Edited by Samantha Best

The brainchild of the 1968 Democratic Convention may finally show its brilliance in 2016, when the unbound Democratic superdelegates upend pledged delegates and popular vote and choose their party’s nominee, thus holding the final firewall they were originated for.

Superdelegates were never intended to have a majority status. In reality, they only make up about 15% of the delegates available. And more often than not, their opinion isn’t relevant to the nomination. However, the purpose of the minority power is not to elect a candidate. Rather, they were designed to prevent a loss in a general election, a proverbial safety valve to circumvent an obviously weak candidate.

This is the superdelegate’s role in the Democratic nomination process: they are independent judges that only emerge in marginal contests. Their function is to secure a nomination based upon available data and a completed primary map. Their sole task…