn’t get the nomination, the Bernie Bros should just disengage. If the DNC is going to use dirty tricks to disenfranchise Bernie _before_ the nomination, then they’ve no right to expect engagement from his supporters _after_ the nomination. Maybe four more years of Trump fucking the country up with scandals, unaffordable tax cuts, and a shoot first, ask questions later foreign policy will teach them not to impose their ideas about electability on the rest of us. This is exactly why Bernie has a ceiling to his appeal. ETA: not to mention, your threat of more Trump policies is probably what will happen if Bernie IS the nominee, so it ain’t much of a threat, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/6 "2020-02-01T14:55:51Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > This is exactly why Bernie has a ceiling to his appeal. Care to elaborate? I’m simply advocating that Bernie be treated fairly. If the DNC are determined not to do that, they shouldn’t expect anything at all from Bernie’s supporters, least of all their votes. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/7 "2020-02-01T15:15:03Z")
6 members is what, 2% of the DNC? There are probably more antivaxxers there. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/8 "2020-02-01T15:15:09Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > ETA: not to mention, your threat of more Trump policies is probably what will happen if Bernie IS the nominee, so it ain’t much of a threat, is it? If the DNC handicap Bernie, and Bernie’s supporters (quite reasonably) decide that, since their opinions _clearly_ aren’t welcome, they’re gonna sit 2020 out, then Trump is 100% guaranteed to win. No question. It wouldn’t even be close. If the Bernie Bros go on strike and stay at home en masse, then Biden or Warren or whoever will be _royally fucked_. Since no Democrat can hope to win without the Bernie Bros, it’s in everyone’s interest to treat Bernie _fairly_. No-one’s saying you have to _gift_ him the nomination. Just don’t obviously rig the system against him. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/9 "2020-02-01T15:17:40Z")
I’m a Bernie supporter and I’d vote for whoever the dens put up, even if they do dirty tricks like this. I don’t see how four more years of trump and four more years of appointing republican judges will be superior to Biden as president. All the dem candidates are vastly superior to trump. Having said that, it’s going to take a long time to make the democratic party open to more progressive agenda items. Sanders is just one step in the process of remaking the democratic party into something stronger and more willing to fight for the public. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/10 "2020-02-01T15:26:02Z")
I fully expect the DNC to try their best to have actual Democrats as the nominee, and this should surprise no one. You want the support of the party then join it. I’ll vote for whoever is running against Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/11 "2020-02-01T15:31:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’m a Bernie supporter and I’d vote for whoever the dens put up, even if they do dirty tricks like this. I don’t see how four more years of trump and four more years of appointing republican judges will be superior to Biden as president. All the dem candidates are vastly superior to trump. > > Having said that, it’s going to take a long time to make the democratic party open to more progressive agenda items. Sanders is just one step in the process of remaking the democratic party into something stronger and more willing to fight for the public. Is he? If Biden becomes President he’ll bring in some milquetoasty reforms which won’t change anything much and which the Republicans will undo the _instant_ they’re back in power again. Meanwhile, the momentum for the kind of substantive change which could actually permanently fix the problems faced by the American working and middle class will have evaporated. Once people have seen one genuine Change candidate - a candidate who, incidentally, _polls well against Trump_ - get screwed over by the DNC, good luck getting them excited for another one. Biden may be better than Trump, but that’s one _hell_ of a low bar, and from a progressive point of view he’s still pretty fucking terrible. So if the DNC go out of their way to sabotage Bernie, I can easily understand why his supporters might just not bother voting. What, from their perspective, would be the point? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/12 "2020-02-01T15:49:21Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Is he? If Biden becomes President he’ll bring in some milquetoasty reforms which won’t change anything much and which the Republicans will undo the _instant_ they’re back in power again. Meanwhile, the momentum for the kind of substantive change which could actually permanently fix the problems faced by the American working and middle class will have evaporated. Once people have seen one genuine Change candidate - a candidate who, incidentally, _polls well against Trump_ - get screwed over by the DNC, good luck getting them excited for another one. > > Biden may be better than Trump, but that’s one _hell_ of a low bar, and from a progressive point of view he’s still pretty fucking terrible. So if the DNC go out of their way to sabotage Bernie, I can easily understand why his supporters might just not bother voting. What, from their perspective, would be the point? Yeah but it’s a process, a multi decade process. How would letting trump appoint hundreds of more judges who can overturn progressive legislation decades from now help the progressive movement? Bernie is just part of the progressive movement. It will continue after 2020 and will keep growing. Grassroots donations, grassroots volunteers, demographic changes, ideological changes etc will keep building the progressive movement irrelevant of what happens in 2020. Even if Bernie wins, he won’t pass anything even with a democratic congress. The democratic congress won’t pass anything but the most mild of reforms even if democrats win the senate. It’s going to take decades to build a true progressive movement. