Tag Archives: 2016

Why I Won’t Be Watching ABC’s GOP Debate

Musings, Politics, , , , ,

If you follow politics you will notice that last night, ABC announced the candidate lineup for the only New Hampshire debate ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

 

 

As you can see there was one glaring omission. Carly Fiorina, the woman who started out as a secretary and became the CEO of the world’s largest technology company, HP, was excluded from the debate on Saturday.

Originally, the debates were split in two because it would be absolute chaos to have 16 candidates sharing a single stage. However now that many candidates have dropped out, there will be no undercard debate. Here’s the thing, Carly is beating two other contenders that DID make the cut. Fiorina bested both NJ Gov. Chris Christie and former OH Gov. John Kasich in Iowa. She even earned a delegate!

 

In the race for the White House she is tied with former FL Governor Jeb Bush who spent some $14,900,000 in Iowa alone!

 

So what excuse does ABC have for keeping a legitimate contender for President off of the debate stage?

 

Polls.

 

Well sort of.

 

ABC picked the polls that they wanted to pick.

 

Some polls after Iowa actually show Fiorina’s campaign surging.

 

Credit: WBURhttps://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/files/2016/02/DebateInOut2.jpg&w=1484
Credit: WBUR

 

Even then, there’s no reason to exclude contenders from the debate. The field has been winnowed and only the most serious candidates remain. Certainly ABC can find one more podium to add to the stage. It costs them nothing.

Many high-profile people have agreed with this sentiment.

 

 

Even some of her opponents (!) are realizing this is unacceptable.

Countless #LetCarlyDebate tweets and over 35,000 hand-delivered petitions later, voters have still received silence from ABC and RNC leadership.

This debacle really speaks to a much larger issue in American politics. The media has cleverly invented a way to make themselves the gatekeepers of democracy, and party leadership on both sides goes along with it.

 

It is time for that to stop.

 

You don’t need to be a Republican or even to like Carly to understand that giving the power of democracy to anyone but the citizens is dangerous. It’s time that we, the voters, the ones who actually decide elections, stop allowing ourselves to be led along by reporters who tell us that this is a three man race. Finally, the RNC should be ashamed that it continues to allow the media to deprive voters of their right to hear every candidate. What they are doing is antithetical to what our founding fathers fought so hard for.

 

Carly is right. The game is rigged.

 

We the voters are being played.

 

So tomorrow evening I will not be watching the ABC “debate”. Instead, I can use my time and God-given brain to do meaningful research about what candidates are out there and what they believe. I will use this information to make an intelligent decision about who to vote for.

Please join me.

 

UPDATE: WOW! The traffic to the site has been insane. Thanks so much for all the support..

 

UPDATE: Multiple sources are now claiming that not only has ABC censored what candidates are allowed on the stage, they are refusing to sell air time to them. I didn’t believe it either. Note that it was RT’d by Sarah Isgur Flores, Deputy Campaign Manager for Fiorina.