They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but a Super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is suggesting a behind-the-scenes political coupling that would raise the eyebrows of even the most jaded observer of the U.S. electoral process.
Fiorina has been surging in the polls following a breakout performance in the “happy hour debate” a few weeks ago, to which lower-polling candidates were relegated while the top 10 enjoyed a prime time slot on Fox News. However, because of the rules developed by the debate organizers, Fiorina’s composite poll numbers may still leave her shy of the numbers she needs to make it to the main stage in a second debate scheduled to air Sept. 16 on CNN.
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The PAC, Carly for America, in an effort to vault the candidate on to the main stage is now suggesting that there is a conspiracy to keep her out of the discussion. And, like any good conspiracy, it’s really complicated.
Ready?
The PAC website includes a page on which she calls for her supporters to sign a petition to get the debate selection criteria changed under the headline, “Tell CNN & the RNC: We want fair debate criteria.”
It continues, “CNN and the DC political insiders have twisted the rules and run out of ways to keep Carly out of the debate,” the PAC argues. “They want to keep her out because she is Hillary's most effective critic and she is taking on the failed leadership of the Republican Capitol Hill leadership.”
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Got it? CNN is conspiring with the Republican National Committee to protect Hillary Clinton from Fiorina’s fierce criticism. At the same time, the two organizations are bending the rules of the Republican presidential debates to protect GOP congressional leaders from her attacks on their performance.
“Is it any surprise that while Carly points out the pervasive cronyism in DC they fight to twist the rules to support status quo candidates?” the PAC demands. “The insiders will not fight for what is right. It is time to make our voice heard so Carly's can too.”
Fiorina has been pressing her case with the media for much of the week, but the petition is a means of taking the argument to the grass roots. And while positing an implausible conspiracy between CNN and the RNC to protect Hillary Clinton and congressional Republicans might seem like a stretch, there’s a long history of politicians successfully running against shadowy elites trying to dupe the masses.
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Richard Hofstadter, writing a generation ago, described the “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” that define what he called “the paranoid style in American politics.”
“The paranoid style is an old and recurrent phenomenon in our public life which has been frequently linked with movements of suspicious discontent,” Hofstadter wrote.
Carly for America seems to be looking to that history for inspiration.
NOTE: This story has been updated. The original version incorrectly identified the website responsible for the petition as being affiliated with the Fiorina campaign.