Bernie's NY Independents



We’re hearing a lot of complaining from Bernie backers who were registered as independents in NY about their inability to vote in the Democratic primaries. My issue with all this complaining is two-fold.  One, how many of these NY independents who are now backing Bernie would EVER have voted for ANY republican? If Bernie's message is one that resonates with them, then in what universe would they be on the fence between voting republican or democratic? If you created a Venn diagram, the Bernie universe doesn't overlap with the republican universe in any way.  

 Which leads me to my second issue... I have to wonder why these people, knowing full well that registering as an independent in NY means they can't vote in the democratic primary, would choose to register as an independent? If they truly wanted to influence the democratic primary, they should have registered as a Democrat in the first place.

I get the philosophical motivation behind registering as an independent. I was briefly registered as an independent when I first moved to Nevada 11 years ago. There's a sense of "I'm not part of EITHER establishment, dammit!", and that makes sense to me. But, when I realized that I could not be part of the Nevada primary process as an independent, no way was I going to allow that to happen. I picked a party and registered with them.

While I understand that the timing for having to change from independent to democratic way back in October is silly, I still have to wonder why these independents were initially content with sitting out the primary. By registering as an independent in NY, they were agreeing to NOT vote in the primary. That’s the deal. And, that's what they did. They sat it out.

Yeah, it seems like many of the states have wacky primary rules, and NY’s primaries are not perfect, by any means. But, and it's the same when Trump complains about the republican primary system, the rules are the same for everyone. They weren't invented specifically to combat Trump or Sanders. If a voter in NY is interested enough to be involved in the primary process, they shouldn’t have registered as an independent. But, some did, and that means they don’t have a say. That’s what they signed up for.

It's like this large segment of people were on the fringes, barely involved, Bernie woke them up for a hot minute, the pre-established system didn't accommodate them quickly enough, or in the right measure, so now they're threatening to go back into hiBERNation.

Sorry, folks, you have to play by the rules if you want to win, regardless of how messed up they may seem. We all do.

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