Sen. Bernie Sanders Issues Warning to Debbie W. & the DNC

With over 9 million voters nation wide ( so far ) backing him, Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a warning to Debbie Wasserman Shultz that stacking the deck with pro-Hillary surrogates in the Rules Committee and Platform Committee would be met by his campaign and supporters with a floor fight. Senator Sanders points out that the standing committees that consider the party's platform and rules should reflect the number of votes the Sanders campaign has received in the 2016 primaries and caucuses ( about 45% of the cast vote).

In a letter to Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, the Chair-Person of the DNC, Sen. Sanders points out that out of 40 individual names his campaign submitted for consideration, Mrs. Wasserman-Shultz approved only 3, and none to the Rules Committee. By comparison, not only has Sec. Clinton's former 2008 Campaign Manager selected Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (an avid pro-Hillary backer) to be in charge of the convention's Platform Committee, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz has also picked former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank to run the uber-important Rules Committee. Bernie Sanders correctly points out that both choices have been "aggressive attack surrogates on the campaign trail" for Sec. Clinton.

Writing of the disparity in the apparent tipping of the scales for the Democratic Convention, Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote, "I will not allow them [Sanders supporters] to be silenced at the Democratic National Convention," Sen. Sanders continued, "If the process is set up to produce an unfair, one-sided result, we are prepared to mobilize our delegates to force as many votes as necessary to amend the platform and rules on the floor of the convention,".

Luis Miranda, a spokesman for the DNC, responded "Because the party's platform is a statement of our values, the DNC is committed to an open, inclusive and representative process. Both of our campaigns will be represented on the drafting committee, and just as we did in 2008 and 2012, the public will have opportunities to participate."

This latest incident of apparent "rigging" of the 2016 Democratic Primary has had a serious effect upon how many Americans view the election process. In recent polling as much as half the voting public, from both ends of the political spectrum, view the entire election process as "rigged". Many in the progressive movement point to the suspected pro-Hillary election fraud in Chicago, ILL., Arizona, and New York, the partnership of the DNC with the Hillary Victory Fund which has resulted in apparent preferential treatment to super-delegates which support Sec. Clinton, along with what seemed a very carefully scheduled and sparse debate schedule for the candidates in the Democratic primaries as evidence of the DNC designing this primary season to elect Hillary Clinton and ONLY Hillary Clinton as the parties nominee.

In spite of the establishment road-blocks placed in his way, the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has promised to continue his campaign through the end of the primary season and advocate at the convention for his progressive policy goals addressing wealth inequality and overhauling the campaign finance system be adopted as part of the party platform. Sen. Sanders has also criticized states that do not allow independents to participate in Democratic contests or states that do not allow same-day registration, pointing out that registered Independents now make up 43% of registered voters in the United States.