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The Democrats have a chance to electrify the country. How often can you say that was possible in your lifetime? They can have the most exciting, dynamic process in the world take place at their convention—and have the whole country watch. And at end of that heart-pounding event, the candidate that emerges from that battle will have proven themselves the toughest fighter against Trump.
Well, if that sounds like a reality show ... exactly! Except this time, it's actually real. And the whole world is going to watch! That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing!
I work in media and we sometimes measure the value of events by how much the airtime costs. This would provide billions of dollars in free media to the Democratic Party.
It would be an act of historic political malpractice to pass up this golden opportunity.
If Democratic leaders unite and pretend that someone, likely Kamala Harris, is now the anointed leader, then instead of having this hopeful drama, the Democratic Party would march backward. They would be doing precisely what got them in trouble in the first place, saying, "We're going to pick the leader and make you vote for them!"
How can anyone not see the value of having the delegates pick the strongest candidate in front of our own eyes.
What if it's a mess, you ask? So what? What kind of mess? The kind where we disagree with each other about some policies? And how is that a bad thing? That sounds like democracy to me. In the meanwhile, the whole country is talking about Democratic policies—and young, up and coming, Democratic politicians. Billions in free media for those, too.
Are we really going to give all this up so that someone else can be anointed? Have we learned nothing form this debacle? Blindly following authority figures in the Democratic Party doesn't have a great track record of success. They haven't been able to solve Donald Trump, for Christ's sake. These are not the rocket scientists you thought they were.
Time for a fuller democracy, where the voters weigh in through a primary, has unfortunately passed. So, the delegates selecting the new candidate is the most democratic option we have left. At this point, if we are going to make the case for democracy in the general election, it's about time we prove we believe in it.
I'm less concerned about whether the Vice President is the best candidate for us or not. In fact, I think that she will come in as the favorite. But if she earns the delegates on her own, then she will be a far stronger candidate at the end of that process. Then we can all be proud to line up behind her after she has won a contest like that.
But we cannot afford to not test the next potential candidate. Again, that's exactly how we got into this mess in the first place.
Yes, this will involve Democratic leadership giving up the reins for a minute—and I know they're deathly afraid of that—but these are Biden delegates, pre-selected to be the most establishment Democrats in the country. If you can't even trust them with a little bit of democracy, do you really believe in it?
Cenk Uygur is the founder of TYT and host of The Young Turks.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
