House Democratic Establishment Declares War on Democracy
The American political system is dominated by a two-party duopoly that uses its control over election laws to suppress challenges to its power. That statement might sound like Nader-ite agit-prop, but it is a plain fact, widely recognized by scholars of comparative politics. “Perhaps the clearest case of overt partisan manipulation of [election] rules is the United States, where Democrats and Republicans appear automatically on the ballot, but third parties and independents have to overcome a maze of cumbersome legal requirements,” Pippa Norris, the McGuire lecturer in comparative politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government — and former director of democratic governance at the United Nations Development Program — wrote in 2005.
Meanwhile, thanks to partisan polarization, most American voters live in congressional districts where there is no serious two-party competition, and most American states are effectively governed by one-party rule.
These conditions are decidedly less than ideal, from a democratic perspective. But they can nevertheless be reconciled (at least, to an extent) with competitive elections and government accountability — so long as voters can vigorously contest power within each major party. A Democratic House incumbent representing a district in New York City will be all but invulnerable in a general election. But if Democrats encourage intraparty democracy, then that incumbent’s constituents will still be able to hold himor her accountable in a contested primary.
Unfortunately for our republic, the House Democratic leadership signaled Thursday that it believes democracy has no place within the Democratic Party. As the National Journal reports:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making an early move to deter primary challenges against sitting incumbents in the caucus with a new policy aimed in part at protecting the new majority.
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The DCCC’s rationale for this move is straightforward: The organization exists to maximize the Democratic Party’s chances of holding congressional majorities — and since (all else being equal) incumbents are much more likely to win general elections than newcomers, protecting incumbents is a core part of its mission.
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But all these considerations are secondary. The principal problem with the DCCC’s policy is that — in a political system where interparty competition is already severely limited — suppressing intraparty competition in all House races is an unforgivable infringement on democracy.
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Seeder's Note: Only excerpts of the article published by the Intelligencer have been provided. Click the seed link to read the full reporting.
Everyone should be aware of how the Democratic Party establishment rigged the primaries and gave the nomination to Hillary Clinton. Apparently the DCCC is an insiders only club that exists to protect the political dead wood in Congress. No wonder Democrats have shown that they can't govern.
Yawn
Of course Dems are doing it this way.
Personally, I think the Dem hierarchy are simply scared shitless of nitwits like Tlaib and AOC and are trying to prevent more of them from running and beating old established white Democratic men.
The Democratic Party establishment was scared shitless of Bernie Sanders, too. Sanders was forcing the fence-sitters to take a definite stand on issues. The younger activists are going to be more aggressive than Sanders.
House Democratic Establishment Declares War on Democracy
Seriously?
Yes....seriously!
The establishment is being overtaken and overruled by the far left radical fringe.
Don't say we didn't warn you, and that you didn't see this coming.
Whatever...
The article is about how elections are rigged, not about communism.
LOOK, SQUIRREL ... 👀
When posting a wide image, you shouldn't use a defined width (800px resized to 643px, here). If the viewer narrows down the window, the right side of the image is lost. You'd be wiser to use a percentage of the screen - 80 or 90 percent is big... but shrinks with the window.