[EL] Issacharoff on hollowing out of parties -- problematic analysis?

[Mark Scarberry]

The NY Times quotes Sam, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/opinion/how-the-internet-threatens-democracy.html:
[Begin quote from NY Times:]
In a forthcoming paper “Outsourcing Politics: The Hostile Takeovers of Our Hollowed Out Political Parties,” Samuel Issacharoff, a law professor at New York University, writes about how the erosion of political parties played out in 2016:

Neither party appeared to have a mechanism of internal correction. Neither could muster the wise elders to steer a more conventional course. Neither could use its congressional leadership to regain control of the party through its powers of governance. Neither could lay claim to financial resources that would compel a measure of candidate loyalty. Neither could even exert influence though party endorsements.

The result:

The parties proved hollow vehicles that offered little organizational resistance to capture by outsiders. And what was captured appeared little more than a brand, certainly not the vibrant organizations that are heralded as the indispensable glue of democratic politics.
[end of quote from NY Times]
That would seem to be true for the Republicans but not for the Democrats. The Democratic party leadership paved the way for Sec. Clinton's nomination, particularly (though not only) through the superdelegate provision of its party rules. She was the overwhelming choice of the insiders, whose endorsements helped her, wasn't she? Whether that made the Democratic Party "vibrant" is certainly subject to question -- maybe Sen. Sanders was the "vibrant" candidate -- but the idea that the nomination of Sec. Clinton represented a capture by "outsiders" seems wrong. 
I haven't read Sam's paper. Perhaps these quotes were taken out of context. 
Perhaps he is referring to the broader landscape. But note the recent defeat of Congressman Ellison in his bid to become Party Chair. That was a politically prudent choice, IMHO, and the "conventional choice," and it represented a victory for the insiders.
Mark
Mark S. Scarberry 
Pepperdine University School of Law
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