Escaping Enlightenment

The the results of the Democratic National Committee in regards to Florida and Michigan.

Florida - Half of your delegates will be counted.
Michigan - Half of your pledged delegates will be counted.

Now, what the hell is wrong with this picture?

Let’s start with a rundown of what’s happened so far.

August 2006 - The Democratic National Committee created a rule that only four states could hold their primaries/caucuses on or before February 5th: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Early 2007 - Florida files and passes CS/HB 537, which basically says that Florida will be holding their primaries on January 29, 2008 (a week before the DNC’s rules) because they don’t have enough influence in the elections.

Mid-August 2007 - Michigan follows Florida’s lead and moves their primaries to January 15.

August 25, 2007 - The DNC votes that Florida is in violation of the rules and gives Florida 30 days to change their primaries to fall after February 5th, as per the DNC rules. Florida gave them the finger.

Mid-2007 - Michigan also gives the DNC the finger, but specific dates were unavailable (sorry).

August 31, 2007 - All democratic candidates are informed by the DNC that Michigan and Florida will not count. Officials from the four early-voting states asked all candidates not to campaign or participate in Florida or Michigan. All major candidates signed the pledge within a day.

September 24, 2008 - Florida’s 30 days are up and they haven’t responded. Florida’s delegates are stripped.

October 9, 2007 - Major candidates Obama, Richardson, Biden, and Edwards remove their names from the Michigan ballots, citing that since Michigan decided to break the rules of the DNC, they would not campaign or particiapte in the primary election, per their agreement. Candidates attempted the same in Florida, however Florida does not allow candidates to remove themselves from the ballot without removing themselves from the general election.

December 1, 2007 - The DNC votes to strip Michigan of all delegates.

So, now that we’re up to speed here, the DNC has now gone back on their word. Michigan and Florida broke the rules of the DNC. They were told repeatedly that if they held their primaries early, it would be nothing more than a “beauty contest”.

Regardless of what political party you associate with, who you are voting (or hoping for), this is a grave injustice. The states broke the rules and deserved to have their delegates stripped.

What I find really interesting is that everyone is upset with the DNC for stripping the delegates when they should be upset at their state government for moving the primaries when they KNEW what the result would be.

Why was there no word on the delegate situation until January of 2008? All candidates knew back in August that Florida/Michigan would not count; most people who watched the news knew that these states who moved their primaries were violating DNC rules.. I remember first hearing about it on the news on my birthday (August 16), in which the talking head even made mention that the DNC might strip the Florida delegates because of CS/HB 537.

So, again, I ask: Why did no one care about the “defranchisment of Florida/Michigan voters” until recently?