DNC-friendly journalists are coming right out and saying it’s okay not to give other contenders a crack at Biden, writes Elizabeth Vos.
Marianne Williamson speaking with supporters at the 2019 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Elizabeth Vos
Special to Consortium News
The Democratic National Committee has faced criticism over the past few weeks as it became clear that the Democratic Party would not hold primary debates in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election and would fully support Joe Biden in his bid for a second term.
The controversy came to the fore as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson announced their intent to run against the incumbent in the Democratic Party primary, with Kennedy doing remarkably well in early polls.
The corporate press argues that an absence of primary debates for the party of the incumbent has long been the norm. Kennedy’s uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, did not debate Carter. Nonetheless, Carter won 10,043,016 of the popular vote and Kennedy posed a serious challenge with 7,381,693 votes by Democrats.
It was part of a history of multiple, vigorous, primary challenges to incumbents in recent decades, as reported by Time in 2020. Although it’s normal for a party to back their incumbent, Biden is remarkably weak and the candidacy of RFK Jr. is particularly strong so far. In a democratic system, Democratic voters would be allowed to make a choice.
In an NBC poll, 70 percent of respondents and 51 percent of registered Democrats didn’t want to see Biden run again, with age being the most highly cited issue. If Biden were to be reelected, he would be 86 years old on leaving office. Even The New York Times admits DNC loyalists are, at best, hesitant to support Biden’s 2024 bid.
Blocking Progressives
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at an event in Phoenix in 2017. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
However, a lack of popular support matters little to Biden or the DNC because the big-money donors who Biden infamously reassured during his 2020 campaign that “nothing would fundamentally change” under his leadership, support him, and so does the party. The DNC appears to be betting on Biden being the lesser of two evils in a second contest with former President Donald Trump, if he gets the Republican nomination, rather than offering a candidate that voters can actively support. Or worse: as in 2016, they would rather lose to Trump than allow a progressive to win and threaten the interests of wealthy Democrats who control the party.
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, former Biden campaign adviser turned political commentator Simone Sanders-Townsend called Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s surprisingly high poll numbers “laughable,” emphasizing there would be no debates and no “primary process”:
.@SymoneDSanders: "The Democratic National Committee will not facilitate a primary process. There will be no debate stage for @RobertKennedyJr, @marwilliamson, or anyone else." pic.twitter.com/zt25JYVu7k
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 5, 2023
Sanders-Townsend was not alone in her sentiments. The New York Times podcast The Daily included this observation from host Michael Barbaro:
“… a challenge to Joe Biden, a primary that perhaps might satisfy some Democrats’ hunger for a true contest in which the most popular person emerges, you’re saying the leadership of the party just thinks that is a bad idea, it can only make things more complicated, let’s not even entertain that idea.”
Political correspondent Jonathan Weisman added:
“Democrats don’t want that to happen… because if Joe Biden faces an opponent, especially a more liberal opponent, he’ll be pulled to the left on very difficult issues, and he might have to embrace positions to win over Democrats that would come back to haunt him in November against the Republican candidate.”
To counter this, Democrats are trying to portray Kennedy as a one-issue candidate — vaccines — while burying his position on a host of other matters that incenses the party establishment — such as his criticism of the administration’s Ukraine policy, its mistreatment of Julian Assange and the damaging role of intelligence agencies.
In essence, political commentators have no problem admitting that the Democratic Party does not care for a primary contest that favors the “most popular person.” Biden beat Trump once and they hope he can do it again, despite his low approval ratings.
We have echoes here of the revelations that arose from WikiLeaks’ 2016 publications and the DNC fraud lawsuit, which gave a glimpse into the facts of the DNC’s primary process. These exposures revealed that the Democratic Party did everything in its power to support the establishment-friendly candidate Hillary Clinton over the more popular Bernie Sanders, and later defended their biased conduct in court.
