Sunday, August 20, 2006

DNC stupidity.

The arrogance of some politicians simply amazes me. The collective arrogance of a political party is even worse, at times. The Democratic National Committee is by far the worst, but the Republican Party is still in its rear view mirror.

The DNC has decided on its own to schedule primary elections on their own time frame, abandoning the traditional schedules of Iowa and New Hampshire being the first caucus and primary election in the nation. To quote the article I am going to cite, "The decision by the Democratic National Committee leaves Iowa as the nation's first presidential caucus and New Hampshire as the first primary, but wedges Nevada's caucuses before New Hampshire and South Carolina's primary soon afterward."

It is not because I grew up in New Hampshire that this bothers me. Personally, every four years was a nightmare as far as candidates campaigning, the media, and the focus on that one little state. It was a sense of pride many had, being the first to hold the presidential primary election, but to me it was no big deal.

What bothers me is that the DNC is attempting to dictate to individual states the dates of elections. It is not their decision. They are not the state governments. They do not have that right, but are trying to bully individual states into rescheduling their elections and cauci to their liking. Forget the fact that the GOP also has its regular schedule. One political party should not even remotely be able to dictate to its own members (many of whom disagree with this move), to their political opponents, and to individual states the dates and formats of elections and campaigning.

From the article:
"New Hampshire objected loudly to the lineup and has threatened to leapfrog over the other contests to retain its pre-eminent role.

"The DNC did not give New Hampshire its primary, and it is not taking it away," New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said.

Secretary of State William Gardner, also a Democrat, emphasized again Saturday that it will be his office, not Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who picks the state's primary date.

"That's going to be based on state law, and it will be a date that honors the tradition," Gardner said after the DNC action. "It appears that he's in the driver's seat taking the Democratic National Committee on a collision course with the New Hampshire tradition."

Gardner, who has said he will decide next year when to schedule his state's primary, also said the plan to punish candidates who campaign in New Hampshire was an affront to a state with a long history of promoting greater participation in the political process."

Yup, in the name of diversity, the DNC has a plan to punish those who campaign in New Hampshire. It is all in the name of racial diversity. "Democrats adopted sanctions to penalize presidential candidates who campaign in states that cut in line by denying them delegates from those contests." "Driving the decision to alter the schedule was a long-held worry within the party that Iowa and New Hampshire, which are predominantly white, were not representative of the country's population and key Democratic constituencies. Blacks and Hispanics have complained they haven't had an adequate voice in the early contests."

I refuse to shed any tears over that stupidity of argument. All states get to vote in their prescribed methods. To whine over two small states with a fraction of the votes is stupidity.

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