Democracy Dies in the Washington Post: WaPo op-ed argues for having elites decide presidential nominees

The Democrats are a mess, with socialist and unelectable Bernie Sanders now the clear frontrunner among Democratic voters. He can't win. But enough Democrats are upset at the leveraged buyout of their party by billionaire Michael Bloomberg that they've moving to the old socialist as a defense mechanism of sorts.

So what better than to have elites pick the presidential nominee instead?

" The current process is clearly flawed, but what would be better? Finding an answer means thinking about the purpose of presidential nominations, and about how the existing system falls short. It will require swimming against the tide of how we’ve thought about nominations for decades — as a contest between everyday voters and elites, or as a smaller version of a general election. A better primary system would empower elites to bargain and make decisions, instructed by voters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com...s-let-elites-decide/

Kid you not, that's really what was written in today's Washington Post. That's the solution being bruited about for the Democratic malaise by one Julia Azari, a leftist professor writing in the pages of the Washington Post.

Her logic goes that since lots of candidates enter the race, elites should choose who's electable, balancing interests, which we just know they'd be willing to do as sacred trustees of The People. The problem is the voters, who just can't pick their candidates right, they have too many to choose from, see, and in the end, they mess up the system. Sure the system's great as a starter thing, but...

What it’s not great at is choosing among the many candidates who clear that bar, or bringing their different ideological factions together, or reconciling competing priorities. A process in which intermediate representatives — elected delegates who understand the priorities of their constituents — can bargain without being bound to specific candidates might actually produce nominees that better reflect what voters want.

Her proposal, she hastens to add, would just be for the party nomination of course. Somehow, voters are still O.K. in her book for the big one, it seems picking the president.

So much for that electoral college rage going on since President Trump got elected. She doesn't say what she thinks about that.

But for picking Democratic candidates, nothing works better than having a nomenklatura elite to sort these things out for us, given that the voters can't be trusted. It sounds like a bringback of the Superdelegate system that enraged Democratic voters last time - and is why Democrats in the end put out the very weak candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Now, unhappy with Democratic voter choices in this latest round, she's proposing to bring it back in some new form, for the voters' own good. That's how they Got Trump and whether they know it or not, they're now saying "thank you, may I have another."

But it certainly is reflective of the Democrat distrust of letting voters decide. As Marxist Bertholt Brecht used to say: "If the government simply dissolved the people. And elected another?”

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.co...s.html#ixzz6EQ2nkSDk

This whole democracy thing doesn't seem to be working out for the Democrats.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Democracy Dies in the Washington Post: WaPo op-ed argues for having elites decide presidential nominees.....

Hahaha, the irony is so delicious. People who hate the electoral college now arguing for a system that sounds a whole lot like a bastardized version of the electoral college...

If, and it's a big if, Bloomberg wins the primary, I'm guessing by the time he gets stomped in the General Election, he'll have paid close to a billion dollars for the privilege.

I love it. I'm so sick of leftists saying you can buy elections. He can run all the ads he wants. He's not buying me.

quote:

I'm so sick of leftists saying you can buy elections. He can run all the ads he wants. He's not buying me.

Yeah, but he sure can buy exposure...
And he sure has risen in the Dem. polls because of it.
The problem the Dems have is that the race now comes down to "Bernie vs. Not-Bernie" and there are a whole lot of them who think they are the "Not-Bernie" candidate. None of them have any money left except... Bloomberg.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
If, and it's a big if, Bloomberg wins the primary, I'm guessing by the time he gets stomped in the General Election, he'll have paid close to a billion dollars for the privilege.

Big deal. That's 1/62 of his wealth. Pocket change.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
If, and it's a big if, Bloomberg wins the primary, I'm guessing by the time he gets stomped in the General Election, he'll have paid close to a billion dollars for the privilege.

I love it. I'm so sick of leftists saying you can buy elections. He can run all the ads he wants. He's not buying me.

More like two billion.

And the man literally is buying the election. I'll tell you what, he offers me a billion dollars, and I'll throw my vote at him. Or at least say I will. Hehe.

I'd echo Curly Bill:

I will be watching tonight's Democrat debate as it promises to be a good one; you will have Bernie and Warren with the long knives out for Bloomberg and I predict we'll see Klobuchar and Mayor Pete kissing his ass, hoping to land a running mate or Cabinet position in his administration as it looks like he's going to buy his way to this nomination.