DNC Fraud Lawsuit
Presidential contenders during January 2020 debate. (Screenshot)
As reported by Consortium News, the DNC fraud lawsuit was brought by members of the Democratic Party and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders against the DNC and its former chairwoman, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after a DNC memorandum was leaked revealing bias for Clinton and against Sanders. The plaintiffs argued that their donations were given with the understanding that the Democratic Party would abide by its charter and facilitate a fair primary.
The words of the DNC’s defense attorneys as the suit played out were damning. Defense counsel Bruce Spiva argued that the DNC had no fiduciary duty to their donors, that they can act against their own charter and appoint whoever they want as a candidate, and that they are legally protected in doing so because they are a private entity. They argued that their party’s promise to remain neutral towards candidates is an unenforceable political promise, no different from a campaign promise regularly broken. They also argued that Sanders’ supporters knew the election was rigged.
Spiva told the court that the DNC had the right to pick candidates in smoky back rooms if it chose to:
“But here, where you have a party that’s saying, We’re gonna, you know, choose our standard bearer, and we’re gonna follow these general rules of the road, which we are voluntarily deciding, we could have — and we could have voluntarily decided that, look, we’re gonna go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way. That’s not the way it was done. But they could have. And that would have also been their right…”
The DNC fraud lawsuit was eventually dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, so the merits of the arguments were never decided. The plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court for an appeal, which the court chose not to hear. Despite this, the contents of the suit provided an immeasurably valuable reality check as to how the DNC actually views the primary process.
Given the speed of the political news cycle, all of this is very old news. However, the heart of these revelations are being echoed in the current election cycle, only this time it’s not being dragged out of defense counsel in court. Instead, Democrats and DNC-friendly journalists are coming right out and stating that democracy isn’t an idea they want to entertain.
Once again, we see that the party is not interested in the democratic process, it’s interested in the status quo regardless of whom Democratic voters might prefer.
Elizabeth Vos is a freelance journalist and contributor to Consortium News. She co-hosts CN Live!
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those Consortium News.
Many years ago, a friend told me that he always voted for Donald Duck. I may do the same next year. :-(
All of this only comes to reaffirm that there is no Democracy,if I have to choose between “crazy Trump”and a senile old man,who does not know where or who he is,I’d rather not vote,thank you very much…
Sometimes there is just too much candidate talking—and not saying much of value.
I would like every debate to use the Preamble as the debate base. Each candidate would have to go through the list of items mentioned and its a short list, and each candidate should be able to say how they would work with that Preamble list to actually have a functioning government.
And yes, I do realize that ,”a more perfect union,” does need to be expanded more as word lists just aren’t enough.
Candidates would really have to work at “what is a more perfect union ,” and explain how to create that union.
What does ,”establish justice, ” really mean as we truly don’t have that information, and all citizens are not created equally here. And it seems that so many are ignoring “insure domestic tranquility,” because without that, nothing good or long lasting will ever appear. Sadly , after all these years of forming this nation the Preamble has given directions—but politicians don’t often seem to listen.
The Democratic Party is itself the inheritor of an Orwellian word inversion passed down directly from Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson: that elections are in any manner democratic. Never have been. The Greeks understood this, and so did everyone else for about two thousand years after the death of Aristotle. Until along came some aristocratic anti-democrats around the founding of the United States who found it useful to adopt “democracy” to describe its historic opposite. The Democratic Party is the legacy of this deception. It is only natural that contemporary Democrats would continue walking the path of two centuries of deceit.
If the DNC doesn’t give me candidates I want, I don’t have to vote for Godzilla if I don’t want to. That’s why Mrs. Clinton lost: she was just too much like a Republican.
biden is a product of the democratic party
as the dems and repubs are his produce
trump likewise a similar product.
we are committed to this dysfunctional
life.
And/or condemned.
“democracy” in the us is where the people “decide” whether they want to be screwed by donkeys or elephants.
It is deceptive to imply that the Democratic Party has EVER supported democracy, and ultimately feeds their Big Lie that they might do so somehow, someday.
