Democracy Catches Harris County Democratic Chair Birnberg By Surprise
In the Texas Primary, to be held March 4, there is a crazy system of awarding the Democratic delegates.
Rather than just basing the delegate count on the popular vote, supporters of the candidates must go to a precinct caucus after the pools have closed to take part in an additional process of delegate selection.
Even that next step does not end the process.
And then you have the superdelegates.
It could not be much more complicated. How are average busy people supposed to figure this stuff out?
Read this from a February 12 Houston Chronicle editorial on the delegate selection process.
Harris County Democratic Party Chairman Gerald Birnberg says the complicated selection rules were drafted when no one expected a tight two-person race in Texas that could be decisive in the contest for the party’s presidential nomination. “This is very, very close to the rules for the one we had four years ago, which worked just fine when it didn’t matter,” he said.
Translation of Party Chairman Birnberg’s remarks—”A contested election? In Texas?…In Harris County? No… Could never happen. Four years ago being a delegate was a nice few days in Boston. You could go to the parties and load up on the goody bags. Who imagined being a delegate could matter? Who figured an election could really count? It never occurred to anybody that average people might want to be involved.”
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Thanks for reading Texas Liberal.
What is your point?
John—Always good to hear from you.
I’m going to just slide obliquely into the event itself (the Texas primary), leaving it to you Texans to argue about the delegate apportionment system. Here is my plug to all Hispanic voters, the firm as well as the waverers, who should maybe oughtta rethink their position on Barack vs Hillary…
A chilling thought
If resentment towards blacks (the black, stealing-our-jobs argument) is fuelling the pro-Clinton Latino vote, then Latinos are doing themselves a disservice, as a politically-correct Hillary would be inclined to offer more easy money to blacks, most of which would go to the elite, leaving ordinary blacks to continue to fume at Latinos.
It is obvious that Obama is better placed to resolve America’s inter-communal differences, being more minded to require that corporate white America create jobs befitting the minority individual’s (black’s or hispanic’s) abilities, rather than leave this mammoth task to the public sector, and on blacks to drop their pose as imagined victims of white – and now hispanic – society, spotlessly deserving of welfare, cushy jobs, etc. Obama would demand that these whiners take responsibility for themselves.
Moreover, Obama stands a better chance against McCain, as Obama has strong appeal among independent voters, meaning that he could deprive McCain of much of his voter base, whereas Mrs. Clinton has no appeal whatsoever among independent voters. The Latino community in the U.S. could find itself in the unenviable position – were Hillary to take the nomination, thanks to the Latino vote, and then lose to McCain – of having deprived liberal white America of the candidate it prefers, and of having deprived the black community of its hero.
This could radically change America’s liberal attitude towards Latin-American immigration, including the normalization of the status of illegal immigrants who have lived in this country for years and who are hoping for a favorable resolution of their fates.
Yours,
Walter Grundon
Mr. Grundon—Thanks for the comment. Glad to let you have your say.
My husband is registered as an independent but usually votes democratic. He wants to vote in the march 4 primary as a Democrate what must he do?
[...] (The question was left in the comment space of my post about how ineffective Harris County Democrati…) [...]
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