The Democratic Process

I'm seeing a lot of concern trolling on the right about how Harris being the presumptive nominee is unfair to the close to 15 million Democrats who voted for Biden in the primary. My own take on this is that since Harris is Biden's VP, the assumption was that if something happened to him, Harris would take over. Well, something happened to him. In fact, technically Biden was never the nominee, just the assumed nominee, as no one will be nominated until the convention (or the virtual convention which will take place earlier to meet several states' filing deadlines).

So I'm asking our conservative SW members, if the way it was done wasn't "democratic," what would you suggest? If nominating Harris at the convention won't be good enough, then nominating anyone else who isn't even in Biden's administration, like Newsom, Whitmer, Shapiro, Pritzker, Beshear, Kelly, etc. won't be good enough either. There isn't time to redo the primaries. So what would you suggest? With all the complaining about this, I haven't seen a single suggestion of how the Democrats could have a "democratic" nomination process.

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MartinII · 70-79, M

The selection of a candidate isn't really democratic anyway, since only supporters of the relevant party can vote. A better criticism might be that it was in some way unfair to parachute Harris in without giving others a chance. But no prospective alternative candidate has complained; Harris is at least an elected VP; and anyway, as you say, how could a satisfactory contest have been organised in the circumstances?

Vin53 · M

@MartinII Not to mention that every other potential candidate that had a puncher's chance of landing the nomination has already endorsed Kamala.

SW-User

@MartinII Exactly. If other figures in the party were demanding a primary, perhaps the process wouldn't be cut-and-dried. But the Dems have done the best thing possible: united strongly around another candidate in double-quick time.

LeopoldBloom · M

@MartinII Also, as the VP, everyone who voted for Biden in the primary did so with the understanding that Harris would take over if something happened to him. She also gets to take over his campaign war chest because she's a signatory to the same bank accounts. Any other candidate would have to start from scratch. Hey, I think I've just figured out why the Republicans are so upset on our behalf.