When rules aren’t rules
Posted by BrianI’ll be the first to admit that I’ve enjoyed watching the infighting among Democrats in their presidential nomination battle. It has been apparent for quite sometime that Clinton’s bid was an exercise in futility, but it sure is fun to watch her keep swinging as she falls off the political cliff.
The fight has now come down to the decision over what to do with delegates from Florida and Michigan - states that flagrantly broke Democrat rules for when they could hold their presidential primaries. To any sane person the response would be easy and quick: they broke the rules, they knew the consequences, and now they must suffer the consequences. But these are Democrats we’re talking about.
The Democrats whine about what is fair and which voters are going to be disenfranchised. The whole situation is a microcosm of Democrat philosophy. For them justly earned consequences are deemed unfair. How can we expect individuals - or states - to do the right thing even when the rules, and ramifications for breaking them, are plainly known, after all? It is better for the supremely knowledgeable and compassionate elites to pardon inappropriate actions and reach some sort of mutually agreeable resolution that leaves the offending individuals primed to re-offend in the future. In the real world negative consequences are the only things that prevent undesirable actions. But at least the self loathing Democrats will sleep better at night for having left no one sore from punishment.
I’d love to see the Democrat primary drag on. I’d love to see Clinton get the nod (what a fun convention that would be!). But this whole discussion about seating some portion of Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates is just stupid. Flat out stupid. They broke the rules and should be dealt with appropriately. Period. All of this gyrating about how to more softly “punish” them is a window into why the Democrat party is not the party of law and order.
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June 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
Jennifer Foster on her Opelika-Auburn News blog and her “Someone call a doctor …” post @ http://www.gulfeast.com/index.php/OAN_Political_Blog/P3/ had an interesting post about this and when she has time to get around to it she may even approve my comment to it. If she doesn’t, what I said follows:
“As a disinterested person made aware of this squabble among Democrats only because I had my TV on for a while as reports about it came in, I think it may be the Democrat Party that needs some meds. The way it seems to me, the national Democrat party has punished the wrong people, namely citizens who went to the polls and voted in Florida and Michigan at the behest of their state parties. I wouldn’t think that’s the best way to maintain their loyalty to the party. Every vote should have counted and every delegate elected by those voters should be seated at the convention.
What should have been done would have been to punish the guilty, rather than the innocent. Those guilty of breaking party rules by holding elections earlier than permitted by the national party were, of course, the state Democrat parties in Florida and Michigan. They could have been fined appropriately in order to maintain party discipline, but I guess it’s easier to bully the faceless voter than it is to confront your party cohort.
Does that make any sense, Jennifer?”
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
What’s that old saying about living and glass houses and throwing stones?
http://www.al.com/huntsvilletimes/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1209224703165630.xml&coll=1