The party proper cares in that they want to avert it. This includes the DNC, lobbyists, and associates; it includes the elected officials, at least all who are well known on a national level.
So anyone paying attention should witness this again: the DNC will move to stop RFK and feel pretty free to break rules and if necessary laws to do so. The interest–my interest at least–in the RF Kennedy’s run is not through any belief that the Party is honest enough to allow him candidacy, but to determine what effect that they will damage themselves by the length that they will have to go to deny him.
It looks like they will act pretty openly:
1. They have rigged two nominations running with almost complete impunity–unless you call Trump’s victory in ’16 a setback.
2. Biden is enormously unpopular already and apt to get worse:
—- He could lapse into further dementia or die of stroke
—- His criminal and unsavory connections could further come to light
3. Biden is their made man: they have a lot riding on having him hold down the office while looting continues
4. As wealth and incomes drift further apart, the tone-deafness of politicians and lobbyists tends to become more complete.
What will RFK do after he is denied candidacy? Maybe he folds into relative oblivion, like Sanders, who may have entered the race in good faith in ’15, but has pedaled a lot of nonsense since. But maybe not. Kennedy appears to be capable of burning bridges. After clearly criminal interference from the DNC, would he be willing to leave the party of his family?
It might be interesting, though we can’t expect any problems to be reduced for a long, very long time.
Can you all imagine what shape Biden will be in, say, four years?
He’ll be needing a walker by then, and his cognitive decline will have become more acute. Being POTUS ages anyone who gets in that office, Biden being no exception. But it isn’t just his age that’s the problem for most voters, it’s the betrayal and ignorance of working people at all levels. It’s the media trying to say it’s his age that’s the only issue.
I’m not sure I understand why the American people are so incredibly passive. I look at my family, they think the Ds are just fine. Why aren’t we out rioting like the French??? I honestly don’t get it!
Me neither. With all that’s happening, there ought to be mass protests everyday. I think a big part of it is fear.
Or Stockholm Syndrome.
He is not what you think he is. People have been down this road before. Time to stop repeating the same behavior and expecting a different outcome.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr
hxxps://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1655672647852630023
“The majority of people working at the CIA are good, patriotic people committed to their missions and the law. My own daughter-in-law was a field agent, and she is among the bravest people I have known.”
I’m also not quick to get excited about Kennedy, I’m glad someone is out there challenging Biden, but we’ve more than a little reason to doubt.
The Democrats are part of the ruling establishment. They rule. They don’t govern. Corporations who are the funding mechanism for the rulers hate the uncertainty that goes with democratic elections. They expect maximization of profits for their investment in the system and it’s what they receive. The rest of us get what the rulers dish out. Revolutions happen for a reason.
“The DNC fraud lawsuit was eventually dismissed on jurisdictional grounds…
The plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court … which the court chose not to hear.”
This is the usual pattern of our utterly corrupt judiciary in every state.
All of their decisions are dictated by political parties and their wealthy donors.
They completely ignore the Constitution and laws for personal gain via their party.
This article pairs nicely with today’s column by Patrick Lawrence. ………. Why RFK Jr. or anyone would try to run as a Dem is beyond me. They’ll be knee-capped from the get-go. …….. Ever since Ross Perot made a strong run at the presidency way back when, the duopoly has shut the door on any third party insurrection from emerging. ……….. However, the public disgust with the entire political landscape is so high, I think a third party candidate would overcome any obstacles.
“Sen. Ted Kennedy, who challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election…”
Inevitably, this led to reports about Chappaquiddick where, in 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a low-level bridge which resulted in the death of his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
But there might be more to this tragedy than meets the eye. Lisa Pease very briefly refers to it in her book on the 1968 Robert Kennedy assassination, “A Lie Too Big to Fail.”
She quotes presidential aide John Dean saying on the White House tape for 13 March 1973:
“…if (Ted) Kennedy knew the bear trap he was walking into.”
Later attempts to question him on this were not really successful.
