Re: the DNC I think the focus on the DNC also over-emphasizes the power of the DNC (eg, the primaries are run by the State committees, not the DNC) while confus

Re: the DNC I think the focus on the DNC also over-emphasizes the power of the DNC (eg, the primaries are run by the State committees, not the DNC) while confusing the direction the influence flows in the DNC -- members of the DNC are influential members of the Democratic Party because being an influential member of the Democratic Party is how you become a member of the DNC. If the DNC's role in the primaries was replaced with a laptop to add up the popular vote of all of the primaries, all delegates and superdelegates eliminated, the members of the Democratic party who would otherwise be "superdelegates" -- elected Democrats in Congress, top members of the state Committees, past and current Democratic Presidents, Democratic governors, etc -- would still have an outsized influence in backing one candidate or another, because they are influential people with personal experience with the candidates whose opinions are trusted by many people. Pretending it could be any other way is silly; when I need an opinion on someone, as either a political candidate, a plumber, or a potential new engineering hire, I talk to people who have personal knowledge, whose opinions I trust. Demanding that these people not share their opinions is absurd.