I am truly disappointed in our state leadership for not speaking against the Democratic and Republican national committees’ clear and present attempt to subvert democracy by not holding debates when there are active challengers.
In a democracy, it is not up to the party leadership to determine who is or isn’t a viable candidate; it is the people. For the last three years, we have heard the Democratic Party saying that, after Jan. 6, its priority was to help preserve democracy after the most violent attack on it in modern history.
The Democratic National Committee (and possibly the Republican National Committee) have stated they will not host debates as Biden’s polling shows clear signs of trouble and every recent poll (NBC, YouGov, Yahoo!) show that the broader population wants alternatives to Trump and Biden.
I don’t care whether the other candidates running are seen as “viable.” Holding debatea will do two things:
1. It will battle-test Biden. People might say it will weaken him before a general election, but I’d argue that if they are so weak they can’t debate, they probably shouldn’t lead our country at all.
2. Other candidates bring new ideas to the table that can transform the conversation, and in turn can bring new excitement to an election cycle and increase turnout. In 2016, Sen. Sanders transformed the election cycle with ideas like Medicare For All. By 2020, almost every Democratic primary candidate supported a universal health bill some form or another.
If voters weren’t apathetic to our politics before, the DNC’s decision will certainly help accelerate people’s plunge into it and it will demonstrate that democracy is something we speak about in the United States, but don’t have the will, courage or desire to uphold.
Quoting Rep. Balint: “I am more committed than ever to defending our democracy with honesty, courage,and unity.”
So I ask Rep. Balint, are you using your platform to defend our democracy? Sen. Welch? Sen. Sanders? Gov. Scott?
Will any of you speak up or quietly let democracy die?
Evan Carlson
Sutton