Pease goes on to claim that there were reports that both Tony Ulasewicz and Howard Hunt were there before the incident in question.
Hunt was very much involved with the CIA and Ulasewicz worked in an investigative role for the Nixon White House. There are no reported claims that he was involved in the CIA but this is a possibility given that he was previously a NYPD police officer, a member of BOSSI—its intelligence unit.
So, it is possible that Chappaquiddick was the result of a CIA assassination attempt or some other effort to neutralise Kennedy.
The Democratic Party votes against democracy at every turn, it is a plutocratic party.
Oh the f/irony, “The Big Guy” who” banked” off ACCE$$, exponentially, growing the family’s business, goes dark!!!
Obviously, intimidated by the extreme competition, “The Big Guy’s” WH Handlers, “USE their Biggest Mouthpieces” to Notify the Public, “Oh, Hell NO!!! DEBATE? Uh-uh!!! Nooo way! “POTUS ain’t play’n in that sand box.” He/She “GOT” this, already! There ain’t no need for any kinda, sorta DEBATE!” Fuhgeddaboutit!!!
Hang a Left!!! Defaulting to the status quo, on high f/speed, in full panic mode, the WH Handlers, “Call a LID!!”
NO doubt, the extreme decline in confidence and disgust in POTUS; the WH Handlers, the DNC; &, the CDC did the right thing, “Shut ‘Em” Down!!! “There ain’t NO sunshine w/this hyphenated, illiterate, incompetent, perverted POTUS. Only darkness, every day!!!”
Concluding, POTUS’ avatar “Joe Cool” ain’t gonna be schooled, shut-down, smacked-down, or “thumped” by a younger generation who’s living the lethal effects of the $ex, Lies, & Video history of POTUS 40-46!!!
The best practice, would be, Joey “Punxsutawney” Biden, the old man, gone underground, needs to come clean, on TV, for everyone to see & hear, a “LIVE” polygraph, deposition, and exorcism of Corporate America’s MOST reckless, dangerous, demented, deranged, perverted, Selected NOT Elected, POTUS, Ever, BIDEN-HARRIS!!!
The Nation has got to be better than this, Biden-Harris 2024 and/or Trump 2024. The Nation needs a LEADER NOT an old, feeble, frail, Biden-Harris, shuffling, war mongers, jones’n for WW3. Save the Planet NOT Nuke it!
Keep it Lit! STOP! TODAY!!! The runaway train, on the wrong f/track, driven by USG’s f/maniacs, Biden-Harris, Delawhere or Bust!!!
I like the reference to the Bill Withers song. One of my favourite artists.
Awh, Valerie,
“And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,” everything has gone wrong! “There ain’t no sunshine” (Bill Withers, 7.4.38-3.30.20, R.I.P.) FOREVER, a “favourite artist.”
“Wonder this time,” IF, the Democrats will stay away. “Wonder, IF,” the Democrats will cave. “There ain’t no sunshine” on The Hill; and, “The People’s House” will be “our” home, again. Once, “they” go away……Best to send ‘em on their way.
Imo, “They” oughta leave “our” future, alone! “We” the People, a generation of Truth Seekers, Truth Tellers, Peacemakers, are looking for a LEADER who’s gonna bring U.S., “Home.” The g.o.a.t., “Flip-Flop!!!” from a Divided $tates of Corporate America “Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S.A!!!”
There will be sunshine when “they” gone!!! All “we” gotta do is “Make it Rain,” i.e., the acid test of non-violence, Gandhi once said, “that in a non-violent conflict there is no rancor left behind; and, in the end, the enemies are converted into friends.” All, aboard! Anyone? Everyone?!?
Valerie,
Merci. Merci, Mademoiselle. “Keep It Lit!” Rusted Root’s, “Send Me On My Way.” In joy,
hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMabBGydC0&pp=ygUdcnVzdGVkIHJvb3Qgc2VuZCBtZSBvbiBteSB3YXk%3D
Non-violent protests would be good. But they are even trying to stop that.
