Here are some answers to questions I frequently get when discussing these issues.
Is Michigan going to have a re-vote?
It's starting to sound like this is a real possibility. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Democratic team trying to negotiate a deal, Sen. Carl Levin, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and DNC Member Debbie Dingell, released this statement on March 14th:
We have been working to resolve the question of seating Michigan’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention. We agree that the Michigan delegation should be seated at the Convention, and without a fight before the Credentials Committee or on the floor of the Convention. At this time we are focusing on the possibility of a state-run primary in early June, which would not use any state funding. This option would require the passage of legislation by the State Legislature, and we look forward to working with the members of the Legislature in the coming days to see if this option can be made a reality
There are a lot of steps left before it can happen, though. As this AP article reports: "To go forward, any plan would require the approval of the two campaigns, the Democratic National Committee, state party leaders and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is backing Clinton." If this is going to happen, all of these people need to know it is important to Michigan voters! See the Michigan Re-Vote blog post for more details, including what you can do to make your voice heard!
Doesn't the Democratic Party have to do something to penalize states who schedule their primaries too early? Otherwise we will have a race to be first, and all end up voting in December!
Maybe they have to do something, but taking away votes is too extreme. Certainly ignoring voters is much worse than everybody voting in December. The DNC had lots of other options available to them without weakening our democracy. For example, they could penalize the legislators that voted to move the primary by refusing to support them, trying to replace them with another Democrat, or ejecting them from the Democratic party. For that matter, they could fix the clearly broken primary process.
Didn't Michigan break the law by moving their primary?
No, we broke Democratic National Committee rules. The primary date selected by our legislature is the legal primary; they are our lawmakers, after all!
Doesn't the Democratic National Committee have the right to run their primary however they want?
Yes, they certainly have that legal right. I believe they are abusing that right by destroying Michigan's primary without offering any alternative.
Won't the nominee insist that all delegates be seated at the 2008 convention?
Maybe, but once the nominee has been selected it's too late for our delegates to make a difference. It's like having your vote counted the day after an election, when the winner has already been announced, and at the discretion of the winner: perhaps this is better than nothing, but it is still not a democratic process.
Hillary Clinton left her name on the ballot. Should I vote for her?
Hillary Clinton did less than some other candidates to disrupt the primary process in Michigan. She still refused to campaign here or to disavow the actions of the Democratic National Committee. On the day the other candidates removed their names from the ballot, she announced that she was not doing so because it was not necessary, since the votes wouldn't be counted anyways. You can decide for yourself whether that is enough.
How can I vote for the Republicans?! They're even worse!
I agree that the Republicans have done a very poor job while they've had control of the White House. My personal opinion is that their policies started an unjustified war that cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives, substantially weakened our civil liberties, and have done nothing to help low- and middle-income citizens with our increasing economic crisis.
But in a democracy, the right to elect our leaders is more important than any particular set of policies. I would prefer a democratically elected president with poor policies to a president who has been selected by an undemocratic process.