What I saw in Iowa convinced me Hillary Clinton is the best qualified candidate to lead a broken, corrupt system

I never believed the accusations hurled at Hillary Clinton impugning her integrity. In fact, I was a raging Clintonista for many years, railing against those whom questioned her integrity. They were just repeating the tired arguments of the vast right-wing conspiracy. That all changed on the evening of the Iowa Caucus on February 1st.

I witnessed a well-organized effort by the Clinton campaign to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting a bigger share of delegates in precincts across Iowa. The Clinton campaign instructed its precinct captains to move some of its supporters over to O’Malley to get him to meet the 15% viability threshold. Most of O’Malleys supporters would have flocked to Sanders if they were deemed unviable. Clinton’s campaign knew that and went to extraordinary lengths to prevent Sanders from winning in precincts across Iowa. Clinton’s campaign set up a phone and mobile app system that precinct captains tapped into to crunch numbers and figure out how many of its supporters to send over to O’Malley.

In the Newton precinct I was observing, O’Malley was 7 votes short of viability. Three Clinton precinct captains ran the numbers and sent their supporters over to O’Malley. I should note that some Clinton supporters refused to move to O’Malley’s corner when asked by their precinct captains to do so. I applaud those supporters for possessing the courage to stand up to their aggressive and over-bearing precinct captains.

The realignment was allowed to drag on until O’Malley met viability. There was no time limit imposed. Caucus participants were not asked to extend the time. The voters in attendance were just supposed to put up with it. Some of O’Malley’s supporters saw what was going on, were outraged and moved to Sander’s corner. So, for over an hour, Hillary Clinton’s precinct captains were counting their voters, O’Malley’s voters and Sanders’ voters, running the math and realigning. And whenever an O’Malley supporter defected to Sanders, they’d have to run the numbers all over again. You can even see a Hillary Clinton precinct captain in an orange shirt on the phone throughout the process, presumably going over the numbers with a higher-up and being instructed on what to do. The clock on realignment was only stopped when O’Malley met viability.

As one brave Bernie Sanders supporter argued, this might all very well be legal (actually, Caucus officials may have violated procedural rules) but it sure as hell is not ethical. Hillary Clinton could not win on her values and her campaign knew it. The Clinton campaign instead relied on dishonorable tactics that used O’Malley’s supporters for its benefit.

Here’s the video of that brave Bernie Sanders supporter calling out the unethical behavior of the Clinton campaign:

I confronted one of Hillary Clinton’s precinct captains. I told her she ought to be ashamed of herself for what she did that night. She argued what she did was perfectly legal and was not at all ashamed. I responded that Wall Street said the same thing as millions of Americans lost their homes and retirement savings.

I was livid and on the verge of tears. I had worked my butt off knocking on hundreds of doors, persuading Iowa voters to caucus for Bernie. I had worked hard to make Bernie Sanders the second choice of many O’Malley supporters. My fellow volunteers and I worked past the point of exhaustion. We played by the rules. But on caucus night, all that hard work put in by thousands of volunteers across Iowa was torn down by the Clinton campaign in a deeply disturbing manner.

That night, I remembered it wasn’t the first time I felt the system was rigged against me and all the other little people. This anger is what the single mother of two feels when she’s working three jobs and is barely able to put any food on the table. This anger is what the student feels upon graduating college with $45,000 of debt and no end in sight. This anger is what the loyal worker feels when he loses his pension. This anger is what my community feels when our young people are regularly targeted and discriminated against by the criminal justice system. Americans everywhere are working hard but to no avail because the system is stacked against them.

That’s the difference between Clinton and Sanders. Much like Wall Street, Hillary Clinton and her campaign are willing to win by operating at the boundaries of the law. I suppose this is what she means when she says she “gets things done.” Clinton’s actions are exactly the type of wheeling and dealing that angers the American people. Bernie Sanders is fighting for a complete break from that type of political and economic system, responding to a yearning in our country to bring integrity and fairness into our political and economic system.

As Robert Reich pointed out, and as I saw in Iowa that night, Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to lead the broken political system we now have. But it is Bernie Sanders who is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have.