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/13 "2020-02-01T15:56:20Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Since no Democrat can hope to win without the Bernie Bros, it’s in everyone’s interest to treat Bernie _fairly_. No-one’s saying you have to _gift_ him the nomination. Just don’t obviously rig the system against him. I think there’s quite a few Bernie Bros who see anything as evidence of a system rigged against them. Six superdelegates not liking Bernie, for example. Six. What we are seeing in politics is as things get more divisive, people buy into conspiracy theories like Bernie got cheated (even though Clinton got way more votes) or that illegal aliens made Clinton win the popular vote (even though that’s a lie). The idea of these out-of-touch extremists coming up with a reasonable definition of “fair” is not realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/14 "2020-02-01T16:30:46Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Since no Democrat can hope to win without the Bernie Bros, it’s in everyone’s interest to treat Bernie _fairly_. He was treated fairly in 2016 and that wasn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/15 "2020-02-01T17:08:00Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > He was treated fairly in 2016 and that wasn’t enough. Debatable, and not the topic of this thread ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/16 "2020-02-01T18:45:19Z")
Politico gotta politico. Won’t even look at their clickbait. Every 4 years it’s the same contested convention nonsense. Superdelegates have never mattered. The race will come down to somebody vs Bernie and the somebody will have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/17 "2020-02-01T18:54:05Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I think there’s quite a few Bernie Bros who see anything as evidence of a system rigged against them. Six superdelegates not liking Bernie, for example. Six. > > What we are seeing in politics is as things get more divisive, people buy into conspiracy theories like Bernie got cheated (even though Clinton got way more votes) or that illegal aliens made Clinton win the popular vote (even though that’s a lie). The idea of these out-of-touch extremists coming up with a reasonable definition of “fair” is not realistic. And social media. It’s truly amazing the bizarre world some of the Bernie people live in. I’m not referring to supporters getting nasty, it’s the alternative reality they live in where everything is a conspiracy against Bernie and every poll is rigged that doesn’t show Bernie in the lead and the media never covers Bernie. I don’t travel much in Trump circles but I do see the Facebook memes occasionally showing ‘the caravan’ and posting bullshit about how the Democrats (or Soros)are paying them to flood the USA and vote illegally. There’s no response when I question why we send them all to California when we need their votes in the Midwest! ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/18 "2020-02-01T19:06:32Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Is he? If Biden becomes President he’ll bring in some milquetoasty reforms which won’t change anything much and which the Republicans will undo the _instant_ they’re back in power again. Meanwhile, the momentum for the kind of substantive change which could actually permanently fix the problems faced by the American working and middle class will have evaporated. Once people have seen one genuine Change candidate - a candidate who, incidentally, _polls well against Trump_ - get screwed over by the DNC, good luck getting them excited for another one. > > Biden may be better than Trump, but that’s one _hell_ of a low bar, and from a progressive point of view he’s still pretty fucking terrible. So if the DNC go out of their way to sabotage Bernie, I can easily understand why his supporters might just not bother voting. What, from their perspective, would be the point? You’re basically being intentionally (and easily) manipulated by a political writer class that just likes to stir up shit among Democrats because it generates pageviews. Did you even read the article? It mentioned tons of actual power brokers in the DNC, Donna Brazile, Tom Perez, and even multiple people who opposed pushing superdelegates back to second ballot vote only, **all saying the same thing** : we agreed to these rules for 2020 and we’re not going to change them. Politico has chosen to report on the fringe opinion of people that are out of power in the DNC, do not represent the DNC, and are such a small portion of its membership that they are functionally irrelevant. In response you’re foaming at the mouth thinking about how you can justify not voting for Biden in 2020. You’re being played like a fiddle. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/19 "2020-02-01T19:29:26Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > You’re basically being intentionally (and easily) manipulated by a political writer class that just likes to stir up shit among Democrats because it generates pageviews. Did you even read the article? It mentioned tons of actual power brokers in the DNC, Donna Brazile, Tom Perez, and even multiple people who opposed pushing superdelegates back to second ballot vote only, **all saying the same thing** : we agreed to these rules for 2020 and we’re not going to change them. > > Politico has chosen to report on the fringe opinion of people that are out of power in the DNC, do not represent the DNC, and are such a small portion of its membership that they are functionally irrelevant. > > In response you’re foaming at the mouth thinking about how you can justify not voting for Biden in 2020. You’re being played like a fiddle. All I’m saying is I’ll understand _if_ Bernie Bros don’t vote in the general _if_ the DNC don’t treat Bernie fairly. If they do treat him fairly, then there’s no problem. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326/20 "2020-02-01T19:48:36Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > All I’m saying is I’ll understand _if_ Bernie Bros don’t vote in the general _if_ the DNC don’t treat Bernie fairly. If they do treat him fairly, then there’s no problem. And for Bernie Bros the only acceptable treatment is to make him the nominee. They’ll accept nothing else. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superdelegates-again/847326.md?page=2)