The New Hampshire Democrats submitted their plan for delegate selection to the National Democrat Party, and it was accepted. The 76-page document (76 pages?) can be read here. Luckily they included comments at the end on the overall delegate selection rules put forth by the DNC. Some, including Senate President Donna Soucy (D- Manchester) are not happy with the rules.
Senator Soucy’s gripe is that only 50% of the delegates (or as close to it as possible) can be women. She thinks that at least 50% should be women, but it should not be a ceiling. Women should be extra-equal or something.
I write today to once again express my frustration with the Democratic National Party’s charter Article 9, section 16 establishing equal division (between genders).
I greatly respect and appreciate that when equal division was passed nearly fifty (50) years ago it was an extraordinary accomplishment which empowered women to rise within the ranks of the Democratic Party at all levels. However, the well-intentioned equal division floor has now become an “impenetrable ceiling” preventing women leaders and activists from participating in our delegate process…
Article 9, Section 16 of the Charter should be changed to state, “No less than 50% of the membership of the Democratic National Committee, the Executive Committee, Democratic state central committees, and all national Party Conventions, committees, commissions, and like bodies shall be comprised of women.”
So, it’s okay if there are fewer men, but definitely not okay if there are fewer women. That’s a weird standard for equality, but it does come from the white-cis-men-hating-democrat elites. They want women and minorities to be equal extra-equal.
Women are the only historically underrepresented group as outlined by the Democratic National Committee that has a ceiling. There is no provision in our Charter or rule that prevents any Democratic body of being comprised of over 50% of youth, seniors, LGBTQ, AAPI, Latinx, Native American, African Americans or people with disabilities. Only women.
Jan Schmidt, Alderman and State Representative from Nashua, has different complaints. She thinks it’s okay for the delegates to override the will of the people who vote in the primary, so long as they don’t talk about it in the media. Heh. Reformatted, emphasis mine.
I am sure that the process of selecting pledged delegates is as fair and honest as always. I would simply like to ensure that the folks known as “Super Delegates” do not express in the media their intent to override the will of the state’s primary choice.At the Convention, where it belongs is fine, but thumbs on the scale was part of what lost us the Presidency.
Representative Lucy Weber (D- Walpole) can’t even understand the rules, and her “law degree has the words ‘magna-cum-laude’ on it”. Reformatted, emphasis mine, again.
My thanks to all who worked on this monumental document. I have 20 years of formal education; my law degree has the words “magna cum laude” on it. I read, draft and review statutes regularly. I cannot read this document. I am very concerned that the convoluted nature of the document itself will be a considerable barrier to participation.
Ah, and we can’t leave out non-binary folks, right? After all the work they did to advance the LGBT cause this far, how dare the DNC leave “x” out of the equation. Eh-hem, Donna Soucy, paying attention?
Marcia Garber, Manchester, Registered Democrat
You lost me at “male” “female” ….totally leaves out non-binary folks….just sayin’. We’re doing ALL this work expanding gender definitions and it is killed in this document. (ie. amending birth certificates, x gender markers on driver’s license/id for voting, and updating all nondiscrimination spaces to include gender and gender identity….)
Well done, DNC, well done. When you start waging identity war politics, it’s only a matter of time before you fail to meet your own standards. You reap what you sow.
