Howard Dean hasn’t figured out what democracy is about, despite being the leader of the party bearing that name. He’s demanding that one of the final candidates for president drop out before the convention. He’s given a deadline: “We want the voters to have their say. That’s over on June 3.”
But it isn’t over. The primary elections merely elect delegates to a party convention. (And because Dean regards arcane party rules and bullying over laws passed by state legislatures, the voters in Michigan and Florida didn’t even get to participate in that process. ) Those delegates still have to gather in convention to vote. One June 3, neither candidate will have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. There will have to be discussion and debate and voting and persuasion at the convention. That’s historically what conventions were for.
If Dean doesn’t want to do this, then he could change the process–he could institute a real primary, like those that determine candidates for state and local office. I’d suggest he might have a nationwide primary on a single day, with run-offs if no one obtains a majority. Using that process, there would be a single candidate well before the convention, decided by voters directly.
But he doesn’t have that process. He has a process whereby voters elect delegates over a long process, and then those delegates go to convention and vote. He should respect it.
Leave a Reply