50+ DNC members push for a debate devoted to climate change -- 1 debate of the 12

[pnwmom]

Last edited Sun Jun 9, 2019, 06:19 PM - Edit history (1)

that have been scheduled (with the initial double-night debates each counting as 1 of the 12).

And, according to Mother Jones, a dozen of the candidates have also called for devoting a whole debate to issues of climate change.

ON EDIT: The DNC recently informed Gov. Inslee that there will NOT be a single debate on climate change, because there are dozens of other issues to be discussed.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dnc-letter-tom-perez-2020-primary-climate-change-debate_n_5cfa9a4ee4b0aab91c058622

Over 50 voting members of the Democratic National Committee have submitted a resolution calling on DNC Chairman Tom Perez to hold a presidential debate devoted exclusively to the topic of climate change.

The signers plan to collect more signatures and submit the resolution for official consideration at a DNC meeting in Pittsburgh at the end of the month. Perez would be free to reject it, even if it had majority support in the DNC. In the meantime, it is intended to function as an open letter and source of pressure on Perez.

SNIP

The signers, who collectively make up more than 10% of the DNC’s voting membership, include the chairs of state parties in California, Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Oregon, New Mexico, Vermont, Utah, Idaho, Maine, Montana and Nebraska. California Democratic National Committee member Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is among the rank-and-file DNC members to sign the resolution.

SNIP

Climate change advocates are not wrong to be concerned that the issue could be given short shrift in presidential debates. As of March 2016, just 1.5% of the questions in 20 presidential debates for candidates from both parties were about climate change, according to an analysis by the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America.


https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/06/jay-inslee-says-he-may-defy-the-dnc-on-a-climate-change-debate/

The progressive campaign to pressure the DNC to hold its first-ever sanctioned climate change debate first took shape in April. I originally reported that a number of groups, including Friends of the Earth, Credo Action, Greenpeace, Sunrise Movement, and 350.org, planned to ramp up the pressure on the DNC to finally devote the primetime opportunity to an issue that got short-shrift in the last cycle. Since then, about a dozen candidates, including Inslee, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke have joined the call.

SNIP

The reaction to this announcement was swift and critical. On Twitter, Al Gore called it a “mistake to refuse to hold a #ClimateDebate.” Elizabeth Warren chimed in with her disappointment: “Gov. Inslee is exactly right. Climate change is the biggest challenge we face. Every candidate running for president should have a serious set of policies to address it, and should be eager to defend those proposals in a debate.”

Inslee and the climate activists angling for more debates will argue that climate change isn’t as singular a topic as the DNC claims. It is intrinsically linked to the economy and national security—both themes of past DNC-sanctioned debates. Despite that, climate continues to be treated more as a niche issue by major TV networks and party officials.

“The DNC has said they won’t hold a climate debate because climate change is just a single issue,” Prakash says. “Try telling that the families who can’t afford to rebuild after the Camp Fire in California, the farmers in Iowa whose crops have been destroyed by floods, or the black and brown babies in Detroit who can’t breathe. Climate change is not just a ‘single issue’—it’s an existential threat that impacts every aspect of our lives.”

[DFW]

1. They might hold out and not hold such a debate, but.....

They are picking the wrong time of year to get stubborn. The floods have been going for weeks now, the tornadoes, too, and the fires will soon be starting, along with increased shark attacks in coastal areas ever father north and drying cornfields in the midwest.

I have seen Jay Inslee, in particular, attacked as a "one-issue" candidate, but besides that not being true, as the governor of a state that suffered massive summer wildfires recently where there used to be hardly any, he hardly can remain neutral on the issue, and nor should any of the others. Massachusetts, Vermont and California all have huge forests to protect, not just the Cascades.

A debate on an issue where all Democrats are of the same general opinion (i.e. this IS happening) would NOT be just a 90 minute back-slapping session, because almost none of the declared candidates have yet said what they, as president, would try to to DO about it. I think we, the Democratic voters, need to hear this as much as we need to hear about proposals for health insurance and immigration. Having southern Florida under water is one solution for discouraging immigration to the area, but hardly the ideal one.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. It's a winning issue for DEMs.

Wall Street and Big Oil, not so much.

[pnwmom]

3. Tell that to the DNC -- they've already vetoed the idea. n/t

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Unbelievable.

Young people voting en masse for the Democratic candidates who champion their environmental future is a taboo subject for Chairman Pérez and Company. Silence really is golden for the ownership class.