Joe Biden’s ‘win’ in South Carolina should really go to another candidate
why getting the most votes and delegates totally doesn’t matter at all
Joe Biden had a great night in the South Carolina primary this weekend. He won the popular vote, and that translated to him winning the most South Carolinian delegates. Yet, there’s a strong case that in fact the victory should be tossed to one of the other candidates.
At the end of the day, he only got a plurality of the vote — not a majority.
I think that calls into question if he’s really the guy who should win the SC election. I mean, if you think about it, more people voted to not have Joe Biden. There’s no other way to read a lack of majority than as a mandate that most people wanted first and foremost for anyone but Biden.
Not to mention, if we smush together all the votes for Sanders and Steyer and Buttigieg and Warren and Klobuchar and Gabbard and whoever else, then they outnumber the support Joe got. So really, he shouldn’t win. I hear that a plurality is no measure of success. Once we add up the other candidates vote totals, then one of them can take the true, majority win.
Personally, I advocate for Tulsi Gabbard to be the winner of the South Carolina election. She knows that slow and steady wins the race. Although to be honest, I’m really open to any of the candidates — as long as it’s not Biden.
Besides, Biden can’t beat Trump! We can’t in good conscience let him walk away with this victory in South Carolina.
I’m well aware that hundreds of volunteers spread out across the state, spending months working to get votes for their preferred candidate — I thank them for their efforts. I’m also grateful to all the citizens in South Carolina who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in our democracy.
Unfortunately they might not be aware that there are obscure Democratic primary rules where regular voters don’t matter all that much (hopefully these rules apply at state level too). Joe walking away with an unfounded, plurality win is the exact scenario why trusted Democratic Party officials have so much power in the first place — to make sure that we voters don’t accidentally elect someone they don’t like.
I can already hear the counter-arguments. Detractors will whine: “Votes are supposed to matter in this country.” “That’s not democratic.” “What about the will of the people?” “Stop undermining my civil rights.” “No malarkey.”
I’m sorry to tell the people of South Carolina, but that’s just the way it goes. No one said this is a democratic primary — this is a Democratic primary. And that’s not just my opinion. Some of the most prominent figures in the Democratic Party during some television appearance the other day agreed with me:
“This is playing by the rules of the Democratic Party.”
“The primary should work its will.”
“Let the process work its way out.”
“The ‘winner’ shouldn’t necessarily win.”
“They should just let the process work.”
One of the guys up on stage disagreed with the other 5 people, but to be honest he seemed kinda crazy to me.
Some people are going around this slogan, “One Person, One Vote”. I admire the principled stance, I really do. But ultimately they’re naive — the rest of us need to be practical. We need to recognize that Trump is a unique threat. If we have to give up our underpinning commitments to democratic structures and norms to beat him, so be it. Once Trump is gone, things will just go back to normal. The fever will break.
I’m sure the voters in South Carolina will get over it.
See y’all in November when you better Vote Blue No Matter Who!
— Just kidding, an avid democracy-believer
