Article can be found here.
So far, the Democratic 2020 race has been infamous for the sheer quantity of candidates - 21 to be exact - pictured above. However, tonight at midnight, only 10 will have completed the requirement the DNC has for continuing support from the party and participation in debates.This issue of qualification is closely related to our discussions of power and government structure as the idea of a party not necessarily accountable to the people (at least not directly) having the power to decide who (realistically) can or can not become president is capable of undermining democracy. This is especially true in the Democratic Party where "superdelegates" can vote on candidates without any input from the public. This current "make or break" phase is not likely to be controversial as I would venture to say that no person in the class can name all 11 candidates being eliminated, but it is notable to consider the impact that political parties wield in America.
Alexander Adelman
5 comments:
An interesting point that you bring up is the fact that people really don't know or care about the candidates that drop out of the race before the third presidential debate. Before the sheer number of candidates to keep up with may have dissuaded some people from keeping up with the political race and caused many to disregard candidates that did not have extensive media coverage of their actions. And this divide will be even more emphasized when the debated begin and media coverage of the qualifying candidates begins. And as for your first sentence about parties undermining the wishes of the people, I think that the issue isn't necessarily that the party undermines the wishes of the people but rather that there isn't enough representation of democrats in the electoral college.
The exuberant amount of democrats that declared their presidential bid this year was almost confusing for many supporters of the party. Many of said candidates (John Hickenlooper, Randy Bullock, Bill de Blasio) knew they didn't have a remote chance of winning but they wanted to throw their name out in the spotlight to try and help their bid to get re-elected in the senate, for Governer or mayor. Where it gets interesting is that there are a lot of candidates who are very popular ( Warren, harris, Yang, Biden, Sanders, O'Rouke, Butitgeg and more). As most current polls show is Biden has a 7-10 point lead on the next closest democrat. However, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders combined have more support than Joe Biden. Therefore, it makes the most logical sense if Warren and Sanders teamed up as a vice and a presidential candidate and combined their supporters to overtake Biden for the lead and potentially the nomination.
Dylan, I think its interesting that you brought up that some of the candidates only joined the race to help with securing a different position because I believe that entering the race only to lose so quickly actually hurts candidates looking for smaller positions because they are now seen as weak and incapable. I'd be curious to hear your rebuttal, though.
Alex,lets take Julian Castro for example. He worked in the Obama administration but he is not a household name. However, he knows he is not going to win the nomination but the further he goes in this race the more traction his name will get. So when it comes time that he wants to run for the House or Senate for example, people who may not know who he is will know that he was a presidential candidate.
Post a Comment