I will go to my grave convinced that the 2016 Democratic primary process was the single most depressing political event I ever witnessed. The Republicans at least had a thin, bright edge of insanity that kept things from getting utterly tedious. (I never will forget waking up on the morning of the Indiana primary to discover that the president* had tried to pin the Kennedy assassination on Ted Cruz’s father. Most primary days are a dull as dishwater until they start counting the votes. This one wasn’t.) But the Democratic nominating circus was an endless slog that veered between a coronation and a smug, self-righteous quasi-insurgency that quickly developed a paranoid streak a mile wide. This set a perfect stage for the nearly omnipresent Russian ratfcking. The ratfckers didn’t have to create divisions to exploit, they already were there.

And, of course, the hell of it all is that, as the president* screws up, lies his withered hindquarters off, places larval reactionaries on the federal bench, and hands the departments of the government over to the unqualified and the outright loony, this miserable political pissing match is still going on.

At precisely the wrong time, Donna Brazile’s upcoming book has kickstarted the feud all over again, with the Republicans gleefully joining in to support the unfounded—and, generally, pretty stupid—claim that the primary process was “rigged” against Bernie Sanders. That the DNC at least had half-a-thumb on the scale was common knowledge almost from jump; I remember writing about the danger inherent in “clearing the field” for Hillary Rodham Clinton long before the process even really began. But, at least judging by the excerpt in Politico Magazine that has caused all the hubbub, this once again is a fight over nothing.

The joint fundraising agreement, now being described as a piece of dark magic, was a completely banal campaign-finance mechanism; Sanders, after all, signed one, too. The May, 2016 Politico piece on which Brazile bases a lot of her argument about HRC’s hijacking of the Democratic National Committee was fatally flawed; it made this claim before HRC had clinched the nomination and, therefore, before she could legally transfer money to state candidates, which is Brazile’s primary retroactive gripe. (Writing in The New Republic, Dana Houle explained in July of 2016 how the “rigged primary” narrative fell apart under close inspection.) In any event, instead of taking Brazile’s book simply as one person’s view of what happened, the Democrats promptly (and predictably) have lost their minds over it.

Donna Brazile Getty Images

Jeff Weaver is back making the rounds, muttering incoherently about dark forces and generally putting in his bid to become the Pat Caddell of 2024. And, of all people, and for no particular reason that I can see, Senator Professor Warren has jumped into the Great Grimpen Mire with both feet. From CNN:



Asked Thursday by CNN's Jake Tapper whether she believes that the Democratic campaign organization was tipped in favor of Clinton over her primary opponent, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Warren responded without hesitation: "Yes." "We learned today from the former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile that the Clinton campaign, in her view, did rig the presidential nominating process by entering into an agreement to control day-to-day operations at the DNC," Tapper said, continuing on to describe specific arms of the DNC the Clinton camp had a say over, including strategy and staffing, noting that the agreement was "entered into in August of 2015," months before Clinton won the nomination. Warren called that "a real problem…But what we've got to do as Democrats now is we've got to hold this party accountable," Warren said.

This, of course, echoed through the entire news cycle. I confess that I don’t get what good her signing aboard this brawl over nothing very much does for her. I suppose, if you’re one of the people who want SPW to run for president, and I’m not, as I’ve said, you could call this an attempt to reach out to the Sanders loyalists in the party. But there are ways to do that without joining in a sensationalist narrative unmoored from many basic facts about how campaigns are run. I think this is something of an unforced error, though events may prove me wrong.

I think this is something of an unforced error.

This uniquely Democratic ability to do the tarantella on one’s own dick is not isolated in Washington, either. The party is in the process of making a complete mess of the very winnable Virginia governor’s race. Their candidate, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, who is more than a little charisma-challenged on his best day, got all tangled up in the issue of sanctuary cities, managing to inflame both sides of a volatile issue. (There is more than a little evidence that sanctuary cities may serve the same function in 2018 as gay marriage did in 2004. The Virginia governor’s race can be seen as a test-run of that strategy.) The progressive group Democracy For America pulled its support of Northam over this issue. And, as a result, the race is up for grabs between Northam and former Enron flack Ed Gillespie, who’s run one of the most despicable race-based campaigns since the last time the president* held a rally.

Ralph Northam Getty Images

(In response, the Latino Victory Fund unleashed a fairly terrible ad on Northam's behalf. As has become customary in such situations, the Democratic candidate is taking much more heat than Gillespie has for running a foul and rancid campaign since he got into the race.)

I honestly believe that the Democratic Party does not yet appreciate the fact that it is the only viable political vehicle capable of resisting the existential threat that is Trumpism, nor does it realize that time is growing very short. At the moment, it can’t get out of its own way and the clock is ticking ever louder.



Editor's Note: This post has been updated to reflect that the ad was sponsored by the Latino Victory Fund on Northam's behalf.



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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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