The 2016 presidential election was a real doomsday for the Democratic Party, where the party got defeated by a pure businessman with no political background — Mr. Donald Trump. The Democratic campaign was plagued with leaks, open investigations supported by last-minute letters to Congress by Mr. James Comey (the FBI Director), claimed Russian interference, and lots of fake news. This was unprecedented in the Democratic Party and American history.
Today, it is OK to say that the election of Tom Perez as the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the governing body of the Democratic Party, was the final blow to the future of the Democratic Party as we know it.
Mr. Perez, a former Secretary of Labor in 2013, ran against Mr. Keith Ellison, a US House of Representatives member, and won after a second ballot. Mr. Perez is the first Latino to occupy the chair of the DNC chair.
So, what is the problem with electing Mr. Perez?
In the emails leaked by Wikileaks, Mr. Perez, covertly supporting Ms. Clinton, told Mr. Podesta, the chairman of Ms. Clinton’s presidential campaign, that he would “put the fork” between the Latino voters and Mr. Bernie Sanders through an appearance on Telemundo — an American Spanish-language television network. During the appearance, Mr. Perez did not answer any questions — during his CNN appearance — about whether the primaries were biased against Mr. Sanders. It is noteworthy that, in the DNC elections, Mr. Sanders and his fans were supporting Mr. Ellison for the contested chairman position in an endeavour to shake up the Democratic Party’s non-performing establishment.
The obvious danger for the Democratic Party is losing more democratic, progressive, left, and socialist supporters who supported Mr. Sanders in the primaries. The party already lost a plethora of those voters who were not convinced of Ms. Clinton’s credibility and her policies in the states previously won by Mr. Obama as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida. Democrats cannot simply risk squandering more votes in any future state, congressional, or presidential elections, which would likely happen under the leadership of Mr. Terez.
Mr. Sanders’s supporters knew that the DNC was biased against Mr. Sanders and that Mr. Perez was an essential contributor. Consequently, Sanders’ supporters and those who did not vote for Ms. Clinton would lose hope of reshaping the Democratic Party from the inside. That hopelessness would undermine any efforts by the new Democratic leadership to reach new voters, let alone forfeit their existing voting base. Furthermore, for many of Ms. Clinton’s haters, a new grassroots movement is now a probability rather than a mere possibility.
Although Mr. Ellison was announced a deputy chair by Mr. Terez directly after the results, that probably will convince neither Mr. Sanders nor his supporters that anything changed or will change.
What if Mr. Ellison was elected? Would it be any different?
Likely, all roads lead to Rome.
Mr. Ellison is one of only two congressmen; the other is Mr. Andre Carson, having an Islamic faith and background. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Ellison was endorsed by Mr. David Duke — a white nationalist and a former KKK leader. That was natural since Mr. Ellison’s Islamic background would have been perfect ammunition for Mr. Duke and others to attack Mr. Ellison day and night. This could have been an absolute nightmare for the Democratic Party and another source of votes draining.
It was a loss-loss case for the democrats.
Although Ms. Kellyanne Conway said it before the election of the DNC’s chair, we can obviously agree that:
“The Democratic Party…we’re seeing it unravel in front of our eyes and we’re seeing it be revealed in front of our eyes.”
