I ran for president twice in 2004 and 2008, in an attempt to truly protect and defend the Constitution by ending perpetual war, stopping government intrusion into Americans’ private lives, and transforming America’s role in the world so that we would have the capacity for a true domestic agenda of national prosperity.   

I understand the tactics of the DNC and their media counterparts. I understand how they attempt total control of the nomination process, and attempt to silence opposition in order to advance internal and institutional agendas, which are destructive to our nation. 

The meltdown of the 2024 nomination process began in August of 2022 when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) declared unity for the re-election of President Biden, heading off any challengers, and then, that December, approved rules so onerous as to make an effective run inside the party impossible.  

Rules were crafted so minutely that no viable alternative to the President could emerge. Party leaders in a dozen states had discretion as to whether to even recognize another campaign.  

Some states’ leaders declared early support for Biden, far ahead of a primary or caucus, to short-circuit  other candidates’ ballot access and fundraising. Endless barriers were put in place by the DNC, state by state, including guidelines that state party plans could be revised at any time.

The State of New Hampshire’s legendary “First in the Nation” primary status was eclipsed in 2024, as was the historic role of Iowa’s first caucus.  That Biden finished 5th in New Hampshire with 8.4% and 4th in Iowa with 15.8% in 2020 was not a factor, said the DNC.

The DNC crafted a rule that if a candidate campaigned in violation of the rule, including appearances or even internet ads in New Hampshire or Iowa, they would not receive their pledged delegates, even if he or she came in first. It’s called losing for winning. 

This rule adversely affected the Democratic candidacies of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Marianne Williamson and, later on, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), and gave rise to Kennedy Jr.’s switch from rallying as a “Kennedy Democrat” to his independent run. Williamson continues her run inside the party.

The DNC claimed such broad privileges to rig an election derived from a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Democratic Party v. Wisconsin, which prohibited cross-over voting in primaries, and, most importantly, derived from the precedent of Cousins v. Wigoda. The Court held there that the Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments barred judicial intrusion into party affairs: “…the courts may not interfere on the ground that they view a particular expression as unwise or irrational.”   

There is nothing illegal about the DNC fixing the process for Joe Biden. However, it is essential to dispense with the illusion that anything about this process was or is open.

In other words, the DNC can make the rules, or change the rules in any way, shape or form, as it pleases. This process is not about transparency or fairness, it is about the special protection which political parties receive to subvert everyone else’s right to free speech. This is not unlike the execrable 1976 Supreme Court decision of Buckley v. Valeo, otherwise known as the ‘Money Equals Free Speech’ Doctrine.  So much for the hallowed “Equal Protection of the Law.”

Buckley v. Valeo opened the door for corporate control of political parties, politicians and the political process itself, with these words: “The Supreme Court denies government the power to determine that spending to promote one’s political views is wasteful, excessive or unwise.”  

Spending limits set by the Federal Elections Commission went out of the window.  Government and elected officials were more easily sold to the highest bidder. Political parties at the highest levels are handy brokerages in the sale, with favored donors and corporations often weighing in mightily on choosing candidates, or removing them. The DNC chose President Biden. 

The DNC decided early in 2023, even if challengers emerged to President Biden, there would be no debates. Let that sink in. 

The same questions that were raised immediately after the recent Trump-Biden debate, regarding the assumed cognitive deficits of President Biden, which the DNC had been aware of (and which were raised repeatedly in preceding years), were suddenly in full view of nearly 48 million people, deflecting deeper analysis of President Trump’s statements. 

At that point every verbal miscue or mental lapse by President Biden became grist for a feeding frenzy in a media echo chamber, causing President Biden to hemorrhage support, driving him from the top ballot position which he would otherwise rightly claim as the  putative nominee. 

The DNC’s machinations had guaranteed his quest for re-election, until it didn’t.

Under those circumstances, the manner in which the President was yanked off the ticket felt more like a coup, orchestrated by party elites, donors and the media, than the product of reasoned decision-making followed by a respectable departure from the race and subsequent procession to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Precisely because of the way it was done, and how vigorously his relative fragility was exploited from within the party, President Biden now faces serious questions about his ability to remain in office for the next six months.  With the prospect of wider wars brewing in Europe and the Middle East the instability of American governance becomes a matter of global concern, and the question arises, who is running things?

The immediate surge of delegate support (with President Biden’s blessing) would indicate that Vice President Harris is on a fast track to the Democratic nomination. However, her polling numbers were not appreciably better than President Biden’s, which makes her vulnerable.

Every day is Election Day when polls are released and given as much gravity as the 24 hour news cycle requires.  Propelled by interest groups, the media can turn a tempest in a teapot into a hurricane.

State primaries are now like a rotisserie league in baseball, a fantasy.  The actual rules of the DNC are laid bare for all to see.  The real bosses are free to choose, and choose again, and again if they must,  their own candidate in an undemocratic top-down process. Yesterday’s candidate was President Biden, chosen in a rigged process.    Kamala Harris chosen because of her status as VP and her own constituency.      

You can bet that despite having sufficient delegates enroute to the convention, given today’s overt and covert toxic political climate within and between the major political parties, news stories will emerge which will attempt to topple Vice President Harris as well. Remember, President Biden had ALL the delegates a week ago. 

A single mistake, faulty utterance or slip up on her part could give rise to a drop in the polls, and another orchestrated feeding frenzy in the media echo chamber, ushering in DNC Nominee 3.0.   An open convention is the DNC’s worst nightmare and will be avoided at all costs.

When President Johnson announced on March 31, 1968 that he would not run for re-election, it set off a furious contest for the nomination, which eventually went to the insider, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, in a tumultuous, open convention where nine candidates vied for the nomination.

The Democratic National Convention commences in little more than three weeks, on August 19th, in Chicago. Stay tuned.  We could be in for yet another surprise.

Note: Kucinich, a former Democratic Presidential Candidate, is now running for Congress in Ohio. For more information, see www.Kucinich.com