Well, if you are a democrat in Florida, you may as well vote republican, because your vote in January for the democratic presidential nominee will not matter….
From the Miami Herald:
DEMOCRATIC PARTY – An insult to Florida's voters
The federal-court ruling upholding the Democratic Party's decision to ban Florida delegates from the national convention is a disappointment. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle relied on precedent in deciding that a political party has the right to set and enforce its own rules. Even so, the ruling doesn't justify the party's decision to deny Florida's four million Democratic voters a role in selecting the party's presidential nominee, which is nothing short of an insult.
Earlier this year, Chairman Howard Dean and the party's national bosses issued a decree refusing to seat Florida delegates at next summer's convention in Denver, essentially rendering the state party's primary on Jan. 29 meaningless.
The reason: Florida jumped the gun and moved its primary to an earlier date, ignoring the nationally ordained schedule in order to give the state a more prominent role in picking a nominee. Obviously, the Democratic Party has a vested interest in avoiding the chaos that would result if states can ignore the rules, including the primary schedule, but this is a ridiculous outcome for several reasons:
• The punishment is disproportionate. Florida voters are punished by this decision, but they had no say in making the change, which was approved by the Legislature with little public input. Mr. Dean suggested that this is no big deal, just ''a fight among politicians.'' Memo to Mr. Dean: Without actual voters, you don't have a party; and you and other party hacks would be out of a job.
• The decision assumes that we don't have chaos already. A review of the shifting schedule of primaries and the ridiculously early onset of the campaign season gives the lie to that proposition. The current timetable did not evolve from careful deliberation. Having the Iowa caucuses go first was an accident of scheduling that occurred in 1976. By some estimates, only 10 percent of the voting population of this small state turns out for the caucuses, not a great example of civic democracy.
• As for the actual schedule, that's a joke, too. Only a couple of weeks ago, New Hampshire set its own date of Jan. 8, just five days after Iowa. Candidates are shuttling frantically between the two states at a time when most voters are distracted by the holiday season. This isn't chaos?
• The party decided to blacklist the entire delegation, instead of denying seats to just half of the delegation, as party rules outline — and as Republicans did. In addition, the party has ordered candidates to forgo campaigning in the state, another improvised and punitive measure. This is not fealty to the rules, but subservience to the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
• More reasonable resolutions were available. Florida could have been given a one-time waiver, on the grounds that the early states were moving up their selection dates anyway. The party could have limited the sanction to half the delegation. It could have allowed candidates to campaign in Florida, instead of limiting appearances to closed fundraisers.
The final irony is this: The case was argued in Tallahassee of all places, with the Democratic Party arguing that the votes of Floridians should not be counted. Only seven years ago, Democrats were in Tallahassee passionately arguing just the opposite. They lost that election. Now they're doing their best to lose the next one.
