His Vote Counts More Than Mine? How Democratic of You!

She's done it again!

Written off by the press, begged to drop out by the Democrats in authority, and besmirched by the Obama campaign, Hillary Clinton wins another primary election and proves...

1. Obama can outspend his opposition, but he can't win the hearts (and votes) of certain voters;
2. This election is going all the way to the convention; and...
3. The Superdelegates will make the decision as to who represents the Democratic Party in 2008.

Now I don't know about you, but this Superdelegate thing has me confused. What is a Superdelegate, and how do they vote? According to newspapers and other media sources, I've collected a few bits and pieces:

Superdelegates...aren't these generally elected officials and other political wonks, rather than the general population?
Superdelegates...who each get a vote, equal to a delegate representing a state?
Superdelegates...people who do not need to vote in a manner that represents the USA population or the constituents they were elected to represent, but rather who can vote in a manner that could maximize their personal political stature and position?

I was confused, so I looked up superdelegate on dictionary.com:
a party leader or elected public official chosen as an uncommitted delegate to a national political convention

That piqued my interest. It didn't sound very democratic to me, but maybe my public policy and government knowledge has eroded over the years. I also decided to look up a few other words:

democratic
1. pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
2. pertaining to or characterized by the principle of political or social equality for all: democratic treatment.
3. advocating or upholding democracy.

elitism
1. practice of or belief in rule by an elite.
2. consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.
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Superdelegates sure don't seem to meet the definition of democratic to me. So why is our country using an elitist approach to selecting a presidential candidate from one of the two major political parties?

I guess it's the only way to ensure that the Democratic Party can select someone that the political machine wants, rather than what the country wants.

So just remember... Ted Kennedy's vote counts more than yours or mine. Heck, Ted's vote counts more than the votes of the populations of Michigan and Florida combined. (He probably drinks more too, but we'll leave that for another day.)

And we call that the Democratic Party?!?

-- Submitted by R Wellesley