Someone is serious about this issue.

YouTube Young Turks Clip

During their coverage of the DNC’s rejection of a Climate Change debate, the Young Turks internet show announced tonight that they would fundraise in order to host their own. They felt that they needed $100,000 in order to secure a hall and other accommodations. They gave the immediate caveat that they had no control over whether candidates would show up, and said that if the debate didn’t happen because of this, they’d use the money toward other events or town halls, related to this election cycle. Ostensibly to prevent claims of bias, they announced that they were in contact with debate moderators that they felt were experts in the area of climate change (which, one would guess, would mean that the participation of the hosts themselves would be minimal).

They then dealt with the most obvious stumbling block—the DNC rule that candidates attending a non-DNC debate would be banned from appearing at future DNC debates, by saying the following (I paraphrase): “A lot of the lesser candidates have nothing to lose, because they’re not going to get high enough polling to get onto a DNC debate again anyway, and we would invite candidates that are passionate on this issue but have already suspended their campaigns. Once we have this event in the public consciousness, it will put significant pressure on the remaining viable candidates to want to participate, and if enough of them are willing to defy the DNC rules, the DNC will be heavily pressured to waive this restriction. Would the DNC really ban Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttegieg from the rest of the debates by punishing them for talking about climate change with us? Heads would roll.”

They also mentioned that while networks that would host such a debate would themselves get nervous about being shunned or punished by the DNC, the Young Turks (who are pretty much openly hostile to the DNC and the feeling is mutual) fear no such repercussion because they also have “nothing to lose.”

Within about 4 minutes (the length of the commercial break), about $4,000 had been raised. By 20 minutes, it was $18,000. It is now $37,000, and I had to change the title of this diary twice in order to update it as I typed, because another $1000 or so rolls in approximately every 5-6 minutes.

Some on the Daily Kos site do not like the Young Turks show or network for a variety of reasons. I’m not among that group, I think that aggressive Leftwing activism is sorely lacking in our media and I’ll take whatever sources provide this. But regardless, this is a debate we should be rooting to happen. The Democratic Party apparatus is not serious about climate change to the extent needed. They just do not prioritize it, and they’re willing to upset a majority of their base for the sake of “following the rules,” when it isn’t even clear that the rules were ever decided democratically, and when almost none of the candidates want this particular rule to be enforced right now.

And the Amazon is on fire.

You can donate here if you would like. The caveat about “maybe there won’t be a debate because we can’t get the candidates” could serve as a notable deterrent to some, but I for one am willing to take a shot at this, sight unseen.