The DNC has passed a rule change so superdelegates cannot vote until the second round of voting at the Democratic convention. Will that be enough to eliminate the top-down, undemocratic influence the superdelegates wielded in the 2016 Democratic primary?
I don't think so.
I do want to give the people who fought for this change credit. It is definitely progress, but I don't think it is enough.
During the 2016 election superdelegates declared their allegiance early on. When a state primary was held, the mainstream media always included the count of superdelegates from the state in the results. So, if Bernie won by two votes but there were two or more Clinton superdelegates, then his win would be nullified.
Worse, as the primary election proceeded, the MSM would include the full count of all committed superdelegates, which gave Hillary a huge lead. That definitely had an effect on voters. Some didn't bother to vote. Some just went with who they thought was the "obvious" winner.
Just remember how many times the Clinton-owned Hillbots in all the MSNBC time slots discussed the primaries in strictly in terms that included the superdelegates in the counts.
Long before the Democratic convention the superdelegates were playing a major role in influencing the outcome of the Democratic primary.
If superdelegates can announce and declare their support for a candidate early, then they will still retain much of the influence and power they had in 2016. That will make the DNC's new rule rather toothless.
Democrats voted to removed automatic delegates from the first round of voting. But we still have seats at the tabl… https://t.co/YZgDyeJhrs at https://t.co/YZgDyeJhrs
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) August 25, 2018
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Donna Brazile, the lobbyists who are superdelegates-- they must all be having a great laugh as progressives pat themselves on the backs for getting rid of the superdelegate problem. YES, the new rule is a positive step. But unless the superdelegates are given a rule that declaring their backing of a candidate before the second convention vote will cost them their superdelegate status, the mainstream media will act exactly as they did in 2016 and the new DNC policy will be toothless and ineffectual.