Trump Stole The Nomination. Not Hillary.

Bernie already said the Democratic primary process isn't rigged.

But, just in case you missed it, and you insist that the Democratic Party process is rigged anyway, here's my two-pronged defense.

#1) You want to see a rigged primary? Look at Trump's nomination.

Prior to the primaries in New York and Pennsylvania on April 26th, Donald Trump garnered only 37% of the Republican vote. In other words, 63% of all Republican-ticket voters wanted somebody else. And yet, at that point in the contest, Trump had 60.3% of the delegates he needed to win.

In other words, he received nearly double the amount of delegates he actually earned.

In Iowa, Trump LOST. He received only 24.3% of the vote. He nevertheless received 35% of the delegates.

In New Hampshire, he received only 35.3% of the votes. But he received 58% of the delegates.

In Nevada, Trump did not achieve a majority. He won with only 45.9% of the vote. He nevertheless received 100% of the delegates.

In South Carolina, Trump won with only a paltry 32.5% of the vote. He received 50% of the delegates.

The most grotesque example may be Vermont, where Trump won only 32.7% of the vote. He received 100% of the delegates!

Same thing with Florida. Trump won only 45.7% of the vote. He received 100% of the delegates.

In fact, in all but a handful of states, Trump won a disproportionately higher delegate total than the percentage of votes he received.

And yet Trump is the one pointing at the Democratic Party's process and saying, "Come on, this is supposed to be a democracy!"?

Trump stole the nomination. True, it fell of a truck first, but he stole it. He stole it by being such an asshole that the more than dozen candidates who should have dropped out early didn't, and ended up dividing Trump's opposition vote beyond a point where anyone could consolidate on one other person. At no point did Trump ever face off in a binary way, where it was just him and one other choice. When his last opponent fell, it was two opponents, not one, and they both bowed out at the same time.

Trump is an illegitimate candidate!

Then there was the pledge. They made Trump sign a pledge that he would support the Republican nominee, no matter who it was. They all signed it too, figuring that Trump would never win. Then, when Trump successfully gamed the broken system, they found that the document designed to trap Trump had trapped them. They were bound to support him as their nominee, even though they hated it!

Even after New York and Pennsylvania, Trump only received 40% of the vote total. 60% of the voters chose someone else. Even factoring in states like Indiana, Nebraska, West Virginia and Washington State, where voters had only Trump with no viable opponents, Trump still did not get more than 40% of the vote. (After New York, he only went from 40.11% to 40.23%!)

This is not fair! When a state has a "winner take all" or "winner take most" system, the winner steals the votes of the loser. Plain and simple! 60% of Republicans wanted anybody else but this clod! This is a shitty process, and one that Republicans should be in full-fledged revolt about.

Instead, Democrats are in full fledged revolt.

Fucking WHAT?!

Here's why. Take New Hampshire, for example. Bernie clearly beat Hillary in that state by 60.3%  to Hillary's 38%. Delegates were awarded proportionally, and so Bernie got 15 delegates, while Hillary got only 9. But wait! Add in the superdelegates who declared their intention to vote for Hillary, and suddenly you add 6 more delegates to Hillary's side! Now it's a TIE! After Bernie won, Hillary gets a clear defeat erased. The system is rigged! Why even have a vote!

Except those superdelegates don't count until the Democratic National Convention vote in July. They can and often do change their minds. What's more, the Bernie supporters know this! Which is why their strategy for victory involves convincing as many superdelegates as possible to come over to their side to deny Hillary the victory!

From this, we learn two things:

First, any news outlet that reported that Hillary "tied" or "won" a state because of the superdelegate factor was engaging in irresponsible reporting.

Two, Bernie's camp cannot complain that superdelegates have the system rigged while simultaneously trying to rig the system to cheat Hillary out of a victory she earned by garnering nearly 3 million more votes on the ground than Bernie got.

#2) You can't try to steal votes and complain that the system is rigged at the same time.

The people have spoken. Love her or hate her, 55% have chosen Hillary. Oh, to be sure, it's not over yet! In a few days we get to hear from California, New Jersey, New Mexico and the Dakotas. But the math says that a continued campaign by Bernie amounts to obstinance.

In other words, Bernie can't win superdelegates by continuing his campaign and deliberately pissing them off!

Of course the main reason Hillary didn't steal the nomination is because she hasn't won the nomination yet. You can't have stolen something you don't yet have. Still, strange things may yet happen. They certainly have so far. Hillary may get indicted, and this might cause superdelegates to flock to Bernie's side. That may be Bernie's best bet for victory. But before we complain about the Democratic primary system, where a political party, having the absolute right to structure itself in a way that disallows outsiders (because a party is neither a government nor a democracy), let's recognize the REAL vote thieves!

The RNC. Accomplished through:
Gerrymandering
"Winner Take All" structures
Closed primaries in California and many other states where the Democratic Party has an open primary system.

I say the real thieves shouldn't get away with it just because we got distracted by a fake scandal!


Eric

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