How to Avert the Democratic Party Implosion
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Monday, May 5, 2008
Who can tell me how the Democratic
Party got to where it is now? How did Super Tuesday end up as someday in June?
In 2000, 2004 and apparently this year, the Democratic Party has operated like people who never missed a chance to miss an opportunity.
By all indications, the election of 2008 should be a cake walk for the Democratic Party. But where we are now, it appears that if the Democratic Party fields Hilary Clinton, the Democratic Party will be finished. If it fields Barack Obama, the Democratic Party will also be finished.
Obama is damaged. Whether it is beyond repair is yet to be seen.
Hilary Clinton has always been a flawed candidate. She now has the additional burden of being the one to be blamed, rightly or wrongly, for the damaging of Barack Obama.
If at the end of the exercise called primaries, the Party chooses Barack Obama, it may lose the November election, but at least there will be peace. Nobody will say that Obama was not given a chance.
But if the party upends him and chooses Hilary Clinton, there will be a civil war. New voters brought in by Obama will fight the old establishment voters. Black voters may also join the fray. How it will end is anybody’s guess.
If that war is allowed to start it doesn’t matter what the two candidates say or do? Once the genie is out of the proverbial bottle, it will be hard to get it back in.
So what is the solution?
The first thing that must happen is that a candidate should emerge after Tuesday’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
There is no point in continuing the fight afterwards. We essentially know where each candidate stands on the issue. What should matter from then on is where the Democratic Party differs from the Republican Party.
The election of 2008 is probably the most important election of the next 50 years. With conservatives already in control in France and ready to take over in Britain, there is the danger of having a congregation of conservative forces in the world which can only lead to more machismo everywhere.
The second thing that must happen is that one of the candidates should concede defeat after Tuesday. They have to save the superdelegates from making the choice – especially when none of the choices is good.
The candidate who concedes defeat will be a stronger candidate in the long run with a higher moral authority. It will have the same impact whether it is Clinton or Obama.
If on the other hand none of the candidates will concedes, the Party should move fast and drop the gavel. There may be a short term price to pay but waiting for June will be dragging the party to death.
The elders of the party and selected superdelegates can come together and approach a candidate to withdraw or as they say, suspend his or her election. If that does not work, they can give a candidate the numbers needed to end the competition.
Such a move is necessary now. It is the precondition needed for healing to begin. November may seem far away but it is not really far. Neither the price of rice nor the price of oil will return to its normal level before November. So a healthy and focused Democratic Party is needed to lead the debate on the future of America.