A few hours before the second GOP presidential debates were set to begin in California, some 50 Democrats protested outside the Democratic National Committee’s multi-million dollar office complex on South Capitol Street in Washington, D.C., demanding that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz allow more debate.
The crowd was about two-thirds supporters of former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (whose failed administration, which imposed taxes on rainwater, lost his state to the GOP in 2014), and one-third supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, with a couple of Lyndon Larouche fans on the sidelines to promote their arcane economic theologies.
The crowd had only a few chants, “1, 2, 3, 4…debates we want More!…” and “No debates, no peace!” offered with self-conscious irony. Finally they settled on “We want debates, not GOP hate!,” indicating that they may not know which party’s national committee is keeping them from having more debates.
Sponsored by a group called AllowDebates, founded by Ben Doernberg, a 2013 Wesleyan sociology grad (whose interim work was for a non-profit at Harvard University studying the internet), the group demanded that the DNC allow more than 6 debates, noting that in 2008 there were 28 face offs between John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the other Democrats aiming for their parties nomination.
No mainstream or liberal media covered the protest, which seems aimed at the attempted coronation of Hillary Clinton, with the most visible media presence being a Tea Party television channel.
Doernberg said his group wanted to meet Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz to give her petitions signed by 23,000 Democratic activists demanding more debates.
After 30 minutes of chanting, the largely pajama boy (and girl) crowd of young, bearded, mainly white, grad student types, had only seen armed security guards posted at the DNC entrance preventing them from taking their petitions inside.
Democrats seem to be having the same rebellion against their party establishment seen in the GOP, though pitchforks and torches haven’t appeared. Yet.
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