Among other key issues, there seems to be a growing rift of belief in the Democratic party about how our primary races should be conducted. Some like Senator Bernie Sanders believe closed and restrictive races like the one held in New York are a threat to Democracy, while DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz wishes every race were closed to independents.
It was during an MSNBC interview this week when Wasserman Schultz briefly lowered her false veil of impartiality and said that she personally wished that Democratic primaries were universally voted on by Democrats alone.
“I believe that the party’s nominee should be chosen — this is Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s opinion — that the party’s nominee should be chosen by members of the party.”
Wasserman Schultz, whose party loyalties clearly lie with Clinton, surely knows that if every primary were closed to independent voters, Sanders would have fared far worse in several primary events. Sanders has so far tended to succeed in open primary states, or states which hold caucus events.
There is some credence to the idea that Democrats should choose the Democratic candidate, but this leaves out a growing group of independent voters who will likely side with either the Republican or Democratic party. Allowing this large group to have a vote in the primary candidate increases their chances of voting Democrat in the general race. If all states had held open Democratic primaries, there is no telling what the outcome might have been.
And really, if Wasserman Schultz is so all-in for Clinton, she should really be very concerned about the independent vote as in recent weeks, support for the Democratic candidate amoung those unaffiliated has dropped sharply according to the Wall Street Journal.
Either way, Wasserman Schultz is not in control of individual primaries and in this case at least, she can’t sink her venomous teeth into this part of the race.
