With an assortment of colored leaves beginning to cover the ground and pumpkin spice lattes running through our veins, the Democratic primary season is in full swing, with the first scheduled debate to be broadcasted Tuesday, Oct. 13 on Ted Turner’s beloved and lamentable Cable News Network.
This leads us to wonder how exactly the donkey-symbolized party is doing as of late? To put it lightly, it’s been shaken at its core. I am not just talking about Bernie Sanders’ campaign, but how disgruntled the liberal and progressive populous has become.
In early September, the Democratic National Committee, headed by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was interrupted by chants of “more debates” and jeered at by the New Hampshire crowd according to Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC.
The DNC itself is being accused of favoring Hillary Clinton and limiting debates in her favor of which they have denied. Nonetheless, there is no real debate that the other democratic candidates such as Sanders (I-VT) or O’Malley (D-MD), have not been discussed as frequently.
One would think that the Democrats, those in the saddle that is, would be more willing to have selection this upcoming election for its constituents; however, that is where we are all wrong.
So far, Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley, Independent Senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders and Virginia Senator Jim Webb, have all decided to hop on the democratic carousel.
Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig is the only non-politician to have filed with the Federal Elections Committee, and is officially running for president as well, making the total number of candidates six.
Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President and Virginia Congressmen Al Gore are notably apt to join the relay at a later time.
As if Bush being pitted against Clinton was foretold by prophecy, both parties had their mind set on one candidate and both, humorously for many, were shocked at the rise in popularity of Donald Trump and Ben Carson on the right, as well as Bernie Sanders on the left.
For the Democrats, their hope was to pave an easy victory for Clinton, which has gotten bumpy with the email scandal (that isn’t really a scandal) and of course, the progressive push of Bernie Sanders support causing headlines.
Polls, as reliable or unreliable as they are, have Clinton leading in two states, Iowa, being the more important of the two since they are the important corn farmer’s vote, and New Hampshire, where Sanders has taken favorable lead.
Nonetheless, Clinton’s numbers are dropping consistently, so much so that she might have to actually start discussing some issues and her agenda if she were to be elected to the oval office.
The Democratic Party is nowhere near perfect and just the other side of the two-party coin that has plagued America for centuries, and sadly more centuries to come if no change is made to our election process.
With Clinton starting to feel the “Bern,” who knows what the outcome will be in the debates.
