Many folks seem shocked from what Donna Brazile revealed in her new book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House.” No Bernie Sanders supporter was ever fooled. This revelation was just a corroboration.
Before I reference the portion of the excerpt that most upset me, it’s necessary to say that we must use this revelation to unite and not divide. After all, we, the masses, all got played in some form or the other. While I commend Donna Brazile for coming clean, I do not believe she was ignorant to the DNC shenanigans as she says until the time that she fessed up to Bernie Sanders. She merely played the party game most of us play because we know a Democratic Party win is better than the alternative.
She or he who controls the purse strings controls the party. And if it is dependent on one particular candidate then what do you think the Party is going to do? — anything to ensure the funder wins. And this brings me to the excerpt of the book excerpt that is the most disturbing.
On the phone Gary told me the DNC had needed a $2 million loan, which the campaign had arranged.
“No! That can’t be true!” I said. “The party cannot take out a loan without the unanimous agreement of all of the officers.”
“Gary, how did they do this without me knowing?” I asked. “I don’t know how Debbie relates to the officers,” Gary said. He described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearinghouse. Under FEC law, an individual can contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign. But the limits are much higher for contributions to state parties and a party’s national committee.
Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the 32 states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn.
“Wait,” I said. “That victory fund was supposed to be for whoever was the nominee, and the state party races. You’re telling me that Hillary has been controlling it since before she got the nomination?”
Gary said the campaign had to do it or the party would collapse.
“That was the deal that Robby struck with Debbie,” he explained, referring to campaign manager Robby Mook. “It was to sustain the DNC. We sent the party nearly $20 million from September until the convention, and more to prepare for the election.” …
The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.
I had been wondering why it was that I couldn’t write a press release without passing it by Brooklyn. Well, here was the answer.
In other words, the DNC was legally laundering money for the Hillary Clinton campaign. But Bernie was not dependent on the DNC’s money at all. But the fact that the Clinton campaign controlled the messaging and the rank-and-file Democratic database meant an ‘unfair hurdle’ for Bernie to climb to get his message to a large percentage of those who were more aligned with the Democratic Establishment Wing — read Wall Street Wing. Many stay with the Establishment Wing of the party because of some relative degree of comfort.
I hope Clinton supporters read the piece objectively and realize that, yes, Hillary Clinton was a victim of rampant sexism, but that she played dirty in her attempt to win at all cost. It is true that a man doing the same thing would have beat Trump in the electoral college.
America is a duopoly for the foreseeable future. The only way for real Progressives to get traction is to become a virus delivering the Progressive payload to the party. That means engaging and ultimately taking the Party from the monied interest. This stance requires us engaging more Democrats and creating more Democrats by reaching them, not fighting with them. After all, the polls say we want the same thing.