Thread by @Cajsa

Someone finally did a thorough examination of the allegation that the 2016 primary was rigged for Clinton. Short answer: it wasn't.
Posted to SSRN -
9 Sep 2019
Anthony J. Gaughan
Drake University - Law School

So where did the idea come from? From Bernie, of course who said the system was rigged in May 2016. Then Donna Brazile stated the fundraising letter proved rigging and Elizabeth Warren jumped in to say it was rigged as well. Each of them contributed to delegitimizing democracy

A review of the rules and the votes show Clinton won fair and square.

In fact, the rules kept Bernie in the race far longer than he should have been. Under GOP rules, he would have been out much earlier.

Sanders, Brazile, and Warren damaged faith in democracy with feckless false claims. We cannot expect better of Trump, but they should be ashamed and must walk back their false allegations.

We fret about Putin damaging faith in democracy, but we have Sanders, Brazile, and Warren doing even more damage by pushing the lie that the primary was rigged.

In looking to the source of the idea it was rigged, the author reviewed the history of superdelegates who have not overruled the pledged delegates, even in the close 2008 primary
The Iowa caucuses came in for harsh criticism

Sanders supporters saw the party run mess in Iowa go to Clinton and the state-run NH primary go to Sanders in a landslide and chalked it up to party rigging rather than NH being close to VT.

Sanders began talking about getting the superdelegates on his side in Feb

So Clinton began amassing delegates & Sanders stopped trying to persuade superdelegates, instead alleging the process was not fair.

Sanders began delegitimizing the primary. In April he said the debates (scheduled long before-hand) were designed to hurt him. In May he said there was a "rigged system" of super-delegates, (Yes, the ones he was courting) Then he said it was an annointing process not a nomination

Before the convention he again said it was an anointment not a democratic process with a small or large D. Then the DNC emails hacked by Russia and weaponized by Wikileaks & Trump in a conspiracy against all Americans were leaked & Sanders supporters lost their minds

Let's not forget how the Sanders delegates chanted "Lock her up" and took delight in booing Stacey Abrams and many others. Sanders cried rigged so often, he poisoned the well

Sanders handed Trump a story on a silver platter and Trump ran with it.

Then Donna Brazile, to sell more books, made the allegation that the DNC rigged the primary and she had proof in a joint fundraising memo. Lost in her media blitz were the more salient factthat Sanders and O'Malley had the same agreement-about the general election

Also lost was Brazile's admission she found no evidence of rigging and that anything they sent to Clinton they sent to all other candidates. But the story was too good if they ignored the facts. So the media was full of rigged stories.

This was great for Trump who used it to distract from the Mueller investigation. Also a convenient ruse to argue for Voter ID, a favorite vote suppression strategy of the GOP. So thanks, Sanders and Brazile for helping push Voter ID with your lies.

Never one to miss a chance to be an asshole, Jeff Weaver said it confirmed it was rigged. Ellison should have known better, but he saw it as a good wedge to run for DNC chair So they acted in bad faith.

Probably to make up to Sanders supporters for endorsing Hillary (after Sanders was numerically out) Elizabeth Warren joined the rigged bandwagon. She jumped off later, but the damage was done.

One reason I block anyone who says the DNC primary was rigged is that any amplification of that lie only further damages our system. People lose faith, they don't vote. Sanders, Brazile, Ellison, Warren have to answer for the damage done.

The next part of the paper analyzes whether there was anything untoward. Short answer. No, and actually Bernie got a leg up from the nominating process allowing him to hang on longer than he should have

First, party leader preferences did not have a big effect on the primary. Yes, most preferred Hillary for many reasons. Maybe the same ones 4 million voters preferred her.

There is nothing unusual in party leaders expressing who has the best chance to win the general election...and nothing unusual in saying so. But the overwhelming support for Hillary from the people who knew them both was viewed with suspicion thanks to Sanders whinging & hack

If party leadership support were dispositive, Sanders would have lost NH and he would have raised little money.

