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When the Democratic National Committee dropped the word “God” from their platform ahead of this week’s convention, Republicans capitalized on the exclusion. Now a last minute attempt to reverse that measure may have made matters worse.
The delegation at day two of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte was split on Wednesday after a motion was approved to recognize God’s role in the party and affirm Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — two issues that are often brought into political debates on both sides of the aisle yet had been removed from this year’s official platform, despite being included during the 2008 presidential election. All that changed on Wednesday, when a motion proposed by former Ohio governor Ted Strickland was approved by delegates participating in a voice vote, a contest that was quickly contested by members of the Democratic Party.
Although the motion ended with the committee declaring it approved, the vote and the method in which it was conducted were challenged by delegates in the immediate aftermath.
Convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa asked the audibly divided delegation to participate in a voice vote inside Time Warner Arena, informing them that a two-thirds majority would be needed to approve any motion introduced to the committee. Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, was unable to assess the crowd’s response, although it was clear that he was not met with a two-thirds opinion from either side. The mayor was prompted to ask the delegates to vote either for or against the motion three separate times before deciding. Following the third and final vote, Villaraigosa declared that the motion was approved, despite rampant disapproval from opposed members of the Democratic Party.
Even though two-thirds majority was needed to have the motion passed, broadcasts of the vote seem to show that roughly half of the delegates were still opposed to the motion. When Villaraigosa discounted this and approved the motion much to the chagrin of critics, those in disagreement returned his decision with a refrain of audible booing.
