Cover Photo: 2016 DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her BFF Queen Hillary Clinton
In 2015-2016, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was Hillary Clinton's Campaign Chair when she lost the nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, has decreed that there will be only 6 debates among the Democratic candidates for the party's nomination. Everyone knows that she did this without consulting the other members of the DNC so that she could ensure that this time her close friend Hillary Clinton would win the nomination, and the voters wouldn't get to know the other candidates as they had the chance to do with Barack Obama in 2007-2008. Furthermore, Wasserman Schultz scheduled the debates so that they would come AFTER the deadline for independent voters who support Bernie Sanders to register as Democrats, thus disenfranchising them. By the time the Democrats have held their first debate, the Republicans will have already held three debates. As though that were not bad enough, she forced the candidates to sign an "exclusivity contract," so that if they dare to exercise their First Amendment rights to have a debate other than the six DNC sanctioned ones, they will be barred from participating in the six measly DNC debates. The effect of her blatant cronyism and corruption will be to divide the Democratic Party and hand the election to the GOP. Here is the debate schedule that Dictator Debbie set up for her pal Queen Hillary:
1. Tuesday, October 13, 2015
CNN Democratic Primary Debate, Location: Nevada
Sponsors: CNN, Nevada Democratic Party
Moderator: To Be Decided
2. Saturday, November 14, 2015
CBS News Democratic Debate, Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Sponsors: CBS News, KCCI, the Des Moines Register
Moderator: John Dickerson
3. Saturday, December 19, 2015
ABC News Democratic Primary Debate, Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Sponsors: ABC News, WMUR
Moderator: To be Decided
4. Sunday, January 17, 2016
NBC News Democratic Primary Debate, Location: Charleston, South Carolina
Sponsors: NBC, Congressional Black Caucus Institute
Moderator: To be Decided
5. February or March, 2016 (To Be Decided)
Univision Democratic Primary Debate, Location: Miami, Florida
Sponsors: Univision, The Washington Post
Moderator: To Be Decided
6. February or March, 2016 (To Be Decided)
PBS Democratic Primary Debate, Location: Wisconsin
Sponsor: PBS
Moderator: To be Decided
2008 DNC Chair Howard Dean and soon-to-be President Barack Obama
Back in 2007-2008, the Chair of the DNC was former Governor Howard Dean. He and the DNC scheduled 26 debates, thus ensuring a fair process and giving voters the opportunity to really vet the candidates. Exposure to Barack Obama, then a fairly unknown first-term Senator from Illinois, provided a fair process, and the voters chose him over Hillary Clinton. The voters should choose their nominee, not have it chosen for them by Hillary's passive aggressive, despotic friend Debbie. Here is what the Democratic Party's debate schedule looked like in 2007-2008. By this time, they had already held NINE debates. I think you'll notice the difference:
1. April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina, South Carolina State University
2. June 3, 2007 - CNN 7:00pm EDT - Goffstown, New Hampshire, Saint Anselm College
3. June 28, 2007 - PBS - Washington, D.C., Howard University
4. July 12, 2007–Detroit, Michigan
5. July 23, 2007 - CNN - Charleston, South Carolina, The Citadel military college
6. August 4, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois
7. August 7, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois
8. August 9, 2007 – Los Angeles, California
9. August 19, 2007 – Des Moines, Iowa
10. September 9, 2007 – Coral Gables, Florida, University of Miami
11. September 12, 2007 – On internet
12. September 20, 2007 – Davenport, Iowa
13. September 26, 2007 – Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College
14. October 30, 2007 - NBC 9:00pm EDT - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Drexel University
15. November 15, 2007 - CNN - Las Vegas, Nevada
16. December 4, 2007 - NPR (radio only) - Des Moines, Iowa
17. December 13, 2007 – Johnston, Iowa
18. January 5, 2008 - ABC 8:45pm EST - Goffstown, New Hampshire, Saint Anselm College
19. January 15, 2008 - MSNBC 6:00pm PST - Las Vegas, Nevada, College of Southern Nevada
20. January 21, 2008 - CNN 8:00pm EST - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
21. January 31, 2008 - CNN 5:00pm PDT - Hollywood, California
22. February 2, 2008 - MTV 6:00pm EST - MTV Myspace Debate
23. February 21, 2008 - CNN 7:00pm CST - Austin, Texas, University of Texas at Austin
24. February 26, 2008 - MSNBC 9:00pm EST - Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland State University
25. April 13, 2008 - CNN 8:00pm EDT - Grantham, Pennsylvania, Messiah College
26. April 16, 2008 - ABC 8:00pm EDT - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
While the Republican clown car is dominating media coverage, the DNC is hiding in its Hillary bunker, trying to run out the clock rather than presenting its agenda and vision for America. While the Republican candidates are running their hate-filled campaigns and gaining momentum, there will be no Democratic debates addressing the important issues that really matter: global warming, saving Social Security, tuition-free higher education, jobs, dealing with income inequality, campaign finance reform, saving our national parks, a sane foreign policy, developing renewable energy resources, saving the EPA, saving Planned Parenthood, repairing our crumbling infrastructure, stopping the disenfranchisement of minority, elderly, and young voters, a fair system of taxation, a single-payer health care system, preserving a woman's right to choose, saving what's left of the middle class, raising the minimum wage to a livable wage, fighting systematic racism, immigration reform, and equal pay for women.
This is a disgrace. I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat who has voted for a Democrat in every election since 1972, with the one exception of voting for moderate Republican Lowell Weicker of Connecticut for reelection to the Senate in 1976. Although I support Bernie Sanders, a true progressive and, unlike Hillary, not a tool of Wall Street, banks, and big corporations, had Hillary won by a fair process, I would have supported her. But if this is to be the way it is, then I, as well as tens to hundreds of thousands of others, will cast a protest write-in vote for Bernie Sanders in the general election and to hell with what happens. Sometimes, principles are more important than pragmatism. Perhaps, after the Republicans take the White House, the Senate, and the House, get us into another war in the Middle East, finish off the middle class, and appoint two to three right wing Supreme Court justices, the DNC will see what it has done to destroy the party and the nation, and they will reform themselves. By then, it will be too late. But, as Kurt Vonnegut would have written, so it goes . . . .