this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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So first you said they only handle primaries. Nowhere did I even see the word primary, but the list of responsibilities went far beyond handling elections. You ignored section D entirely, which I posit is a leadership role. You have no understanding that people can function as leaders and exhibit leadership skills regardless of official hierarchies, titles, and positions.
And finally, you are making my point for me. The party has laughable unity and leadership. If the DNC is responsible for the candidates that comprise the party, why shouldn't I blame them for building a headless party?
Did you not know that "issuing the Call to the National Convention" is the final result of the primary?
Did you not know that "filling vacancies in the nominations for the office of President and Vice President" would only happen if there was some problem after the primary?
Did you not know that "providing for the election or appointment of a Chairperson, five Vice Chairpersons..." all has to do with the internal private organization of the DNC and nothing at all to do with the US congress?
Did you not know that "formulating and disseminating statements of Party policy" refers to the party platform of the presidential elections and are made right before the national convention and then pretty much ignored for the next 4 years and are never used by congressmen and senators to guide their votes? I doubt that any congressmen who is not a DNC member could quote a single sentence in the party platform.
A leadership role of a private organization that holds a big event every 4 years. It is not a government leadership role for people who are work for the government, like congressmen and senators.
They are NOT responsible for the candidates that comprise the party. The VOTERS and candidate themselves are 100% responsible for that. Those same voters are ALSO responsible for electing the membership of the DNC. That is exactly why congressmen and senators couldn't care less what anybody who works at the DNC thinks about anything. It's because congressmen and senators are responsible for their own election and reelections, not the DNC.
Why would you even want a party where one guy, instead of millions of voters, decide who the candidates are? Or even way worse than that, how they vote?
You have no understanding the congressmen and senators already have completely different leaders and organizations who have infinitely more power than anybody at "the DNC". A simple way to understand reality is to know that nobody who gets a government paycheck cares about what anybody at the DNC wants.
The whole reason why I push back against the trend of using "The DNC" as a magical shorthand for "whichever Dem I don't like at the moment", is become I was worried that eventually somebody would be foolish enough to think the DNC was some super powerful monolithic static group who is like an actual person. So far you are the only person I've found in that category. Everyone else simply admits they were falsely using "The DNC" to mean some random guy they didn't like.
Powerful enough to control the primary process and thus curate the illusion of "choice." Look at how preemptively allocating super delegates impacted Bernie's progress in 2016.
The platform and policies you so brazenly discount as unimportant is the very premise on which voters decide to elect. Like what are you even talking about? It's like you only acknowledge one half of an equation.
The DNC doesn't matter because it only introduces the public to candidates? Is that your argument? And are you also arguing that the DNC cannot support primary challengers to replace Democrats that "don't give a shit" about party strategy and unity?
They wouldn't allow you to vote? I don't think so.
There was no impact at all. First of all "allocating super delegates" was a process added to the party charter in the 1980's. The number of DNC members of 2016 that had anything to do with that was zero. 2nd, Clinton had a majority of elected delegates in 2016. So super delegates made no difference. You know that Bernie was a super delegate right?
LOL. I bet you don't know one single sentence of the 2024 Party Platform. I don't any either. Unfortunately voters don't even look at the candidates real published platforms, which they definitely should be doing. Like Harris 82 page PDF of policy positions.
It doesn't even do that much. The candidates introduce themselves to the public. Their main job is to hold the primary votes. If you are someone who volunteers to work for the Democratic Party at the local level, then yes, the DNC is the ultimate boss of your volunteer organization. If you are someone who gets a paycheck from the government, like congressmen and senators, then no the DNC is not your boss. Congressmen do have leaders who can punish them by taking away their committee assignments and making them bored at their jobs. Those leaders are the Democratic Caucus leaders.
They NEVER do that. They can play a small role sometimes. They have been known to occasionally choose a candidate to fund in a congressional primary when there is no Democratic incumbent. And they shouldn't do that IMO. But once a Democratic candidate becomes an elected incumbent the DNC has no leverage whatsoever over them.
The DNC has no leverage whatsoever. It is the leadership of the House and Senates Democratic Caucuses who have both the official job and the real job of party strategy and unity. And they have some real but also limited leverage, since they give out committee assignments. It is not uncommon for the DNC chairman to be a run of the mill rank and file congressmen who takes their orders from the Caucus Leader.
My argument is that "The DNC" had nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of this article. The "House Leaders" cited in this article were clearly the leaders of the Democratic Caucus, not "The DNC" as you were falsely claiming.