The Democrats claim to be the party “fighting for democracy” against the specter of another Donald Trump term. They’re fighting so hard for democracy, in fact, that they want to keep everyone who might get in President Joe Biden’s way off the ballot and off the airwaves.
And no, we’re not talking about Trump himself — although he is the most prominent target. Consider Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota. He’s a presidential contender — and not running as an independent. Instead, he’s challenging the president for his party’s nomination.
Not that you’d know it by looking at the ballot in several states — because the party is deliberately keeping him off of it, if it’s holding primaries at all.
In an interview on the nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club” on Friday, Phillips blasted the Democratic National Committee for marginalizing his candidacy, arguing that fixing the primaries is “just as dangerous as the insurrection” the Democrats are fond of claiming occurred on Jan. 6, 2021.
“How can Democrats say we’re fighting for democracy, we’re fighting to make voting easier, and then yet removing me from the ballot in Florida and North Carolina?” Phillips asked during the interview, according to Fox News.
“How can you say you are for free speech and protecting freedom and democracy and not even consent to doing one debate? How can you say this?”
Phillips — much like the other declared Democratic primary candidate not named Biden, spirituality guru Marianne Williamson — isn’t pulling in huge numbers in the polls.
The RealClearPolitics polling average has Biden at 69.8, compared with Williamson at 7.9 percent and Phillips at 3.2 percent.
However, while Williamson benefits from name recognition because she was the most entertaining (if least plausible) entrant in the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination sweepstakes, she’s hardly a serious candidate. Phillips, a sitting congressman in his third term, is at least a serious political figure — which, one suspects, is why the party has gone out of its way to make sure he doesn’t get much play on the ballot or in the establishment media.
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Phillips also slammed the party for refusing to accept the results of the Granite State’s Democratic primary because New Hampshire has not accepted the party’s primary schedule. As USA Today has reported, New Hampshire state law requires it to be the first primary in the nation. The Democratic Party has instead scheduled South Carolina to vote first.
With New Hampshire scheduling its primary before South Carolina, the Democratic Party is ignoring it for delegate-counting purposes.
“Right now, they’re saying this to the voters in New Hampshire, that their vote doesn’t count, that this is a meaningless primary,” Phillips told “The Breakfast Club,” according to Fox.
“And it’s true, by the way. Democratic voters in Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire — their votes don’t count because in two states, there isn’t going to be a Democratic primary and the other state, there is and their votes aren’t gonna matter. And this is the United States of America.”
He compared his party to the Capitol incursion of 2021.
“I was in the House chamber on Jan. 6. I know what an insurrection is like. I know who inspired it and who promoted it,” he said, according to Fox.
“And now, frankly, Democrats are doing something to democracy that I think is just as dangerous as the insurrection because at the end of the day, one was to prevent the counting of ballots — and right now the Democratic Party is literally trying to prevent names from being added to ballots and people from even voting on those ballots. So that’s the truth and they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want me to say it, but, guys, man, someone’s got to listen.”
According to Fox, host “Charlamagne Tha God” (real name Lenard Larry McKelvey) then asked Phillips about Biden’s remark that “probably 50” Democrats could beat Trump — and why, then, there weren’t more jumping in the race, given Biden’s polling vulnerability against the former president.
“Because nobody, nobody wants to go through what I’m going through right now, which is the most vicious, atrocious, aggressive attacks you can possibly imagine,” Phillips said, according to Fox. “I mean, two months ago, I was a darling in the Democratic Party, and now I’m the devil. And I knew that … I knew what I was getting into.
“But you asked the question, why don’t others do it? Well most people don’t want to be subjected to it, most people want to protect their image and their future and their, you know, their career.
“And that’s why you have all these sheep in Washington, falling in line, constantly saying the same thing based on the talking points because they don’t want to do anything to hurt the next chance to be re-elected. So when I did this, I knew my career in Congress was done. And it is.”
The full interview is here:
WARNING: The following audio contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.
And it’s not just the party trying to marginalize Phillips, either.
According to the congressman, the Democrats’ para-political media enablers are also trying to ensure he gets zero coverage.
“I don’t think there’s an MSNBC viewer that even knows that I’m a congressman, because what’s being portrayed is designed to prevent that education,” Phillips told Politico for a piece published Friday.
“I do know of specific cases where representatives of the Biden campaign have been very clear to others about trying to not attend events of mine, to not support me, and to not platform me,” Phillips added. “It is almost antithetical to democratic principles, which include debate, deliberation and ultimately compromise.”
Well, yes, antithetical to small-D democratic principles. Capital-D Democratic principles, meanwhile, involve propping Joe Biden up like this was a “Weekend at Bernie’s” reboot until at least Election Day.
Marianne Williamson, to the party, is fine. She’s like the drunken porter in “Macbeth”: Comic relief that should be permitted to remain on stage for a little while, but not too long. Any potential Macduffs, however, are to be kept far, far away from the Dunsinane Castle of the Democratic primary process.
Phillips is one of them, being a sitting congressman of some repute with serious concerns:
As a moderate, he thinks the party is moving too far to the left, and as someone with eyes and ears, he knows Joe Biden is a punch-drunk political pugilist who barely staggers through his political bouts now, to say nothing of what he’ll be like in four years.
There may not be “probably 50” Democrats who can beat Donald Trump, but there are definitely 50 Democrats who can beat Joe Biden. Little wonder that the one who had the temerity to try is being shut out of the process by a political machine controlled by the president’s marionette handlers.
