The race to the Democratic nomination is only just beginning with the end of the first major debate. The media was quick to declare a winner, as they almost unanimously picked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It can be said she did very well, after all she has participated in countless debates over the course of her long political life. Clinton is also still considered the front runner on a national scale with 47% of the popular vote, but her support has been declining steadily all summer long.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been successful in launching a massive campaign against Clinton thus far, with him gaining 20% national popularity since he announced his presidential run back in April, with his national support holding strong at 25%. Sanders himself now leads in the polls of Iowa and New Hampshire, which is significant as no democratic nominee before has won a primary election without first polling popularly in these two states, with the exception of President Bill Clinton back in the democratic primary election of 1991. Despite not declaring a run for the oval office, Vice President Joe Biden currently holds at 17% popularity nation wide, although he has stated numerous times that he will not be running, as he is currently mourning the loss of his son Beau Biden, who died back in May of brain cancer. The other candidate, Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley has less than 1% of the national vote. Both Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee have announced they will drop out of the race after poll polling very poorly nationally as well as pulling disastrous debate performances.
Despite what the media claims about Clinton’s apparent victory over the other Democratic hopefuls, the polls tell a different tale. Sanders nationally saw his popularity rise 5% post debate, and the vast majority of online polls declared Sanders to be the winner. Clinton’s popularity in most polls wavered and it fell in others, suggesting that perhaps the media is biased when it comes to what the will of the people truly is. In fact, Clinton’s 7th largest donor is Time Warner Cable, the corporate owners of CNN and NBC, with them contributing more than $500,000 in campaign funds thus far. Clinton’s biggest donors by far are firms on Wall Street, contributing upwards of $4 million to the Clinton campaign. This directly contrasts with Sanders’ campaign, with most of his donations coming from everyday citizens. Following the debate, Sanders’ raised over $1.4 million from small donors of less than $200 with an average contribution totaling $31.54, an amazing feat coming from any candidate. In addition to this, Sanders’ has gained much support from workers unions, with over $1 million coming from them thus far.
What this means is there is an evident corporate bias towards Clinton, and it can be evidently seen even without looking at the numbers. Sanders up until the debate had little to no screen time on major networks compared to Clinton, and was hardly ever mentioned despite his massive surge over the summer which continues to grow. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) itself is biased towards Clinton for their decision to limit the number of debates down to 6, a number that is hilariously low compared to the number of debates in the 2008 primary election; 25. This actually would not mean much if it wasn’t for the fact that the DNC is barring candidates from participating in non-sanctioned debates, which are debates not sponsored by the DNC and have open attendance. This ploy is set up to protect Clinton, since she is clearly the one to beat. This is evidenced by her polling numbers and other candidates have much less time to be aggressive and attack Clinton to drive down her support. Francis Orlando, Instructor of Political Science, had very similar things to say in regards to Clinton’s support.
“Hillary has control over the people that make the rules. She does a successful job at intimidating via support,” said Orlando.
This is not what the will of the people looks like. Clinton has the most likely chance of winning the nomination, but only because the majority of Americans are not politically involved and do not bother with the details. They soak up what they hear from the media and believe before they think. They do not look at voting records. They do not look at top donors. They do not dig deep into the issues plaguing our nation. They do not analyze polling data, and horrifically, most do not even vote. The will of the people is dead as long as there is an evident media bias towards just one candidate, because the media is what the vast majority of American people listen to. Only one candidate is talking about such a level of corruption, and it surely is not Clinton or O’Malley. It is Bernie Sanders.
