Democratic Primary: DNC Wants To Change Rules To Silence Delegates, Hillary Clinton Refuses California Debate

It appears the strategy by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC for the home stretch of the Democratic primary season is going to be to stay as silent as possible when it comes to Senator Bernie Sanders. Clinton now refuses to honor her agreement for one more debate, which would have been in California, and the DNC now wants to change the rules of the convention to silence any protesters altogether. With Clinton proclaiming herself the presumptive nominee, the Democratic Party seems to be intent on the political version of “running out the clock.”

Major media outlets are misleading voters by claiming that Clinton will lock up the nomination by June 7, claiming she is only 90 delegates away from the nomination. They insist on counting superdelegates in the tally, as many superdelegates said early in the election cycle that they would support Hillary Clinton — even before Sanders declared his candidacy — but their commitments and their votes are not set or cast until the convention in July. In fact, many of the superdelegates who committed early to Clinton in 2008 did, in fact, switch to Barack Obama by the time the convention rolled around. So counting superdelegates at this point in the race is misleading, at best. Many would argue that those media outlets are simply painting a favorable picture for Clinton, with many of the billionaire owners of those media outlets being pledged supporters and big money donors to her campaign.

Despite Clinton and major media outlets proclaiming her the presumptive nominee and saying that Bernie Sanders has no chance of winning, Clinton and the DNC are circling the wagons, starting with doubling down on the serious breach of convention protocols in Nevada, passing motions at will without legitimate votes, and excluding 64 Sanders delegates for “administrative” reasons. The DNC and Clinton supporters like Senator Barbara Boxer are now blaming Sanders for the angry response of his supporters after the Nevada convention denied many of his delegates the ability to participate. Boxer, in particular, taunted Bernie Sanders’ supporters and made them angry, prompting them to boo her, but now Boxer is gaslighting them and placing the blame for the fiasco on those that she taunted and disrespected with her condescending remarks, as well as Sanders for not keeping his supporters “in line” despite widespread complaints of election rigging and voter disenfranchisement.

Ironically, just this week the Democratic Party started chanting “Shame, shame, shame,” after a U.S. House of Representatives vote where the GOP displayed a serious breach of protocols by extending the vote past the deadline on a bill guaranteeing LGBT rights to federal workers. After an initial vote passing the measure, the GOP kept the vote open until they had pressured enough Republican representatives to change their votes and defeat the bill.

Apparently, when a group of politicians engages in misconduct, it’s okay for the Democratic Party to protest and cause a ruckus, but not supporters of Sanders.

Now the DNC is going even further, with discussions to change the rules to disallow any kind of protest or debate at the convention, hoping to silence Bernie Sanders’ supporters, according to MSNBC. Despite Clinton’s claims, it’s very unlikely that Clinton will reach enough pledged delegates to guarantee the nomination going into the convention, so the Democratic nominee will be decided by superdelegates. Which means the Democratic convention will likely be one huge mess.

Prior to this latest development, the DNC has gone as far as warning Sanders supporters to “behave” at the convention and calling on the senator to instruct his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton and keep silent about serious allegations of voter suppression, disenfranchisement, and alleged cheating at caucuses.

For her part, Clinton is refusing to debate Bernie Sanders in California, according to Washington Times, despite their agreement for one more debate before the primary season is over. Sanders has had plenty to say about the DNC’s repeated attempts to shut out his campaign and supporters, even as they insist those same Sanders’ supporters they are angering and alienating must back Clinton in the general election. He also addressed Clinton’s premature, self-declared win to CNN.

“The Democratic Party has a choice. It can open its doors and welcome into the party people who are prepared to fight for real economic and social change – people who are willing to take on Wall Street, corporate greed and a fossil fuel industry which is destroying this planet. Or the party can choose to maintain its status quo structure, remain dependent on big-money campaign contributions and be a party with limited participation and limited energy.”

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled for July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

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