Most Americans are not party hacks and we don't want party hacks putting their thumbs on the scale

It is time for both Democrats and Republicans to understand a very basic fact, most Americans are not party hacks and we don't want party hacks to have a disproportionate say in who leads our government.

Over 40% of Americans are independents and even among people who do associate themselves with a party there are many who think independently and do not always tow the party line.

If Democrats want to build a winning coalition they need to keep the party hacks in check, insulting independents and demanding loyalty without listening to people's genuine concerns about party leadership is not a winning formula.

Independent minded people are needed to win elections and those independent minded people are often turned off when the party leadership is chosen on the basis of who raises the most money rather than on the basis of who has the strongest track record of standing with common people.

When our party chooses a corrupt person like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to head the DNC and she then uses her power to stack the deck in favor of one candidate that is a huge turnoff to many potential Democratic voters.

If Democrats want the votes of independents in the general election then they need to do a much better job of listening to the voices of independents in the primaries.

There is a good reason that many people including myself do not feel we can vote for Hillary in the General Election and I can ensure you that does not mean that we want Trump. In fact many of us are terrified of the prospect of a Trump Presidency, but we are terrified of the prospect of a Hillary Presidency as well because we know that neither one of them is going to work for people like us.

We don't want Hillary and we don't want Trump, what we want is a democracy in which the people can choose who represents us on the ballot without party hacks putting their thumbs on the scales.

If the party hacks want to win elections then they need to stop alienating people who don't support the status quo because the reality is there are a whole lot of Americans who want change and are unwilling to accept the status quo of either party. The Democratic Party can not win elections by alienating those people.