Cory Booker and Julian Castro are in cahoots because they’re both complaining (loudly) about how the Democratic National Committee is treating minorities. Representing the black and Hispanic communities respectively, the two Democratic presidential candidates are pointing to the DNC’s rules about how to qualify for the December debate.

Neither Booker nor Castro have qualified for the December debate, yet Tom Steyer has. They don’t like that. Booker and Castro haven’t been polling well, mainly because they don’t have the fundraising efforts to show America who they are. Meanwhile, Steyer is a billionaire who has essentially bought his way onto the stage.

Rather than Booker and Castro upping their fundraising game and proving to America that they have what it takes to be a leader, they’re going to throw a temper-tantrum.

The problem is that it’s not going to work. The DNC can’t possibly be excluding minorities. This is the same DNC that chose Barack Obama to represent the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Clearly, there’s no issue with the way that the DNC treats minorities.

What Booker and Castro have a problem with is that there’s a lack of diversity among the top candidates. There are two old white men, one old white woman, and a young, gay white man leading the polls. Then, there’s Booker and Castro way down at the bottom. Neither of them has yet to see a double-digit percentage in the polls regardless of whether it’s a national or state-driven poll. Rather than complaining, they should probably accept defeat and step out of the race so that the real contenders can fight it out.

That’s not their style, clearly.

Castro was surprised that the DNC raised their thresholds again, especially since the Iowa caucus is only a few months away. However, the DNC published these thresholds months ago – and plenty of candidates have had no problems qualifying. It’s easy to see why the thresholds are higher, too – there are simply too many candidates still in the running. It’s too many for voters to decide on.

In a statement on Wednesday, Castro said that the Democratic Party has strength in that it represents all communities of the United States. He wants to make sure that the voters are engaged from everywhere so that Trump can be defeated. However, he worries that without “racial or ethnic diversity” on the stage that the Democratic Party is putting themselves at a “greater risk for failure” in the 2020 general election.

Although many of the candidates have criticized how the DNC determines who will qualify for the debates, none of the campaigns have offered up alternatives as to what criterion should be used for the debates.

Castro is bothered by the all-white lineup that will be on the debate stage at this point. However, that’s not because of the DNC. It’s because the people have spoken. They don’t like what Julian Castro or Cory Booker have to offer. They haven’t been able to get people on their side – and it has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It’s because neither of them have an impressive resume yet, and they haven’t done anything to help their cause. They haven’t diversified their campaign enough to stand out like others have, including Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.

Warren and Buttigieg may be white but they’re diverse from some of the other candidates in their own ways. The country has already had a black president. Diversity may now come from a Democratic candidate who is a female or who is openly gay. That kind of diversity obviously isn’t sufficient enough for Castro and Booker because the diversity doesn’t include either of them.

Booker, who has been touting the “Nice guy” appeal from the very beginning, has not lost sight of that. He’s a nice guy, but it’s not enough in the polls. He told an audience on Thursday that he’s asking for support. He said, “Let me be more blunt” before saying that if there’s a pollster showing up on caller ID to pick up the phone and “choose me.”

Cory Booker and Julian Castro are likely going to be the next two to bite the dust in the Democratic primaries because not making a debate is a major misstep within their campaigns. While they can blame the DNC for not making it onto the stage, the reality is that their campaigns have been failing for a while. They might want to try again in 2024 with a different approach so that they can stand out without trying to pull the race and ethnicity cards.