I will bet you $10,000 they are VERY careful not to show him standing on the platform behind the podium that will give him even height with the others.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:


The Democrats are a mess, with socialist and unelectable Bernie Sanders now the clear frontrunner among Democratic voters...

Based on delegates, Butt-gig is slightly ahead right now. Pete's a real come-from-behind candidate.



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quote:

Originally posted by PASig:


I will bet you $10,000 they are VERY careful not to show him standing on the platform behind the podium that will give him even height with the others.

That reminds me of Michael Dukakis back in 1988. This is when SNL was funny and employed equal-opportunity satire. In reference to your post, the key part starts at about the 1:10 mark and goes to about the 1:50 mark. You can bet that SNL won't do this to Bloomberg or Buttgig now.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:


I will bet you $10,000 they are VERY careful not to show him standing on the platform behind the podium that will give him even height with the others.

That reminds me of Michael Dukakis back in 1988. This is when SNL was funny and employed equal-opportunity satire. In reference to your post, the key part starts at about the 1:10 mark and goes to about the 1:50 mark. You can bet that SNL won't do this to Bloomberg or Buttgig now.

Allegedly, Bloomberg had an actual device like that built into his Mayoral podium!

The difference between Bloomberg and Warren/Buttplug is:

Bloomberg is trying to buy your vote with HIS money.
Warren and Buttplug are trying to buy your vote with YOUR money.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
The difference between Bloomberg and Warren/Buttplug is:

Bloomberg is trying to buy your vote with HIS money.
Warren and Buttplug are trying to buy your vote with YOUR money.

Yep.



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Mike "Li'l Tyrant" Bloomberg: All Other Democrats Must Drop Out of the Race to Permit Me to Beat Bernie Sanders

Apparently the race is almost over -- and Bernie Sanders is projected to have a nigh-insurmountable delegate lead coming out of Super Tuesday.

Hence, the Li'l Tyrant demanding that everyone else drop out and support him as the Bernie Killer.

Mike Bloomberg's campaign is sounding the alarm that Bernie Sanders will soon amass an unsurmountable delegate lead if the Democratic field stays split -- and took the extraordinary step of suggesting laggards should drop out.

What they're saying: Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's top strategist, said: "The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo -- with Biden, Pete and Amy in the race on Super Tuesday -- Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome."

"I don’t think many people understand the dire circumstances here."

Similar demands were made in the 2016 Republican race. But Rubio stayed in, due to vanity and donor demands.

I don't think it's going to work this time, either.

Some analysts agree with Bloomberg's take -- not that other people must drop out, but that unless things change dramatically, Sanders will be all but nominated as of Super Tuesday.

David Plouffe, Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, tweeted in response to Nate Silver's delegate projections through Super Tuesday -- which show Sanders with 41%, followed by Bloomberg and Joe Biden with 18% each.

"If this happens, Sanders would have a pledged delegate lead he’ll never relinquish."

Bloomberg's got some big balls (for a tiny little man) to demand that other people, who've been in the race forever and who have actually gotten votes, drop out to support him.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/385928.php

Or no brains - can you imagine any politician getting donations and support in the future if he/she/it bowed out at this point merely because Bloomberg told them to?

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
so here is a video where Bloomberg says a particular thing that I completely agree with...

Video has been deleted. No criticism of Bloomy is allowed.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
Or no brains - can you imagine any politician getting donations and support in the future if he/she/it bowed out at this point merely because Bloomberg told them to?

I'm sure he would be willing to pay them several million dollars as a consulting fee. Isn't that what he's doing with all his critics?

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Mike Bloomberg's campaign is sounding the alarm that Bernie Sanders will soon amass an unsurmountable delegate lead if the Democratic field stays split -- and took the extraordinary step of suggesting laggards should drop out.

Just before tonight's debate. That ought to help make it even more amusing than it already promised to be

quote:

I'm sure he would be willing to pay them several million dollars as a consulting fee. Isn't that what he's doing with all his critics?

Just for the record, I have been very critical of him.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Mike "Li'l Tyrant" Bloomberg: All Other Democrats Must Drop Out of the Race to Permit Me to Beat Bernie Sanders...

Two 80 year-old white male wack jobs. That would be awesome. Maybe they would be willing to don boxing gloves and go at it for their constituencies.



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I can't decide about tonight.

Either:

a) I'm not going to watch it, because it will do nothing but chew up my time and make me shout at the jerks on TV, or

b) I'm going to watch it, because it will be an immensely entertaining doo-doo show.