Democratic convention seeks to reassure

By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 28, 2016
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Screens inside the Wells Fargo Center shows "2016 Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton" on the second day of the 2016 U.S. Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States on July 26, 2016. [Photo / Xinhua]

After a Republican convention full of anger, fear-mongering and grievances, the attention of observers of U.S. politics shifts to Philadelphia, Penn. for the Democratic National Convention. The anger and grievances will be there, but it will be coming from the Democratic primary's loser. If Donald Trump is a sore winner, the Democratic runner-up Sen. Bernie Sanders is a sore loser.

Sanders consistently complained of a "rigged system." Recent leaks of hacked Democratic Party emails that show the DNC leadership lined up behind Hillary Clinton feed his narrative. The Democratic Party leadership, however, was engaging in many ways in ordinary politics designed to help their party by nominating the most electable candidate. In fact, after seeing Trump get nominated by the Republicans, it is actually a little bit refreshing to see one party take their responsibility seriously to safeguard the country from extremism and incompetence. The GOP could learn something.

The early days of the two party's conventions feature a lot of backroom negotiations and committee maneuvering. Team Sanders is trying to exploit those mechanisms to win concessions from the party and to change the party's nomination process in a way that would have made it easier for him to have won.

He wants the Democratic Party primaries to all be open to independents and Republicans and for the super delegate system to be scrapped. At present, the rules on who can vote in a state primary are mostly determined by that state's party. Sanders won most of those states that allowed independents to vote, while Clinton won the closed primaries that only allowed Democrats. That leads one to wonder, if Sanders really was the Democratic people's choice, then why did he need others to carry him?

In fact, Clinton still would have won even if there were no super delegates, which are Democratic elected officials who are allowed to vote for whomever they want for the presidential nomination, in contrast to the ordinary delegates who are allocated based on the popular vote of the primary voters in each state. It would have been a closer tally, but Clinton won a clear majority of delegates in each state and popular votes. Still, the proposal to do away with super delegates takes away one safety brake the Democrats have on extreme populism. If the Republicans had super delegates, then they still might have been able to stop Trump.

When it comes time for the televised festivities to start, Sanders supporters might still be disappointed. Clinton will be trying to put on a moderate, even-keeled performance to separate herself from the fire and brimstone rhetoric of the Republican convention.

The weekend before the convention started, Clinton unveiled a centrist Democrat as her vice presidential choice, Sen. Tim Kaine. The choice of Kaine, who ranks as only the 41st most liberal member of Senate (out of 100, according to Vote View), concerns some hardcore liberal progressives, who would have preferred someone like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the most liberal member of the Senate. (Sanders ranked as the third-most liberal senator.)

But Kaine's relative moderateness is a big plus for independent voters and Republicans against Trump. Most Americans don't buy into the reflexively anti-business views of Sanders and the doctrinaire "social justice" agenda his supporters push. Clinton has already won some high-profile backing from Republican policy officials, and a Warren pick might have scared those crossover voters.

Moreover, Clinton is betting that most liberals, when confronted with the prospect of Trump winning the election, will swallow their pride and vote Clinton. However, Sanders supporters are very adamant in their view that Clinton is too cozy with Wall Street, and the most rabid of them won't be persuaded so easily. That, however, could be one reason Clinton didn't end up picking Warren. Even a strong progressive VP wouldn't have been enough to attract all Sanders voters; many of them think that the very act of accepting a Clinton invitation to join the ticket would make them a sellout.

Since Clinton's Democratic convention comes after Trump's nomination, she has the benefit of knowing what the Republicans said and being able to respond. The contrast the Democrats will probably try to show of calm, polished speakers against the angry yellers, liars and plagiarizers of the RNC will be stark.

Hillary and the Democrats don't even have to put on an amazing convention. They just have to be competent. Simply avoiding utter embarrassment would be enough to upstage the Trump Republicans in 2016.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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