In the aftermath of the third Democratic National Committee (DNC) presidential debate, it was mind boggling that viewers were forced to suffer through a rehash of the same, worn out regurgitations that had already been harangued previously. There was no stunning moment where a star stepped forward as in the two earlier debates, nor any momentous policy pronouncements worth pondering.
The ‘top tier’ candidates proved to be a bland assortment, awash in mediocrity and predictably contentious blathering. Missing in action was Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi) who failed to meet the DNC’s arbitrary polling requirements; thus successful in clearing the stage of a reputable foreign policy voice.
If you were unfortunate enough to tune in, you may have realized that what remains of a once political powerhouse is little more than a bankrupt shell of flatulence and exploitation. What the DNC and most of its candidates have not grasped is that there is an urgency and an underlying anxiety throughout the country with little public patience for frivolous, meaningless chatter that offers no real solutions to correct the decades of war debt, mismanagement and widespread corruption.
It should be apparent to all that the DNC has not learned one iota, not one scintilla about transparency or why they lost the 2016 election. At that time, the DNC blatantly took no pains to hide its own corruption as it ‘stole’ the Dem nomination from Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt). After the Dem convention that summer, Sanders’ response to the fraud and sleaze was like that of any feudal vassal. He could not do enough to enable the DNC as he campaigned his ass off on behalf of Hillary Clinton. The DNC has not forgiven him since.
In 2016, Gabbard, then a rising star within the DNC and a vice chair, resigned her position to endorse Bernie and, as she walked out the door, cited HRC’s ongoing support for interventionist, regime change policies.” Today, Sanders ambivalence to speak out on behalf of Tulsi has been noted as the DNC excluded her from the third debate as she so forthrightly spoke out on his behalf in 2016. That one resignation cost the Dem’s votes on top of an already faltering campaign that remained undiagnosed until after the votes were counted. The DNC hierarchy has not forgiven Gabbard.
After devastating losses across the country that year, including the White House, both houses of Congress and a majority of gubernatorial seats and state legislatures, it might have been strategic for the Dems to regroup and reconsider their future. Misguided by a deeply embedded corruption that denied their own insulated version of reality, the DNC chose to pretend all was well in Camelot.
By election day 2016, the Russiagate fiasco was already in play and rather than consider the damage their own hysterical unsubstantiated allegations would inflict on the country, the Dem game plan was a train wreck waiting to happen. In retrospect, one can only surmise that the DNC and its minions made a dangerously reckless choice to maintain their own power and position rather than exhibit any devotion to the country.
Fast forward to the 2020 primary season with almost two dozen presidential candidates as the DNC connived to steer the desired outcome by fabricating truly creative debate deceits to screw the democratic process and even some of its own candidates.
It doesn’t take a professional pollster to recognize that at this early stage of the campaign, those candidates with the highest name recognition are understandably leading with the highest polls; not because of any particular sterling qualities or spectacular policy pronouncements but because they are the most familiar, the more known quantity. The bias of the MSM playing favorites with establishment-oriented candidates is also an enormous factor in the race for name recognition.
The reputable McClatchy-Marist poll pulled out of the DNC’s 2016 presidential debates “out of concern that public polls are being misused to decide who will be in and who will be excluded’ and that “debate criteria assumes too much precision in polls.” What they are saying is that every poll has a statistical margin of error which makes any poll number speculative and/or unreliable—but that’s exactly how the DNC plays the game.
Lee Miringhoff, Polling Director for Marist Institute issued his “Top 10 Reasons Why Polls Should Not be Used to Determine Eligibility for Debates,” including a range of inherent glitches since each pollster will use different methodology. For instance, are potential voters ‘likely’ or ‘leaning’ or were they polled via a cell phone, a land line or a push button phone. Most importantly, Miringhoff questioned the use of a national poll to determine a candidate’s eligibility instead of a statewide primary poll and that the early campaign is unduly influenced by those candidates with higher name recognition as well as whether the opinion of generational voters is being considered.
To be sure, the DNC knew exactly what they were doing to require only certain ‘approved’ polling data as mandatory for debate inclusion—thereby excluding a candidate like Gabbard who exceeded the 2% threshold in 26 national and early state polls with only two of them on the DNC’s “certified” list.
As Bernie continues to challenge Biden and Warren, he has missed the stark reality that little has changed since 2016; to wit, even if he goes into the 2020 convention with a significant block of pledged delegates, the smart money says that the DNC will use every trick in the book to block a first ballot Sanders nomination to prevail. Once a second ballot is called, the DNC is home free as their super delegates once again bail out the shady villains of Capitol Hill from a catastrophe of their own making, as together, they unhesitatingly ram through the preferred ‘celebrity’ candidate they wanted in the first place.
Clearly, Gabbard who scored big in the June and July debates had become a thorn to the DNC and just as they will find a way to delete Bernie, so will they also pull whatever strings at their disposal to deny Gabbard a legitimate place on stage. But do not count the Aloha Girl out as she has a resilience and a stubbornness to find her way into the fourth debate.
Renee Parsons has been a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She can be found on Twitter @reneedove31.
