By Ask any Democrat, and they’ll say the same thing: this is the most important election in our lifetimes because democracy is at stake.
During his State of the Union address, for example, Biden screamed about democracy to roaring cheers from his party members.
It appears, however, that “defending democracy” has simply become code for “you must vote only for Democrats.” Nothing has shown this more than the way the Democratic National Committee has become obsessed with independent candidates and challengers to Biden in its own primaries.
The DNC has assembled its first-ever task force to challenge third-party and independent presidential contenders, hoping to keep voters from having alternative options to voting Democrat. This move comes as the party and its supporters gear up for what they perceive as a looming showdown against candidates deemed potential spoilers.
“Defending democracy” now means trying to get the leading challenger to the incumbent president banned from the presidency while working diligently to keep third parties off the ballot.
The DNC has hired veteran Democratic operative Lis Smith, best known for her work guiding the 2020 presidential campaign of Pete Buttigieg, to help oversee an aggressive communications component of its strategy, which also includes opposition research and legal challenges, writes NBC News.
Underscoring how important Democrats view the effort, it is being overseen by Mary Beth Cahill and Ramsey Reid, two veteran DNC insiders, who have already started issuing rare public statements rebuking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Matt Corridoni, Smith’s former deputy on the Buttigieg campaign and most recently a top aide to Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., is also joining the team as a spokesperson.
“We’re facing an unprecedented election and we know the GOP is already working to prop up third-party candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr. to make them stalking horses for Donald Trump,” Corridoni told NBC News. “With so much on the line, we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re going to make sure voters are educated and we’re going to make sure all candidates are playing by the rules.”
The party has run out of positive ideas. Democrats have come to believe that the only way to drag the most disliked president in modern history across the finish for the second term is to make the 2024 election about being “anti-Trump.”
Their biggest target is Robert Kennedy, Jr., who abandoned running in the Democratic primary after it became clear that the party would do anything it could to keep him, and others, off the ballot.
The Daily Caller noted, “The DNC has already taken aim at Kennedy’s candidacy, and filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in early February over alleged illegal cooperation with an aligned super political action committee (PAC). The complaint is rooted in American Values 2024 collecting signatures for Kennedy to secure ballot access in various states, which the DNC argues is a form of in-kind contributions.
Various other left-leaning groups are targeting independent and third-party candidates ahead of November for fear of them siphoning off more votes from Biden to swing the election to Trump, including American Bridge, MoveOn, Third Way, Citizens to Save Our Republic and End Citizens United, according to NBC News.
Polling indicates that when Kennedy, West and Stein are on the ballot, Trump’s lead over Biden grows slightly, according to the RealClearPolitics (RCP) average.”
Polling from earlier in the year revealed that Kennedy has the highest approval rankings of anyone running for president in 2024.
According to The Washington Post, the independent candidate “has selected a running mate and plans to announce that person in the next two weeks, according to someone familiar with the process.
Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of a former U.S. attorney general, left the Democratic Party last year in protest of its nominating process and launched a third-party bid. He has cast a broad net since then, speaking with former politicians, a famous athlete, a motivational speaker and several political activists as he seeks to find a partner for the campaign trail.
Like other independent candidates, his timetable has been accelerated by the requirement of 26 states and D.C. for independent presidential candidates petitioning for ballot access to submit the name of a vice president, according to Ballot Access News.”
“Part of the anti-democratic strategy of requiring petitions for ballot access — when polling or small donor thresholds would be more accurate and less onerous — is forcing independent candidates to name a VP far earlier than a two-party candidate would need to,” Kennedy campaign manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy told The Washington Post. She said the campaign has engaged in a “broad process to find a partner capable of fighting for the true needs of all Americans.”
Not only are Democrats part of this “anti-democratic strategy,” they continue to brag about it while preaching about how they’re the future of democracy in the United States.
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