DEBATE, DON’T DESTROY
Michael A. Nutter
Former Mayor, City of Philadelphia
DNC At-Large Member
Debate, Don’t Destroy.
I have been thinking a great deal about the 2020 Presidential Election and the DNC sponsored debates. One of my recurring thoughts about the upcoming election is about the election that recently passed, the 2016 Presidential Election. It strikes me that, after thousands of conversations, meetings, and random discussions within our Party with voters, activists, elected officials, and the DNC Chairman and Party Leaders, that the damage (self-inflicted or outside inflicted) on our 2016 Presidential Nominee during the election process was debilitating, not only during the Democratic Primary and Caucus Electoral season, but had a significant lingering effect during the General Election as well.
Notwithstanding any other issues and challenges of the actual campaign organization and the strategy/tactics of our 2016 Nominee that have been analyzed ad nauseam in the aftermath of the devastating 2016 Presidential Election, the fact still remains that in 2016, and in other previous elections, our Primary and Caucus Election Candidates have at times significantly damaged or wounded a fellow Democrat during that process. That made unification efforts between and among previous competitors difficult and challenging, and sometimes reconciliation and healing was not fully achieved. It remains painfully clear that some of the bad feelings between some of the 2016 candidates and their supporters have not healed yet because of comments, statements or attacks made by any one candidate to another during and after 2016. We cannot allow this intra-party rancor and sniping to continue or grow.
It is instructive that the Republican Party, with all of its history and internal turmoil, has sought in the past (the present is a whole different story) to have a somewhat more disciplined approach to competitive Primary contests, utilizing the much heralded “Ronald Reagan 11th Commandment.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleventh_Commandment_(Ronald_Reagan)). We may benefit from our own version of it, maybe “The 12th Commandment,” and seek to get our Candidates to refrain from personally attacking fellow Democrats in an effort to boost their own candidacies. The below comments by Reagan may be instructive:
“The personal attacks against me during the primary finally became so heavy that the state Republican chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, postulated what he called the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. It’s a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since.”
It is with this known and continuing history of our Democratic Party that I offer a thought of having all of our Democratic National Presidential Candidates sign a Pledge of Support, as the DNC sponsored debates begin, for a commitment to conduct a campaign of issues and ideas, and that they will not engage in the politics of personal destruction against a fellow Democratic Candidate. I am not naive in my thinking in this regard, but rather this is an effort to start a campaign season unified around one essential goal that they should all be able to commit to – ELECTING A DEMOCRAT AS PRESIDENT IN 2020 – no matter who it is.
Anyone who can’t commit to that fundamental principal, in my view, should not be running under the Democratic National Committee banner, nor should they receive any Party support, use of resources or even be considered a Democrat in good standing. The point is simple: ANY OF OUR DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES WOULD BE BETTER FOR AMERICA THAN THE CURRENT OCCUPANT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. I have sought to write a template of what such a Pledge of Democratic Party Unity and Support might look like below.
Pledge of Democratic Presidential Nominee Unity, Support and Non-Disparagement
I, ____________________, presently seeking the Democratic National Party Nomination for President of the United States of America, do hereby pledge and commit that I will fully, completely and without hesitation or reservation, support the Democratic National Party Nominee within 24 hours of the Nominee having secured the required number of Democratic National Committee Delegate votes under the Bylaws and Rules of the Democratic National Committee governing the Nomination Process in the 2020 Election, either at the conclusion of the National Presidential Primary and Caucus Elections, or no later than the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention. My support for the Democratic National Party Nominee will include, but will not be limited to, campaigning on behalf of the Nominee to help ensure success in the General Election, encouragement of my donors to generously financially support the Nominee and to strongly publicly encourage my campaign staff, supporters and voters to make a full commitment of support for the Nominee.
I further pledge and commit that during the entire time period of my candidacy seeking the Democratic National Party Nomination, I will conduct my campaign in the best spirit of the Democratic Party, based on fairness, integrity and our shared values of talking about issues and policies that matter to the American people, while refraining from the politics of personal destruction as it relates to my fellow Democrat competitor candidates. I acknowledge that campaigns should be hard fought and won electoral engagements, where differences of opinion on policies and programs, the active aggressive use of facts, data and evidenced based information to communicate different policy or program proposals by different candidates are healthy signs of a robust democracy.
I also acknowledge that the politics of personal destruction damage not only a fellow Democrat competitor candidate, but those negative activities are also destructive of the fundamental principles of the Democratic Party, have a negative effect on voters and their electoral participation, and can negatively interfere with reconciliation efforts between and among candidate campaigns, and unifying efforts after the Primary and Caucus process has concluded and a Democratic National Party Nominee secures the required number of Delegates to be successfully nominated.
It is with these acknowledgements and acceptance of the enormous honor and responsibility of being a Democratic National Presidential Candidate that I further pledge that during the entire time period of my own candidacy, and the time period subsequent to the Democratic Nomination process concluding and until the 2020 National General Election has been completed, I will not make, nor will my campaign or anyone associated with my campaign make, any negative, damaging personal comments or statements of any manner regarding any other Democratic Presidential Candidate who is seeking the Democratic National Presidential Nomination, and nor will I seek out, pay for, or hire individuals or firms for the express purpose of exposing, publishing, printing or sharing on social media or other platforms such negative, damaging personal information, which may cripple or severely damage the campaign of a fellow Democratic National Presidential Nomination candidate, resulting in damage to party unity and cohesion, campaign unification or reconciliation, or disrupt efforts to fully unify the Democratic National Party in its efforts to win local, state or federal elections in the General Election in 2020.
Notwithstanding the provisions regarding the pledge of non-disparagement of fellow Democratic National Presidential Candidates, such Candidates are encouraged, in the interests of educating the public and the norms of campaigning, to highlight differences of policies, programs, goals, ideals, philosophies, previous political actions, votes, executive or legislative actions that demonstrate important distinctions and differences among the Candidates so that Candidates can fully present themselves to the public and voters in a truthful, accurate, authentic and fact-based manner, which may be characterized as critical or offering a critique of legislative, executive or other experience of any particular candidate as long as such comments or statements are not personally disparaging or violate the non-disparagement provisions as detailed above.
I fully understand that by making the aforementioned pledges and commitments that I am giving my word to adhere to these principles of candidate conduct, and that any potential or alleged violation would be professionally and objectively reviewed and investigated by the appropriate entity within the Democratic National Committee, and an adjudication of any legitimate complaint will be resolved swiftly and fairly without any bias for or against any Candidate or Campaign Organization. The determination of the Democratic National Committee will be final, and the Democratic National Committee may utilize remedies within its purview or jurisdiction to address any violation of this solemn pledge.
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Democratic National Presidential Candidate
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