Perhaps rigged is too loaded a term to use regarding the last Democratic National Convention but let us entertain the possibility that the DNC was weighted in Hillary's favor. Why would they do this? I offer here a list of reasons they might have chosen to favor Hillary to the detriment of Bernie Sanders, a comparison to what happened on the Republican side, and some editorial comment over the entire thing.
The first, and most obvious reason, was that Hillary was an establishment Democrat. The party would have obviously preferred a candidate who would put the party first and play politics as usual, campaign rhetoric be damned. As a political outsider, Bernie Sanders would have been more willing to take actions which would have run counter to what the establishment Democrats wanted if that was what it took to fulfill his campaign promises. Hillary, like Bill Clinton before her, would have been willing to sacrifice those campaign promises if that was what it took to wheel and deal with her fellow democrats and avoid arousing the wrath of Congress and the nation as a whole (see Bill Clinton's reversal on gay rights and socialized health care during his terms as President). Hillary Clinton is, first and foremost a politician whereas Bernie Sanders is more of an ideologue. That makes him less predictable and dangerous in the eyes of establishment Democrats.
Second, in some sense the DNC might have preferred to hand the mantle of leadership to Hillary as a reward for her years of loyalty and on the idea that it was her time. There are some who say that although Bill Clinton had the people skills and charisma, it was Hillary who was actually the brains behind the Clinton political machine. In a sense the election of Hillary Clinton would have in effect been her third term in office, not her first. Perhaps it is with this in mind that President Obama declared that there had never been another candidate as qualified for the office as Hillary Clinton. That, coupled with the fact that her age made her political viability doubtful for future races, would have been reason for the DNC to anoint her over Bernie Sanders.
Lastly, the DNC's underestimation of the Deplorables' political power fooled them into thinking they could disregard the desires of their own voters. They thought with Trump at the helm on the Republican side that a Democratic victory was a foregone conclusion and that they could force an unlikeable Hillary on the Democratic side against the will of Democratic voters (especially the young) who were energized and came out in droves to vote for Bernie. And remember, a zero charisma Hillary was the only thing that made a zero charisma Donald Trump viable in the first place. Amazingly, this was the course the DNC chose and it came into play on election day when many of those young would-be Democratic voters stayed home and when many of the undecideds who had favored Bernie actually cast their ballots for the political outsider on the other side.
Keep in mind that, as much as establishment Republicans hated Donald Trump, they did not weight the scales against his candidacy and chose rather to let the political desires of their voters play itself out which is why they won the election. History has yet to weigh in on the ultimate implications of this development but in the short term they won the election and the Democrats lost. Again, let us entertain the idea for a moment that the DNC weighted the scales in favor of their preferred candidate over the wishes of their own voters. If this is indeed the case, the results of last year's elections are exactly what the party deserved and has given this nation a result we neither deserved nor desired.
