>The myth here is that the Dem leadership controls all these things. The
>power over "the party" is defused over a whole range of freelance
>fundraisers, unions, direct mail specialists, consultants and grassroots
>activists.
Actually, the myth here is that the United States electoral system is one in which organised political parties, or cohesive political manifestos, are permitted to compete for electoral support.
If political parties cannot control who its candidates for election will be, they cannot determine what its political program will be. In which case they have no useful role in the system, as they do in all modern democratic electoral systems. It more closely resembles the Iranian system, where candidates for government may also be vetoed from even standing for election, than it does democratic electoral systems like Britain.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas