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Originally published at AlterPolitics
Editor’s Note: David Dayen reported on the shady vote Wednesday.
Controversy erupted at the DNC this week when Democratic party leaders forced a party platform change to reinstate language proclaiming Jerusalem as “Israel’s undivided capital,” and to reinstate references to God in the text.
The motion had to be voted on by a two-thirds majority of the delegates for passage, and it became clear, after several vote calls by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a major majority did NOT want the platform changed.
Confused on how to proceed, the Mayor looked to a woman who came out and advised him, “Just keep going, they’re going to do what they are going to do.”
The mayor then pronounced, “in the opinion of the chair, two-thirds have voted in the affirmative,” provoking boos from the large crowd.
Well, now Fox News is showing footage of the DNC teleprompter the Mayor was reading from. It shows that the two-thirds majority needed for the passage of the motion had been predetermined by party leaders, with complete disregard for how the delegates actually voted. Apparently, they forgot to tell the Mayor in advance that the vote was merely for show; that the only results that mattered were written on the teleprompter.
What this so clearly highlights is the contempt that political power elites hold for the democratic process and the will of the majority — even within their own party.
40 Comments
So was the roll call of the states. That’s what informercials are for. The “delegates” were merely the studio audience.
Yep. The entire event is little more than scripted theater.
Yabut The Mgt is afraid, and so is TBo, so it’s all good and pragprog.
They’ve become a combination of a Greek chorus and the studio audience for “Let’s Make a Deal.”
Why anyone wants to be a delegate, let alone compete against others and pay for the privilege, defies my imagination.
Ironically, a similar teleprompter screengrab was taken at the RNC’s convention, during which Speaker Boner ran roughshod over the Paulites’ objections…! ;-)
Recommended!
As long as we are afraid to vote outside the two main parties, nothing will change.
Would somebody call the Peeps for Ron Paul? I think they could use some cheering up right now. I don’t know if telling them about this will do it but it’s worth a try.
“the contempt that political power elites hold for the democratic process and the will of the majority”
Remember when some Democrats suggested putting pressure on Congress for a better health care bill? What did the president’s chief of staff call those people?
This display of contempt for the membership is often on display at gatherings of that other major Democratic organ, the unions.
I attended enough IAWAW meetings as a grievance chair and lodge exec to know the internationl and district leadership did not give one rat’s ass about the membership on the floor, and went to great lengths to circumvent the will of dues-paying members.
As I cannot envision the 1% having a road-to-Damascus conversion, and I have total confidence in their ability to overreach, things will get ugly.
It’s the Democrat’s version of voter suppression – let them vote, but ignore the results.
As Stalin once said, it doesn’t matter who gets the votes, only who counts them.
I guess the Obama people have not forgotten that LAs First Cyclist was a Hillary Supporter. It kinda reminds me of the way they banished Hillary supporter Hilda Solis to Siberia—errr, the Department of Labor.
I might be upset if I thought the “Party Platform” was a document that anybody read and paid attention too. Obama surely doesn’t.
Trying to be surprised … trying … trying …
They’re aware. During the primaries some of the Paulites were hoping to recruit from here to help them for Paul.
However, Paul is the polar opposite of progressives on most social issues. He’s for less regulation for business entities and wishes to make government small enough to fit into the master bedroom of the average American. Needless to say, many of us felt hell could freeze over before we’d vote to put such a person in office.
Quite frankly, the Paulites aren’t pro democracy either. Throughout the process some were bragging about how they were grabbing up delegates and how the votes of people didn’t count because the delegates remain uncommitted until the actual convention and how they could totally turn 10% of the vote into victory for Paul. Their only problem with the hijacking is that it wasn’t their candidate that was able to manipulate the system in his favor.
They were ignoring it long before Obama. How long was Bart Stupak in Congress?
What’s disturbing about Villaraigosa is that he apparently didn’t understand that the powers-that-be regard him as an Hispanic sock-puppet who would of course rule according to the script. What, couldn’t he read the TelePrompter? It’s bad enough to be a tool, but it seems much worse not to understand that you’re a tool.
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I remember when Pelosi was getting the vapors over a floor fight(when many of us felt that Barack Obama should have to FIGHT for his nomination.) It was back then that I realized that what we had was kabuki rather than actual democracy.
Now, when Obama doesn’t follow through on parts of the platform, it will be fair to ask him, if you didn’t intend to do that, why didn’t you just propose an amendment, and have Villaraigosa rule that it carried? You own this platform now, Mr. President.
You need to post that clip in your article (see the link below). That is really funny, a blow up on the face of DNC politicians in the public. You can say this is democrat’s equivalent of “Mission Accomplished” moment by the Republican George Bush.
SEE THE VIDEO:
Chaos During Dems Platform Vote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09cEwnivdr0&feature=player_embedded
Oops…
I’m so surprised that the corrupt party hacks are also a bunch of dumbasses. It didn’t cross their tiny little pea brain minds that the teleprompter verbiage might eventually make it onto the electric TeeVee machine?
Keystone Cops.
Pussycrat “leaders” caved to Rethuglican criticism.
When I saw the replay on the Daily Show, it seemed to me that the nays were about a 55% to 45% majority on the first vote, and about even on the next two votes. There definitely was not a 2 to 1 majority in favor.
Quoting Elizabeth Warren speaking at that event:
“People feel like the system is rigged against them and here’s the painful part: They’re right. The system is rigged.”
So where was she when this happened and what did she do about it? If the Democrats just put people out there for show who are either knowingly or unknowingly in on it, just because they put up a pretty speech that’s hardly a reason to vote for the Democrats. This actually speaks quite terribly of Villaraigosa with his lack of leadership and wimpiness – it’s scary to think the mayor of a major city will just take orders and go along with scamming people…I imagine what we hear about with the NYPD functioning as a covert FBI is also happening with the LAPD, just we haven’t heard about it yet.
This is all much “ado about nothing” People!
Democratic National Convention Chair Antonio Villaraigosa
FWIW, I was at the Green Party convention, and there was no teleprompter. It was completely open and transparent.
All hell would have broke loose if they tried this stuff over there. Needlessly to say, the GP Israel policy is officially the only one that makes sense.
How long are Americans going to allow the elite to treat us like stupid children. This has gotten way out of hand. We have no rights. Our democracy is a joke. We are being poisoned and harvested by the elite controlled medical health care industry on every front.
This country is turning into some kind of science fiction nightmare where people are forced to act like zombies while being harvested by predators.
amen brother. The two party scam has gotten to the point of being forced to play tic tac toe in the second player position on everything.
yeah Democracy is so yesterday.
We have to wake people up. They really want to believe these pretty little lies and banner waving parties and yell at those screaming about the slaughter house in full view.
Oh, I see, “both sides do it”! So it must be okay to ignore the will of the people when fat-cats’ money is at stake, right?
Obama and Romney BOTH want American citizens to be subservient to the ideology of Netanyahu and the Likudniks, because the American tax dollars which are given away to Israel and AIPAC each year find their way back into the pockets of American politicians who are willing to lick Israeli boots. Anything for a buck. Palestinians have no rights as long as Israel owns the US Congress, and Israel will own Congress as long as Congress keeps giving Israel billions of dollars every year.
It’s hard to see how rule by crooked Democratic politicians is superior to rule by crooked Republican politicians. I guess we are supposed to just choose which criminal gang is doing the least damage at the moment and hope for the best.
If you only suspected that the DNC was just a bunch of gormless, feckless, spineless shower of pandering house-wiggers who have just as much contempt for democratic dissent, raillery, and ridicule as the rightwing Tali-Born Again, this footage removes all doubt. Somebody needs to send Antonio Villaraigosa the video Rachel Maddow took of the Michigan Legislature in action – now THAT’s how you “count votes” if you wanna stay on the fuckin’ script and keep people on the plantation …
Remember when politicians showed up to speak at early Occupy General Assemblies and were insulted because they would have had to wait their turn? One of the most important ways Occupy demonstrated to the country that democratic values have been long abandoned. It was street theater, but it was unforgettable.
Daniel McKenzie, a delegate, quit, and joined Occupy because of this incident.
It’s too bad it had to be God and Jerusalem upsetting the Convention. Causing a damaging ruckus deserves more important issues. Some wasted capital there, I think, which could have been used for better ends.
“It’s too bad it had to be God and Jerusalem upsetting the Convention”
What was upsetting was elites pretending to have a democratic process, it really doesn’t matter what the topic was that exposed it to be fake.
“Causing a damaging ruckus deserves more important issues”
What is more important than letting the delegates have their votes count?
“Some wasted capital there, I think, which could have been used for better ends.”
I’d hardly call it wasted as it rather efficiently exposed the Democratic Party as a corrupt where ordinary people don’t actually count.
Why was this change so important that they were willing to sidestep the delegates’ votes? That’s what needs to be asked of the DLC. Was it because certain high-dollar donors insisted on it? If so, it certainly confirms what was already evident: the Dems are whores with no integrity, just like the Repubs.
“Democratic” Party. Ha, that’s a good one.
Agreed. Although I think these were important issues for many of the delegates assembled. They might not have responded as they did, had the changes dealt with ‘more important issues’.
The issue of separation of church and state, (and I say this as a Christian myself) is a very important one.
The issue of compliance with the state of Israel’s current policies is a very important one.
And finally, the issue of amending a party platform by fiat rather than by the vote you have called for from delegates assembled is huge.
I find it quite humorous, all the vapors people are having here. A couple things; yes, the party rulers decided they left themselves open to stupid Right-wing attacks by forgetting to pander to Dog and Israelis and were determined to put this language in the platform.
However, consider the source of this “proof”; Faux News. Note, the screen grab of the teleprompter is EXACTLY the same verbiage / footage caught on the teleprompter when Rethugs pushed through their Anti-Paul rules. Either someone is distributing the same teleprompter quotes to both parties, or, more likely, Faux News thought it would be fun to use footage of Republican’s predetermined vote and claim it was the Democrats.
Since we now know Republicans will create an ad pretending one of their own is a “former” Obama supporter and they don’t support him this time around, as if they did the last time around, we know they will do anything to discredit the Democrats. Compare the photos and tape of both incidences and see if I am right.
So I take everything you say as factually true and that the teleprompter screenshot was a forgery, I’m still extremely disgusted since I was disgusted before any mention of the teleprompter came out. It was clear by watching the video that there was not 2/3 approval, but instead the delegates were simply ignored with a faux vote where what they said didn’t matter.
Spot on. But we want to be careful not to become so cynical about this stuff that we lose our capacity for outrage. Photo or no photo, this sucks Chinese eggs.