Sanders to run as a Democrat -- but not accept nomination (2018 Senate)

[Jim Lane]

416. I truthfully pointed out the inconsistency in Hortensis's position

The issue is: If superdelegates help deny the nomination to the candidate who won the most pledged delegates, should that outcome be denounced as undemocratic?

It appears to me that, to Hortensis, the answer is Yes if the candidate thus blocked is one Hortensis likes, but No otherwise. This is a blatant double standard.

Your post is a complete non sequitur. I said nothing about the right of a political party to set its own rules. I said nothing about a candidate's right to run as an independent. In fact, I really don't know what factual assertion of mine you're branding as untrue (and as to which you're accusing me of deliberate untruth).

Incidentally, although it's clear that each party can set its own rules about superdelegates, your general statement is too sweeping. You write:

The Democratic Party is a private organization that can have whatever rules it likes to choose it’s standard bearer.

That's true within fairly broad limits. There are exceptions, though. During the Jim Crow era, there were states in which the Democratic Party decided to choose its standard-bearer in a "whites only" primary. That was held to violate the Constitution.

The superdelegate system is not unconstitutional, but members of the Democratic Party are free to conclude that it's inadvisable. They are free to work to change it.