Commentary -
February 12, 2008
The delicate superdelegate predicament:
Democratic nominee should be chosen by voters,
not party elite
by Jesse
Jackson Jr.
The Democratic
Party is on fire. We have two talented,
precedent- shattering, history-making
candidates. We have a fired-up, mobilized,
energized base, breaking voting turnout records.
We have a grass-roots donor base that is using
the Internet to set new fundraising records
every time we turn around. And the Republican
Party seems to have settled on an aging nominee
who has serious problems with his conservative
base, tells voters that their jobs are gone and
promises a 100-year war and occupation of Iraq.
So I would suggest
that this is a time that Democratic
superdelegates should tread lightly. Let's not
get in the way of our rising tide.
Let's allow
grass-roots voters to choose the 2008
presidential nominee for the Democratic Party,
not party elites.
This is a subject
I know a bit about. I am one of 796
superdelegates, by virtue of being a member of
Congress. I'm a national co-chair for the Obama
for President campaign and I was once a
Democratic National Committee member.
I came of age
during the great political campaigns of my
father, Rev. Jesse Jackson, grass-roots
campaigns during the 1980s that took on the
Democratic Party's establishment, the
superdelegates and the question of political
elites ruling the convention.
My father's 1984
and 1988 presidential campaigns brought the
civil rights movement of Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. fully into electoral politics, registered
millions of new Democratic voters and changed
the face and structure of the party -- including
the rules.
We fought during
the '80s to make the Democratic Party a party of
inclusion, and we largely succeeded, as our two
remaining Democratic presidential nominees this
year illustrate. Back then, we registered
millions of young African-American voters, an
investment that has paid huge dividends to the
party at every level for the last 20 years.
We fought to lower
barriers to grass-roots participation and won
rules changes that made our primary process
fairer, smoother and more accessible to
everyone.
These rules
changes were bitterly resisted at the time, yet
Democratic presidential nomination races since
1988 have been less acrimonious and fairer and
have helped us win at least two, really three
and maybe even four presidential victories in
the years since (depending on how many stolen
elections you believe took place).
What were those
changes? We fought to eliminate
"winner-take-all" and "bonus" primaries, which
were very biased against grass-roots candidates,
especially minorities -- and we won.
We fought to lower
the threshold percentage for winning delegates
from 20 percent to 15 percent -- and we won.
We actually
succeeded in eliminating hundreds of
superdelegates at the 1988 Democratic National
Convention in Atlanta, by taking away the status
of unelected committee members. (Unfortunately,
those slots were quickly reinstated as
superdelegates the next year, once the election
was over.)
The Democratic
Party now is fairer and more accessible than it
was a generation ago, which is a big reason why
Barack Obama has such a good chance to become
the party's presidential nominee. Still,
one-fifth of the convention delegates in Denver
this summer will be superdelegates -- more than
enough to make the final choice in this year's
close primary contest.
Don't do it. Let
the process play out. Let's see if the voters
point us in a clear direction, and rather than
intervening to change that direction, we
superdelegates can ratify their decision.
Let's trust the
voters to make wise decisions. Let's trust the
candidates to stay on the high road, so that a
long primary process continues to build the
party up. Let's keep a wary eye on proposed
solutions that favor the power of elites over
that of voters.
And when this is
all over, let's revisit this whole superdelegate
issue. Because maybe the number of
superdelegates who will be seated at the Denver
convention are just too many. If it better
serves justice, I'd be willing to give up my
automatic superdelegate slot (as long as my
colleagues join me).
Most of all, let's
not break the hearts of the millions of young
people who have been inspired to participate in
the election process this season. If we keep
them involved, we'll all reach higher ground.
THE END
Jesse
Jackson Jr. represents the 2nd Congressional
District of Illinois. He is a national
co-chairman of the Obama for President campaign.