Thankyou for the lovely song LeoSun. First time i heard it.
To this question I offer a resounding, NO! This should come as no surprise. If they do they have a very odd way of showing it!
The system is broken beyond repair and the lack-luster efforts of the democrats reveal they have fallen to a new, inexcusable low level mirroring the mostly fascist republican base. They are openly exhibiting neocon mentality that has taken over Washington D.C. and become deplorables also.
Ms. Vos has expertly revealed that the democrats are engaged in the exact same conduct of the irresponsible republicans in thumbing their noses at the electorate. The exact same behavior, no surprise there.
Oh! Oh, Oh, my gosh! Who could have known?
If Trump had made the decision to some how finagle himself into running his second term based on his being “war president” he might still be fighting to hold on to his office. Don’t be surprised by Biden making the same claim or having the hapless democrats do it for him. Remember Trump shut down a 20 year war.
Enter a salute to my “bull shit flag” right here and now. With the pledge ” One nation under tyranny with pain and suffering for all.”
Time to ask are Americans are we going to continue to cut bait or are they going to fish with vengeance to cull the “boot lickers” in both parties.
Once the SCOTUS ruled money equaled speech it was only a matter of it being a very short time before the vultures came home to roost.
Hang onto the edge of your seats the ride just might get al little bumpy.
If you haven’t been paying attention here is a heads up! Never underestimate the energy produced by military combat vets. See, especially the “Proud Boys” who backed Trump. Once the fat goes into the fire don’t be to surprised to see a very energized group willing to challenge that ‘Proud Boy” position.
Now remember this, due to a 20 year war we have millions of those vets who definitely feel that they have a dog in this fight. My source is Brown University hXXps://watson.brown.edu>costofwar>cost>human
Between 1.9 million and 3 million service members have served since post 911. ~ One in six were in active combat. Chew on that for a while.
Thanks CN
It boggles my mind that people are still wasting time with the Democratic Party. We’ve had all the time in the world to build up a third party alternative but Americans are just completely inured to the corrupt two-party system, and for some reason we can’t get our heads straight. Politics in America is hopeless.
And this is precisely what gives the DNC et.al. the supreme confidence that we will elect the corpse of Joe Biden in ’24.
I must admit that I resemble your remark. In my defense, and millions of others, most of my energy during my productive years had to be dedicated to earning a living and raising my children; I neither had the smarts nor the time to create a political revolution. And that situation also is a glaring reason why such a revolution is so necessary.
What Calvin Coolidge ACTUALLY said was:
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”
And I wasn’t trying to get rich or even be “successful”, just pay the bills and sleep at night without the wolves braying at the door.
RFK jr. is insane.
Says a person who doesn’t know a damned thing about him.
How do you think that unexplained, unsubstantiated comment makes you look?
What are you basing that on?
There is one party. The corporate party. Voters choose whether to let donkeys screw them or elephants.
Nobody wins in elections. People lose.
trump didn’t “win” – hillary lost
biden didn’t “win” – trump lost.
Biggest losers are the people.
Yep! There is one party, the corporate, or as Professor Ferdinand Lundberg of Columbia University in his 1968 classic, “The Rich and the Super-Rich”, the property party.
We saw what they did to Kucinich, and questionable progressive and DemoRAT party supporter, Senator B.S. from Vermont.
But hey, go back to 1944 during the Democratic National Convention when pipsqueak Congressman Jimmy Byrnes sabotaged FDR’s VP, the honorable, and popular progressive of the American people, Henry A. Wallace from the platform and nominated Harry S. Truman who would be easily manipulated by the party elite. And go back to the World War One era when they imprisoned for two years, one of the greatest Christ-like Americans who ever lived, for speaking up against going to war in Europe, Victor Eugene Debs.
And the U.S.Supreme Court? Lawmakers themselves, given almost the divine right of kings and can’t be removed from the bench no matter how detrimental their decisions are. That is NOT democracy.
