On June 26th and 27th Miami was home to the first of twelve scheduled Democratic presidential debates between this campaign’s record setting number of Democratic candidates. Twenty presidential hopefuls, ranging from party outsiders like Andrew Yang to former Vice President Joe Biden, took the stage in what was an unprecedented two night event. These candidates did their best to remember the talking points their campaign staffs tirelessly drilled into their minds, and gave a pitch to the American people why they should be this country’s next president.
While moderators Chuck Todd, Lester Holt and Rachel Maddow (and others) offered their best attempts at babysitting the candidates, they failed to address the protest that was simultaneously happening at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington D.C. For three days, members of the Sunrise Movement – an activist group composed of mostly high school and college students focused on tackling issues related to Climate Change and the environment – protested in front of the DNC headquarters to express their dissatisfaction with the DNC’s refusal to hold a debate on Climate Change.
While more than a hundred activists attended the protest, many took it one step further by throwing down sleeping bags and spending the night on the steps of the DNC. A couple weeks prior to debates DNC Chairman Tom Perez released a statement indicating that the DNC would not adhere to the requests of any interest group organization for specific issue related debates, most notably, climate change.
According to Perez, hosting a debate on climate change would be unfair to other interests groups who have requested debates, as well to the candidates themselves. Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington and candidate for the Democratic nomination, has dedicated his whole campaign (with a few exceptions) to addressing the threat of climate change. The DNC and Perez believe that by agreeing to a debate on climate change they would be tipping the scale in favor of Inslee, something they desperately don’t won’t to be accused of following the 2016 Wikileaks scandal in which they were allegedly caught favoring then candidate Hillary Clinton.
But surely you would think the candidates don’t need the assistance of the DNC to debate issues related to climate change. This would be true, and it’s something the DNC was mindful of. The DNC has issued a warning to all candidates that participation in any unsanctioned DNC debate would result in that candidate’s exclusion from the now eleven future DNC scheduled debates. This type of first-class black mail isn’t new for the DNC. In 2016 they similarly threaten to punish candidates who ventured to unsanctioned DNC debates. Likewise, during the 2016 election the DNC refused to hold a debate on issues related to criminal justice reform and civil rights requested by Black Lives Matter.
Climate change was given less then 20 minutes between the combined debates this past month. Twenty minutes to discuss sea level rises, human displacement, excessive droughts, wild fires and many more vital threats that are accompanied with climate change. It’s safe to say that 20 minutes allotted between 20 candidates is nowhere near enough. Perez is wrong in his understanding of climate change as a singularly issue. The conversation revolved around climate change incorporates important issues of the economy, unemployment, energy use, and national security; it is in many ways the most important issue our next president will have to tackle.
The Sunrise Movement’s efforts to publicly shame the DNC may thankfully be paying off. The DNC reportedly may be willing to vote on resolutions to change its rules to allow for issue specific debates during its meeting held in August. The Sunrise Movement efforts during the June debates brought noise to the doorsteps of the DNC, hopefully they have begun to listen.
HOLD -UP 