Steven Rosenfeld - Democracy Betrayed: How Superdelegates, Redistricting, Party Insiders, and the Electoral College Rigged the 2016 Election

Copyright 2018 by Steven Rosenfeld

Foreword Copyright 2017 by David Talbot

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Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2945-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2946-9

Printed in the United States of America

I am trying to write history while it is happening

and I don't want to be wrong.

John Steinbeck

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BY DAVID TALBOT

T HE WORLD IS BURNING , AND YET the firelight illuminates the way out. The times are dire, even catastrophic. Nonetheless we can sense a grand awakening, a growing realization all around the globe that people have the power, to dream, to rule, to wrestle the world from fools in the prophetic words of Patti Smith.

But in order to rouse ourselves from the nightmares that hold us in their grip, we need to know more about the forces that bedevil us, the structures of power that profit from humanitys exploitation and from that of the earth. Thats the impetus behind Hot Books, a series that seeks to expose the dark operations of power and to light the way forward.

Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons and I started Hot Books in 2015 because we believe that books can make a difference. Since then the Hot Books series has shined a light on the cruel reign of racism and police violence in Baltimore (D. Watkins The Beast Side ); the poisoning of U.S. soldiers by their own environmentally reckless commanding officers (Joseph Hickmans The Burn Pits ); the urgent need to hold U.S. officials accountable for their criminal actions during the war on terror (Rachel Gordons American Nuremberg ); the covert manipulation of the media by intelligence agencies (Nicholas Schous Spooked ); the rise of a rape culture on campus (Kirby Dick and Amy Zierings The Hunting Ground ); the insidious demonizing of Muslims in the media and Washington (Arsalan Iftikhars Scapegoats ); the crackdown on whistleblowers who know the governments dirty secrets (Mark Hertsgaards Bravehearts ); the disastrous policies of the liberal elite that led to the triumph of Trump (Chris Hedges Unspeakable ); the American wastelands that gave rise to this dark reign (Alexander Zaitchiks The Gilded Rage ); the energy titans and their political servants who are threatening human survival (Dick Russells Horsemen of the Apocalypse ); the utilization of authoritarian tactics by Donald Trump that threaten to erode American democracy (Brian Klaass The Despots Apprentice ); the capture, torture, and detention of the first high-value target captured by the CIA after 9/11 (Joseph Hickman and John Kiriakous The Convenient Terrorist ); and the deportation of American veterans (J Malcolm Garcias Without a Country ). And the series continues, going where few publishers dare.

Hot Books are more condensed than standard-length books. Theyre packed with provocative information and points of view that mainstream publishers usually shy from. Hot Books are meant not just to stir readers thinking, but to stir trouble.

Hot Books authors follow the blazing path of such legendary muckrakers and troublemakers as Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jessica Mitford, I.F. Stone and Seymour Hersh. The magazines and newspapers that once provided a forum for this deep and dangerous journalism have shrunk in number and available resources. Hot Books aims to fill this crucial gap.

American journalism has become increasingly digitized and commodified. If the news isnt fake, its usually shallow. But theres a growing hunger for information that is both credible and undiluted by corporate filters.

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INTRODUCTION

I T S MID - DECEMBER 2016 IN NEW Y ORK City. The sting of the presidential election has not worn off. Theres a harsh wind blowing as Im cutting across Lincoln Center for a meeting I am drawn to, but also wary about. I have been a national political reporter since the 1990s at various outlets, some mainstream like NPR and others in progressive media. Over the years, Ive covered elections deeply. This is not just candidates and speeches, but who can vote, who cant, how that happens, and whether the count can be trusted. Ive been pulled back into the vortex of our elections where, despite efforts to expand the vote and improve our system, the more ruthless and smarter forces have won again. You and Iand the vast majority of our fellow citizensare the losers.

Ive been here before. In 2004, I spent weeks, then months, then two years with others tracing and writing about what happened in Ohio where Republican President George W. Bush beat Democrat John Kerry. We produced a catalog of dirty tricks that Republicans have resurrected with predictable uniformity ever since. Donald Trumps surprise victories and the US Senate staying in Republican hands felt eerily familiar. Many explanations in the aftermath did not add up. In 2004, we were told a wave of rural, white southern Ohio evangelicals had reelected Bush. We looked but didnt find them. Now a different And the election was not even entirely over.

I was to meet Lulu Friesdat, a filmmaker who had been taking time off from her job as a CBS-TV producer to film the 2016 presidential recount in Wisconsin. We had talked on the phone about what she saw and shot. These were breakdowns where no one in an official role could verify to the satisfaction of observers and computer scientists what constituted the actual final count. Lulu witnessed it, filmed it, and was mortified. I posted her clips on AlterNet.org. She already concluded that the Democratic Party had kept the nomination from Bernie Sanders. I agreed, though we differed on particulars of its antidemocratic culture and playbook. Now Friesdat was discovering another facet of the way elections really work in America.

Her most memorable clip showed a process filled with earnest citizens; banal officials; and maddening, unnecessary complications rooted in arcane election rules. Friesdat had gone to the Racine County government center, not far from Lake Michigan. Outside the center, people were rooting for the Green Bay Packers or shopping for Christmasbut inside, the center was a world apart. Most people thought the election was over. They turned away from states certifying results, the Electoral College convention, and then Congress ratifying that vote. Interrupting this progression was the Green Partys feisty candidate, Jill Stein, who had a legal right to file for recounts in the last three statesWisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvaniagiving Trump his apparent victory.