The Democrats’ Rotten Inner Life

Without a fair competition, the Democrats have rolled out the red carpet for Kamala Harris to be their presidential nominee. Behind the move stands a party leadership that tends to position itself against uncomfortable outsiders. It’s anything but democratic.

It’s downright laughable that after Joe Biden withdrew, Kamala Harris announced she wanted to “earn” the presidential nomination. Earning it would mean that she would present herself for an open, fair competition with other candidate before the voters, or at least before the delegates at the party convention. Instead, Biden and national and state Democratic leaders have ensured that, in practice, no one has a chance against the vice president.

Most of the most important leading figures among the Democrats have long supported her. Under these circumstances, who is supposed to be brave enough to climb into the ring against Harris—only to attract the party’s ill will for endangering its “unity” and to be blamed if Donald Trump wins the election—just like Bernie Sanders, who in 2016 dared to challenge Hillary Clinton?

The fact that Harris is being gifted the party’s nomination is also a result of Democratic party leadership—the Democratic National Committee. For years, the DNC has served as an extension of the incumbent president and/or the party establishment. This year, the primary calendar for choosing the party’s candidate was adjusted so that the state in which Biden did the best in 2020 (South Carolina) came first. Iowa, where Biden only received the fourth-most number of votes, was pushed back in line.

There were no televised debates with opposing candidates. Some states even assigned their delegates to Biden without a primary or didn’t accept any other candidates. One hardly could have rolled out the red carpet any further for Biden—or have made it more difficult for other politicians to compete for the nomination.

The limited primaries now make it possible in practice to swap out Biden before the election without the party’s supporters having a voice in a new round of primaries. Almost all delegates are in Biden’s camp—and, according to reports, will obediently vote for his designated successor.

On Monday, party leadership also announced that the nomination process would occur virtually just two weeks before the actual convention on Aug. 19. The plan has been in place for some time because the Democrats feared they would miss a deadline for nominating the candidate in the important swing state Ohio. But meanwhile, Ohio implemented a special arrangement that makes it unnecessary to determine the candidate ahead of time.

Still, the DNC wants to stick with the plan to confirm the presidential candidate, i.e., Kamala Harris, ahead of schedule. The convention thus becomes a gratuitous coronation ceremony. Moreover, The New York Times reports that only the Harris campaign has access to the list of delegates. It couldn’t be any harder for other applicants. How is a potential opponent supposed to win delegates over Zoom when they don’t even know who they are?

Top Dogs Feel Threatened

Once again, the DNC is putting its finger on the scale—just as it did before. In 2016, WikiLeaks published emails showing that Hillary Clinton supporters colluded with the DNC to make her the presidential nominee instead of her opponent Sanders. In return, Clinton helped the DNC by collecting donations to pay off debts. Democratic Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign because of the scandal.

Wasserman Schultz’ successor Donna Brazile told Clinton in advance of a TV debate which topics would be asked. Moreover, superdelegates, the party’s dignitaries, were able to cast their votes at the party convention, even though they were not legitimized by the primaries. Of course, they voted overwhelmingly for Clinton so that the favorite started the primaries with a de facto head start. After Clinton lost, Barack Obama helped block the more left-leaning politician Keith Ellison from becoming party chair.

In 2020, there was at least some mini-reform and now the super delegates are not allowed to cast their votes until the second round—if no one has won a majority of votes the first time around. But when Sanders was again within reach of winning the nomination after several primary victories, it was revealed that certain DNC members planned to stop Sanders at the convention by changing the rules again.

The reason was the same then as it is today. When outsiders take political office, they threaten the power of the top dogs. And when they’re left-wing politicians with clear plans for redistribution of wealth like Sanders, it is even more dangerous. Thus, to the extent that it can, the DNC helps well-behaved candidates like Harris who don’t raise concerns about calling for a socialist revolution tomorrow.

The Democrats style themselves as defenders of democracy but don’t themselves manage to act even somewhat democratically. The DNC is a symptom of the party’s rotten inner life. It presents itself to the outside as being transparent, but behind the curtain rules a party leadership that usually positions itself against uncomfortable outsiders—and ensures that for the most part, the politicians who gain power are those who are acceptable to the establishment and donors.

Pretty embarrassing for a party that calls itself the “Democrats.”