Donna Brazile

Opinion contributor

Curses! Superdelegate is vanquished!

I’ve had my wings clipped, my cape ripped, and my super powers stripped. My irresistible Kung Fu grip on the Democratic Party is being pried loose by well-meaning citizens who may yet endanger the very fountainhead of their freedom.

You see, since time immemorial, we superdelegates have stood as the guardians and protectors of the secret machinations of the Democratic Party, keeping it safe from outsiders and agitators. We were ever watchful, always ready to spring into action should unorthodoxy raise its ugly head.

But now, a simple Democratic National Committee vote has effectively left us neutered — stripped of our awesome powers, left helpless and weak like Superman zonked by kryptonite, Batman without his utility belt, or a hammerless Thor.

OK, I don’t actually read a lot of comic books. I’ve been too busy running the Democratic Party by executive fiat along with the other Politburo insiders, I mean “superdelegates.” At least, that’s the way it’s been explained to us.

I'm now one notch above a coin toss

Last weekend, the DNC voted to essentially disenfranchise the “superdelegates” — the elected officials, activists and leaders who go to the Democratic convention as unpledged delegates, free to support whomever their conscience demands.

Many strident voices blamed superdelegates for the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t win the 2016 presidential nomination, even though Hillary Clinton won a clear majority of the elected delegates. In fact, never since their introduction in 1984 have superdelegates overturned the choice of elected delegates.

We’re not there to circumvent the will of the voters. We’re simply there to vote. Well, not anymore, we’re not.

According to the new rules, we superdelegates won’t be able to vote on the first ballot at the convention. Or on any ballot, unless there’s a tie or some other sort of deadlock in the process.

So, we superdelegates are now what? Merely the mechanism you default to in case of a tie? Great. I’ve fought for the Democratic Party my entire life, and now I’m one notch above a coin toss.

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I realize that many people have felt left out. Part of the reason is that they have not participated, worked and fought to the same degree as many other people. A political party isn’t like some sort of event planner that’s there to make sure you have a fun time installing the candidate of your choice. It’s an organization made up of flesh-and-blood people who have spilled endless blood, sweat and tears. Those people have literally devoted their lives to creating this organization to fulfill their dreams of the kind of country we’re going to be.

There is a reason they’re called the party “faithful.”

In one of my tweets this week, I used Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards as an example. He has devoted his life to public service both in uniform and in office. As governor since 2016, he expanded Medicaid to give health care to thousands of Louisianans. He wasn’t given a seat at the table; he earned it.

And the superdelegates aren’t the infamous “smoke-filled room” full of “old white men” deciding the fate of everybody else. But let me tell you something — it was once close to being that. I know because I helped change it. As I said earlier this week, I’ve been those people outside, shouting at the gate. I was with Jesse Jackson in 1984: an outsider, a troublemaker and a believer in the Rainbow Coalition. We complained and we fought. And we worked like hell for years to get on the DNC in order to make it inclusive.

I earned my place at the superdelegate table

“Now that POC, women, and LGBTQ+ leaders have a significant say in the nomination process suddenly the rules need to be changed, effectively eliminating their participation. Funny how that happens. Lucy moves the football again,” my dear friend and co-author Leah Daughtry tweeted this week. Amen.

All of the people lumped together as “superdelegates” have made the DNC an organization that everyone can be proud of. I invite people to become more involved with it — not to try to make others less involved.

To some degree, this has been a perception problem. People seem to think that we superdelegates really did have some sort of superpowers. Maybe it was the “super” part of superdelegate that spooked them. They began to fear and distrust us. We’ve wound up being outcast and despised, like those with superpowers in the X-Men universe. I think. Like I said, I don’t actually read a lot of comics.

Well, I can still go to the convention as a superdelegate, and do everything in my power to help Democrats win elections. I earned my place at this table. Hell, I helped build the table. So when you’re sitting at it without me, please use coasters. I don’t want any stains on it.

Donna Brazile is the former interim chair of the DNC and author of "Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House." Follow her on Twitter: @donnabrazile