Add to that, for all his whining about how the leadership didn't like him, he didn't face half the leader opposition that Trump did.

And no matter how you want to count the results, Clinton won.

Clinton won the biggest states with the most diverse populations. Sanders victories were in smaller, more rural, and much whiter states. Michigan was the only populous and diverse state he won, and by a tiny margin

Sanders won the undemocratic caucuses. Low turnout for caucuses helped him as proven by his wins in Nebraska & Washington when he was wiped off the floor in those states primaries

Clinton's base were minoritized voters with Dem party ties. Sanders voters were independent, white working-class who didn't belong to the party. Sanders never acknowledged his failure to attract voters of color. He claimed his loss in the South was because it's conservative

The conservatives vote in the Republican primary. He lost because he did not appeal to African Americans. Clinton beat Bernie far more decisively than Obama beat her. She actually had a higher popular vote. But there was no controversy over his victory

I think I have said this part about 10,000 times since 2016. The rigging claim defies basic logic since he did best in caucuses.

Even Sanders' whine about the number of debates is spurious. There were 9 in 2016. He wanted more. There were 6 in 2004 and 2006. So, even with 150% more debates than before it was not enough for the entitled grifter

I hope you realize I am paraphasing - and the author did not once call the grifter a grifter.

Also, but if anyone was watching, Hillary won those debates and she won 5 of the 8 states that hosted a debate. Also in the elections within 2 weeks following a debate, Clinton ran the board, except for one state.

Here's the kicker and why the rigged lie pisses me off so much (in addition to the damage it does to our system)
The party nomination rules benefitted Bernie more than Hillary. The proportional delegate award unlike the GOP and electoral college winner take all kept him alive

and the disastrous idea of opening primaries to non-Democrats to fuck with us allowed the white libertarians and other anti-Democrats to keep Bernie going

If she wins big states with lots of delegates and has to share and he wins small states with few delegates and has to share, sharing benefits him

Did you know that nearly a quarter of the voters in the Democratic primary were not Democrats? That is what bailed out Bernie's sinking ship through the whole process.

Sanders lost registered Democrats 2 to 1. It was unaffiliated voters who kept him so long. These are people with no investment in the party - like Bernie who ignored down-ballot candidates until it became a scandal

Here's the thing...claiming the primary was rigged was nothing but opportunism and it came with the cost of eroding faith in not only our nominee, but in our electoral system, in democracy. That is how selfish Sanders was, how feckless.

Don't we all know if Hillary had won caucuses, Sanders would have said they are undemocratic? If Hillary won independents, Sanders would have said the primaries should be closed to anyone not a Democrat? After all he loved superdelegates, then denounced them, then wooed them.

Sanders reckless lies gave Trump a tool to attack Clinton that actually reduced her support because people believed it. After all, both sides are saying the same thing

The rigging narrative cost Clinton 4 points against Trump and it led to Sanders voters voting for Trump. The number of Sanders supporters who voted Trump exceeded his margin of victory in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Thanks, Bernie.

The rigged primary continues to damage democracy. It is an opportunistic lie promoted by grifters for personal gain but no matter how false the allegation, the damage is real

2020 has not arrived and Bernie is already complaining about rigging

Lying works. It helped Bernie & Trump in 2016 and they are both back at it with new false allegations of election rigging. Ironically, Bernie alleged leaders were rigging for Warren who so stupidly endorsed his 2016 rigging lie

You can download the entire report that is full of good history and many examples of the numerical evidence that Bernie is a big liar and his lies cost the election and are damaging our democracy. We expect nothing but lies from Trump, so much his own supporters don't believe him

But Bernie needs to pay for the damage he has done and is doing with his lies. To feed his ego, the grifter has wilfully and deliberately lied about the election. He needs to lose and badly.

And here is the link to the report where you can download a PDF
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…