Umair is dancing around the elephant in the room, but he cannot see it. Let me explain this to all you Umair readers.

Inside ANY political party, there are all sorts of formal and informal contests for status, influence, and power. If Bernie and Liz supporters are indeed at each other’s throat, it is because many of them stand to lose their status, influence, and power within the party. They may not be an the top of the mountain, but they sure want to occupy some space on the ridges leading to the top.

Remember, these party workers have spent several years — at no pay — to establish a certain position within the party. They can move up or down in the party hierarchy. They have a vested interest in the outcome of an internal party election: if they go up, others go down. And this zero-sum game is played by people in the same party.

Now we can argue what do these people really gain from advancing themselves in this way. Some is fairly benign, like being on a first name basis with an elected official or being invited to party social event. Some of these people can turn this connection into more status, influence, and power for themselves outside the party, which then provides more connections and opportunities. Some are looking for obscure financial advantages, like a subsidy to the business world which is supposed to available to all businesses but party insiders somehow have a little edge. Some will get government jobs, to which they may or may not be qualified and they somehow have an edge of other people applying for the same job. Some will get government contracts, like legal and engineering firms. Having the right party connection gives a lot of supporters an edge in life — even if the corruption is at a low level.

And backing a losing candidate in an internal party election means years of unpaid volunteer time goes down the drain.

So, Umair readers, think about why the Democratic party appears and probably is somewhat dysfunctional these days.

How to solve it, you ask?

Umair’s solution is hoping that the D’s singing lots of Kum-ba-yas would work if the D party workers were 100% altruistically motivated. But they are not. There is a significant degree of “what’s in it for me?”. And that degree of selfishness could lead to another four years of Mr. Trump. Don’t expect a plethora of Umair and similar articles from party outsiders to change that dynamic.

If we really want to change politics, we need to take away that contest for status, influence, and power out of politics. We need to find people of good character and of competence who will regard their election to public office as their service to their community, nation, and humanity.

Please consider Tiered Democratic Governance.