The more things change…you know the rest.
Just to answer the headline: Of course the Democratic Party isn’t interested in democracy. There is no democracy in the capitalist dictatorship that we USians live under.
Didn’t George W. Bush once famously say that it would be easier to be a dictator than president? We’ve entered the political age of Caesarism. Obama and Trump were both emblems of the strong man elected to divide spoils among the already rich. Empty populism is always a capitulation to those who make the rules. It ensures their continued dominance. Our own Justinian code will certainly carry within it the empty rhetoric of a defunct Christianity, along with the iron-clad rules of capitalism. It should be a good read for scholars inhabiting another dominant culture 600 years from now. They can at least use it as a doorstop. It will be like someone reading St. Augustine now in order to successfully get through their next work week.
The short answer seems to be, “No”.
I’m glad your comment, very much like mine but much more polite, passed muster with those who review comments for this site.
If Kennedy has the support, maybe he can do what Bernie didn’t have the guts to do and jump ship to run as an independent. He’s got my support for sure, if only for his stand on Assange. Fortunately, he’s got my vote for a lot more reasons. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski won her office with a write-in vote. Maybe Kennedy can do the same. He’s certainly got the ideals and name recognition to pull it off. I hope people are fed up enough with the corruption of the two-party rule to work for the change Kennedy would bring to the national/global table.
Would he be allowed to govern if he won, or would there be another “stolen election” farce? I don’t see the powers letting anyone else govern. They have ways.
Why would anyone think democracy is anything but a myth?
It’s been obvious for a very long time that “democracy” in the U.S. is a farce. The will of the people has nothing to do with the process of selecting our figureheads. There will be no debate!
Isn’t it time to bring down the “Establishment”? those faux democrats of what Chomsky calls the Democratic flank of The Business Party?
Silence is collusion with this anti-democratic well heeled we-know-best neoliberal fraternity who orchestrates the crumbs-for-the-people approach while circling its wagons to protect its corporate cash bunkers Why surrender our voice and our vote to a small group of the misguided (deluded?) who – in essence, in its behavior – spit on that core foundation of democracy – the will of the people? Such over weaning arrogance! Blinding them! More power to Kennedy! to Williamson! to she or he who would strengthen by honoring not poison our democracy.
The Nader for President campaign was the last time a populist movement from the Left made the Democrat Elites sweat a even just a little bit. As made obvious by the hatred poured upon it then and afterwards.
Kucinich, Sanders, Kennedy …. these were and are all ‘sheepdog’ campaigns designed to keep voters within the Democrats. Each is guaranteed to lose, but to first draw money, energy and attention away from any serious challenge from outside the party.
An independent campaign must organize early in the cycle (like NOW!), and these sheep-dog campaigns draw the money and energy to them instead in order to prevent this. This is of course leads to the planned defeat of the sheepdog, leaving only the two far-right choices on the general election ballot.
In 2016, when one of these sheepdogs who said he was only running to get his ‘issues heard’, instead sparked a popular movement that could actually have won an honest vote, the Democrats cheated to make sure it did not happen.
Like the song says …. “Don’t Get Fooled Again”
Excellent analysis! – have been saying essentially the same thing, in little boxes like this, on other sites, for years, literally …
The Democratic Party is highly anti-democratic. And this has been obvious and glaringly true for a long, long time. Back into the last millennium at least. Of course, I was rather disgusted at the DLC, rightwinger Gore being handed the 2000 nomination with no opposition allowed. But even back then it was obvious that the only course for opposition to these Democrat elites and their big money donors was to go outside the party. The reason being that the Democratic Party was by 25 years ago already a rigged game that you could never win.
In the last Democratic primary in the midterms, I looked at my Democratic ballot. There was one choice allowed per office, from our millionaire rich kid governor on down. Each name chosen by the Democratic elites. You could frame that ballot and hang it on the wall as an example of the Democratic Party’s commitment to ‘democracy’.
