It is a common occurrence in politics when Democrats attack Republicans for being undemocratic in terms of their strategy when approaching elections. Usually when Democrats hit GOPers with these accusations, I stand beside them because it is mostly true. It is a well-known fact that when voters are suppressed and the turn out is low, Republicans tend to win. On the flip side of that, Democrats tend to win when turnout is high. However, these days Democrats tend to be democrat in name only.
Recently, WikiLeaks released a number of documents of private emails from within the Hillary camp and the DNC. Most recently, proof that the Hillary camp was in favor of this undemocratic primary system. The document deals with Hillary’s advantages in the Florida primary stating: “Here we benefit from Florida being the first closed primary. Young voters in the state are disproportionally registered as unaffiliated, and are not allowed to vote during the Democratic primary.” It is clear in this quote that the Hillary camp wanted closed primaries, which meant lower voter turnout with millennials and left-leaning independents (who overwhelmingly favored Bernie Sanders due to their ability to see through the clean-cut political bullshit). Also, Florida is a highly populated state, which means she would receive a great number of delegates compared to Bernie Sanders.
This is, perhaps, best seen in the state of New York. It is one of the largest and most liberal states in America in terms of population; yet, it is the least Democratic of the bunch. For those who don’t know, New York has what they refer to as a “super closed primary”, which means that independents are not allowed to vote during primaries and voters had to be registered as Democrats by October the year before the election. That is six months before New York even votes and, knowing politics, anything can happen at any given moment. There are 23 total territories that are closed primaries, which mean that independent voters are not allowed to vote, most of which favored Hillary Clinton in overwhelming numbers. The reason that I believe many Democrats are wedded to this system is because it denies true progressives and party outsiders from winning as the Democratic establishment continues their tight grasp around the throat of democracy, slowly squeezing the life out of it. But then again, with the Electoral College and super delegates, we don’t really live in a true democracy; anyway…we live in a republic.
Whether you were a Hillary supporter or a Bernie supporter during the Democratic primary, you should be disgusted by your party’s insistence on being blatantly undemocratic almost to the point to where you want to leave the party…I was so sickened that I left. To be brutally honest, when it comes to voter suppression, Democrats are no better than Republicans. Really, the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that the Democratic Party tends to be a lot better on social issues. Other than that, they’re two sides of the same coin, one just as shitty and corporatist as the other. It took me leaving to party to finally realize that.
