A Night In The Democratic Primary From A Bernie Supporter
Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Jim Valvano, dying of cancer, passionately spoke those words at the ESPYs in 1992. In 1983 Valvano coached a good, but not great, North Carolina State basketball team to the Men’s NCAA basketball championship. Before I could stomach the talking heads on cable I watched a documentary about that season and it was truly moving. NC State had a rough regular season and lost 10 games. They had to win the ACC tournament just to get into the national tournament. That meant beating the defending national champions North Carolina, led by the greatest basketball player of all time Michael Jordan, and the number 1 team in the country at the time, Virginia, who had the player of the year, 7’4” Ralph Sampson. In dramatic, come from behind fashion, they slayed these two dragons and incredibly made it to the big dance. They continued their unheard of run with several dramatic, come from behind wins until they got to the final game against Houston, the best team in the country. Phi Slama Jama, as they were known, had two of the top 50 NBA players of all time on their team, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, and the rest of the team was also strong. Everyone believed NC State’s miraculous run was over. Except it wasn’t. NC State pulled out the game with a last second, fluke jam and were the National Champions. Valvano famously ran across the floor looking for someone to hug.
I had seen this documentary before but it still brought me to tears. The players from the 1983 team had a reunion in 2013 to celebrate the championship and their comments about the amazing run, Valvano, and their love for each other, get me every time. This team clearly sacrificed, prepared and worked extremely hard together to create a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts and it was a beautiful thing to see. And their goofy coach, who broke all the rules on how to coach the games, control his players and address the media, was a breath of fresh air. He had a great time through this amazing journey and he made sure all his players did as well. When the players see their beloved coach for the last time before he dies, well, the water works flowed. I recommend this documentary to any college basketball fan but also to those who don’t care for sports. If you can watch this without shedding a tear you may have a colder heart than Dick Cheney.
Earlier that day I read an excellent article about the Democratic Primary in Salon by Bill Curry. Curry is a progressive from my home state of Connecticut and was a White House counselor to President Clinton. He ran for Governor a couple of times in Connecticut, but truth be told, he wasn’t a great candidate though I always supported his policies. However, he is an excellent political writer and I have found his work on the Democratic primary to be the best and most informative that I have read. Curry made the point that it is way too early to call the race for Hillary since only 15 states have voted and most of those were in the South where Hillary had the advantage. States in the north that support Bernie were about to vote and Bernie could make up his deficit in those states. I agreed with this analysis and this made me anxious for the Michigan results later that night. If Bernie couldn’t take Michigan this theory wouldn’t hold water and the race would effectively be over in my mind. Yet every poll had Bernie down by double digits in Michigan. Even so, I was cautiously optimistic.
The NC State documentary ended at 9:00 PM so I switched over to the dreaded cable channels to check in on Michigan. After seeing the ultimate underdog team win I thought anything was possible. If Bernie could pull out Michigan it was game on. I was thrilled when I saw that had Bernie led by a couple of percentage points but only a small number of precincts had reported so I tempered my excitement. As time slowly went by Bernie added to his lead getting up and he got up to about 4% with 51% of the precincts in around 10:00 PM. I was starting to feel comfortable when a big batch of votes came in and the percentage of precincts reporting went up to 56% and Bernie’s lead dropped to 1.8%. My heart sank and I cried foul to myself. This seemed like too big a dent in Bernie’s lead for only 5% more precincts reporting. They’re not going to let Bernie win. They’re going to steal the vote from him.
Allow me to digress for a bit and give a little background on me. I volunteered with a group called TrueVoteCT back in 2006 that helped Connecticut get optical scan voting machines with paper ballots instead of paperless touchscreen machines. Our election process in Connecticut is far from perfect but we do audit the machines by counting the paper ballots on a random basis and compare the results with the machine totals. I am very aware of the problems with the election process throughout this country. Having said all that I am very skeptical about Hillary’s margin of victory in South Carolina. In many African American precincts she performed better than Obama did in 2008. I find this hard to believe. Is it possible? Of course but since South Carolina votes almost exclusively on paperless touchscreen machines we can never know. This is also the State that gave us Alvin Greene as the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 2010. It defies logic to believe that Green won this primary and if you aren’t familiar with this event google Alvin Greene to read a bizarre story. I have no doubt Hillary won South Carolina, but there is a good chance it was closer than reported. I also have doubts that Hillary won Massachusetts. There are a few, small precincts that hand count paper ballots in Massachusetts. By the way, this is the gold standard for conducting elections. In the hand counted precincts Bernie was up 17% yet he lost the overall race by 2%. Is this proof of fraud? Of course not. But even though Massachusetts uses the same optical scan machines as Connecticut, they do not audit the results of the machines so we never know for sure if they are accurate or not.
Back to the Michigan primary. After some thought I realize the reduction in Bernie’s lead that just happened is possible and I am very nervous about the outcome. Donald Trump is now speaking on all the cable channels and is as repulsive as ever. I start to think that even if Bernie wins Michigan it is not game on but he will still be alive. If he loses I really believe he is done. The results seem to trickle in slower than supply side economics trickle down to the masses. Bernie’s lead goes up and down, between 1.5% and 3%, and I can’t help but believe that something bad will happen. But it doesn’t and at 11:30, with 96% of the precincts reporting, I go to bed satisfied that Bernie took the Michigan primary. It is a great feeling.
The race is far from over and while Bernie has an uphill battle, it is doable. When I say it is doable I base this on pledged delegates allocated by the vote in the Democratic primary. If the Super Delegates stay committed to Hillary I see little chance of a Bernie victory. However, if the popular vote goes to Bernie it is hard to believe that the Super Delegates won’t change their alliance. But maybe it is better if they don’t. Let me explain why. If Bernie wins the popular vote in the Democratic primary but Super Delegates give the vote to Hillary, Bernie supporters will be furious. Maybe this is what it will take to start a true movement. If Bernie somehow wins the Presidential race I fear that his supporters will get complacent, a Sanders Administration will be ineffective, and any movement will peter out. If he loses the Primary his followers may get discouraged and give up. Super Delegates giving the nomination to Hillary may be just what this country needs to start a real movement, but who knows? Whatever happens, let’s try to live by the words of Jim Valvano. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.
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I will never, ever forget it.
Valvano running around trying to find somebody to hug. 
