In other news

5 June 2008, 0031 EDT

Our US readers might be surprised to learn that there are, in fact, happenings not associated with the 2008 Presidential race. So I thought I would point out that:

• Sudan is on the brink of renewed war between the north and south.

• NATO has issued checks that it probably can’t cash regarding the Georgia-Russia “cold” conflict over Abkhazia.

• Zimbabwe’s “free and fair” second-round elections continue to be, uh, not so free and fair.

And in the “someone is wrong on the internet” category, we return to the US Presidential race:

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has just wrapped up what it considers to be a fair and just solution to the problem of Florida and Michigan delegates. How the Committee managed to not give Florida 100% representation at the convention is beyond bizarre. The Florida Democratic party was outmaneuvered and disenfranchised by the Republican controlled legislature and now they have been disenfranchised by the Democratic Party as well.

The solution was to seat all delegates but only give each of them half a vote. This effectively makes the vote of each Floridian delegate less representative than slaves were at the foundation of our democracy. For the math illiterate 1/2 is less than 3/5.

I am so *^&%@!& happy the primaries are over. I’m sick of Democratic bloggers exposing their own racism, sexism, and historical ignorance for everyone to see.

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.