By Patricia Lee Sharpe
Let them duke it out. You have two good candidates who are running impressive, if vastly different, campaigns. Whoever wins, the Democrats are clearly showing themselves to be the party of the better future, a future of inclusivity, of weakened racism, of weakened sexism, of dignity for all. So there’s a powerful message you super delegates should be broadcasting right now: both candidates are strong and good. The future with either of them will be better than any that a Republican can deliver.
The Big D in Democracy is Debate
Another important message to get out: Democrats are the party of strong open debate, not secrecy, not manipulation, not authoritarianism. Worthwhile candidates do debate and they will capitalize on one another’s weaknesses. That’s the whole point. Spirited debate is the very foundation of a functioning democracy. Let Democrats stand for that. And on a pragmatic note: this is good practice for the bigger battle to come.
Meanwhile, super guys and gals, don't continue this business of noisily choosing sides before the people have had their say. Stop it right now. I understand that many of you may have a strong, humanly understandable inclination to put yourselves on the side of a putative winner as early as possible, in order (dare I say it?) to have first dibs on the perks, once the presidency falls to a Democrat again. Resist this temptation. And for the rest of you, even the idealists, there’s this: preserving a little wiggle room for the convention isn’t a wholly bad thing.
Their Vote Matters
So, hard as it is to remain aloof, let the people continue to cast their votes based on their own responses to the candidates. Let the people in Pennsylvania or Wyoming vote without your big footing. Don’t undermine them. Listen to them—and think how cheated they would feel now, if they’d been consigned to irrelevancy in a critical primary year, if the race had been called off before they’d had a chance to indicate their preferences. Finally, a word to the very wise: avoid embarrassment by not overestimating your importance in the grand scheme of things. Many super delegates in Massachusetts came out for one candidate, and the people voted otherwise.
Yes, despite the pressure to have her bow out of the race, Clinton is strongly back in the running with some big wins—and she got there partly by pulling off the gloves in ways that disturb some of you. Please don’t gnash your teeth. Rejoice. The Republicans will do worse to the eventual winner. So let the sludge be dug up and responded to. Now. Let the laundry be washed during the primary. Don’t give the Republicans the opportunity and the glory. Don’t imagine they won’t find the dirt without help.
A Too Energized Electorate?
It’s funny. For lo! these many presidential election cycles, the pundits and politicos have lamented the low voter turnout for general elections and the even worse participation in primaries. This year the stakes are major. The candidates are exciting. The people are energized and flocking to the polls, and the pros are wringing their hands. They want to abort the process, as if too much democracy is turning out to be a bad thing.
In fact, this very sorry inclination transcends the current primary process. Consider this. Many Democrats want to suppress the debate between Obama and Clinton for fear that strong open differences and a little mud slinging will harm the party in November. Substitute a few different terms and this is precisely the argument we have been getting from the Bush administration for the past eight years. Lack of unity will weaken our security in a world racked by terrorism. Information is nice in principle but mostly helps the enemy. So the only way for Americans to be safe is for Congress to mutely do what a unitary executive wishes. Such assumptions, whether in their Democratic or Republican guise, are not encouraging for the future of American democracy.
Super Delegates' To Do List
While the candidates duke it out to the best of their considerable abilities, here’s what you super delegates can suppress your own well developed egos and do that would really be helpful to the party. You can make sure that the principles and general policies on which Democrats agree are not lost to view. You can make it clear that the differences between candidates, though important, are not as great as those between Republicans and Democrats. In this way, the terms for the upcoming battle with the Republican candidate will have been well prepared, whatever the results of a strongly contested Democratic convention. And when you get to that convention, super delegates, you will have the homegrown results of those hard fought primaries and caucuses, conducted admittedly under wildly differing rules and vote-counting methods, to guide you.
So Who Are We?
Above all, people of both parties, let’s stop being afraid of spirited debate in this country, especially if the incoming president of whichever party plans to preach democracy to people in other countries. As it is, we urge others to engage in substantive debate, then find reasons to hush up our own argumentative instincts during and after elections. There’s an apparent inconsistency here. Unless it's closest to our hearts, this supporting of so many dictatorial types abroad. Shall I mention the Bush administration’s loyalty to Pervez Musharraf who has been soundly rejected by Pakistani voters, the very moderate Muslims Bush says he's been courting ever since 9/11? Is it possible that we Americans actually fear the give and take of real democracy, that we only pay lip service to it, even at home? How sad.