Will The Democratic Party Ever Be Democratic?

With the great number of candidates vying for the role of Democratic presidential candidate in the primary, it seems that the Democratic PartyTM is doing what it can to give each of them a voice, but unfortunately, it doesn’t do enough to give the people a voice. After selecting Hillary Podham Clinton as their candidate in 2016, Democratic PartyTM chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that the group was a private corporation and could select whomever its wanted. Regardless of what citizens who have identified themselves as Democrats have wanted, the Democratic PartyTM has always been ready to eschew democracy in favor of privatized rule.

Many already realize that if the establishment wants Joe Biden to be the Democratic presidential candidate, that is the way that it will be. Following the supposed logic of playing it safe, recent polls show that Joe Biden is indeed the favored front-runner. Using a system based on the republican ideology of winner-take-all competitiveness, it stands to reason that people would seek out the best bet for winning the White House. However, if the system were more collaborative, would people respond the same?

While it has gotten some attention over the last few years, and has even been successfully used in federal elections in Maine, as well as elections in San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Minneapolis, the concept of using ranked-choice voting for Democratic presidential primaries has not been suitably entertained. However, as our understanding of democracy grows, it may very well be…