And of course, we’ve got the whole fake of 2016 rigging and corruption, and its lets-nuke-Russia cover-up campaign, as a glaring neon sign that democracy is not even tolerated in the Democratic Party.
Thus, my comment that this is either a joke, or worthy of a Homer Douuuh! head slap. “Democracy” has not been seen alive within the Democratic Party in this millennium.
“Is the Democratic Party Interested in Democracy?” This question was definitively answered in the 2016 and 2020 presidential primaries. Good to know that nothing has changed.
The self-styled “Democratic” party has always worked tooth-and-nail against the possibility of democracy arising. They do not support voting systems that provide equality of power among the voters (one person, one vote) regardless of how few candidates a voter opposes. They are not internally democratic in the workings of their party, either.
Third party here I come, again. It has been clear that the ‘Democratic’ party is ironically named for some time now. It is equally clear that the US has gone the way of the most serene republic of Venice and lost its democracy to an oligarchy.
Does RFK Jr have any viable options for getting on state ballots in 24? What is the solution to all these cancellations of his candidacy?
Actually I think Kennedy could contend in a primary – actually get on primary ballots, as Sanders did
– of course he would be shut out of debates – but he, like Sanders, has name recognition and could make some inroads if he campaigns widely.
If, as with Sanders, the DNC sabotages the primaries – he could run as an indy – Sanders was invited to run with Stein, but he never responded – maintaining his role as sheepdog for the DP
And there is the problem indies run into, if they manage to get ballot access, they are kept out of debates – Stein was a perfect example in ’16 (in ’12, she was arrested and handcuffed to a chair for hours for her attempt to attend one)
So what is happening now is that the parties (D/Rs)in control of State legislatures are making it harder for 3rs parties to even get on a ballot by increasing the number of signatures needed for inclusion to outrageous amounts
I have voted 3rd Party since ’96, if more and more people had done so with each election we would have had a better Gov’t by now … The Ds know that if ever the “3rd Parties can’t win” BS is ever rejected by enough voters, they could have their derrieres handed to them on a platter – which is why they are doing their best to keep them off ballots and out of debates …
So folks, if you do want what you say you do, better start working and VOTING for those 3rd parties – they CAN win if enough folks vote for them – in’16 Stein was on enough State ballots to get enough of both the popular AND EC votes to win – if enough people had “pulled her lever” – if we keep chickening out, Biden, will be correct (in the only “correct” thing he has ever said), “nothing will fundamentally change”
Democracy is mob rule, so, yes, the Democrats are interested.
Clearly, it is the anti-Democratic Party.
The short answer is “no”. The long answer is “hell no!”.
That’s funny. LOL
The DNC is a corporation, and like all corporations they have to abandon all ethics and morals to achieve their desired ends. I am not sure how anyone can “vote Blue no matter who” under such damning revelations. As the late Glen Ford famously said, “Democrats are not the lesser evil, they are the more effective evil”.
Thank you. That was my take-away from the 2016 campaign and subsequent actions by the DNC as well. That the DP base meekly accepted this was the cherry on top. Either the DP base decided that rewarding despicable behavior with votes and support was the way to change it for the better or they just don’t care. I don’t know which is worse but neither is acceptable. The result of the abrogation of the public’s responsibility for managing its political parties and processes is getting the exactly the lowest form of government you deserve. Sorry, not for me. After 2016, I decided not a single vote or donation more until the DP actually became democratic, including transparency in the campaign processes and no more super delegates. The response of the DNC to the debacle 2016 and their own sordid behavior was simply to circle the wagons. That’s a pretty clear answer in regards to “Is the DP interested in democracy?” No it is not, not nearly, not even close. So, fuck ’em, with no tears shed. Pretending that the DP cares for anything beyond it elite donor/bribery system or that its neocons can govern is simply foolish. Salt the ground for good measure.
My enthusiasm for Joe Biden is zero. I don’t care who runs against him.
The sooner these people alienate the public, the better. So I’m all for this policy.