The Clinton campaign is, in effect, proposing that Michigan should have a two-stage voting system.<\/p>\n
Stage one:<\/strong> Voters of all races are allowed to vote. But only Clinton’s Michigan supporters (who are overwhelmingly white) get to vote for their candidate. The candidate who the overwhelming majority of blacks support is not be on the ballot, but somehow Clinton supporters don’t think this makes election results illegitimate.<\/p>\n Fortunately, everyone — even Hilary Clinton<\/a> — agrees that these votes will never count for anything. It’s a purely symbolic election. So no one bothers getting in a big fight over it.<\/p>\n Stage two:<\/strong> Remember when everyone agreed that the votes in stage one were symbolic, and wouldn’t count for anything? Those votes should now be used to determine how the majority of Michigan delegates vote, according to Clinton.<\/p>\n The remaining minority of delegates will be “uncommitted.” This means that both <\/em>candidates get to compete for these delegates — even though 100% of the voters who voted for “uncommitted” chose to vote for no one at all <\/em>rather than voting for Clinton.<\/p>\n How is it fair for Clinton to have two bites at the apple, while Obama gets only one? How is it fair for Clinton to get even a single “uncommitted” vote, when the one thing most clearly intended by an “uncommitted” vote was “not Hilary Clinton”?<\/p>\n More importantly, the effects <\/em>of this are racist.<\/strong> About 25% of Michigan’s Democratic voters are Black — and about 70% of those voters chose to vote for “uncommitted.”<\/a> In effect<\/em>, the candidate preferred by white voters is given two bites; the candidate preferred by Black voters is given only one bite. In effect<\/em>, Black votes in Michigan are worth less than white votes in Michigan.<\/p>\n And yet, that is the solution preferred by Jeralyn<\/a>, and Zuzu<\/a>, and the Clinton campaign<\/a>. I’m not saying these folks have racist intentions; but lack of racist intentions doesn’t make a racist outcome <\/em>acceptable.<\/strong><\/p>\n The majority of “uncommitted” delegates should be assigned to Obama<\/a>. This isn’t as good a system as a fair election — but a fair election is no longer an option. (It’s worth noting that Clinton was opposed<\/a> to holding a new, fair election.) And it’s not as unfair as assigning 100% of committed delegates to Clinton is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Clinton campaign is, in effect, proposing that Michigan should have a two-stage voting system. Stage one: Voters of all races are allowed to vote. But only Clinton’s Michigan supporters (who are overwhelmingly white) get to vote for their candidate. … Continue reading