The Democratic Party has Adopted Large Parts of Bernie’s Agenda.
The first night of the Democratic Convention Bernie said exactly what I have been saying 'It is not about Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton'. IT IS ABOUT THE ISSUES!!!
“Let me be as clear as I can be. This election is not about, and has never been about, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders or any of the other candidates who sought the presidency. This election is not about political gossip. It’s not about polls. It’s not about campaign strategy. It’s not about fundraising. It’s not about all the things the media spends so much time discussing.”
Now, this is as close to saying, all the crap you’ve been reading is sensational click-bait HEADLINES with NO corroborating text, as you are going to get.
I did read all the sensationalist click-bait headlines and I can tell you almost all of them had no corroborating text and the ones that did had very weak ties to the headlines selling them.
And I looked into the DNC Wikileaks as well. While the headlines all say some incredible things, there is no evidence of any election rigging. In the 20,000 emails hacked only a handful showed an attitude by some DNC staffers toward a lifelong Independent running on the Democratic Party ticket and some discussion on how to handle RUMORS. You can read my article on that subject here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/07/24/1551723/-Wikileaks-Attitude-Toward-Sanders-Yes-Election-Rigging-No
As far as the totally unfounded “I just don’t trust Hillary’ message the right-wing has been pounding for decades, Hillary is ranked as the most truthful of the presidential candidates. Yes, even more truthful than the very truthful Bernie Sanders. She is also the most rigorously vetted and investigated politician in the history of the United States, having been found INNOCENT of any criminal wrongdoing in ALL of the many highly partisan, republican led ‘investigations’ against her, not bound by the rules of a court of law or the criminal justice system and costing the United States tax payer upwards of a 100,000,000 dollars. Nobody in the history of American politics has proven themselves to be as trustworthy against such adverse conditions as Hillary Clinton. And if you remember Bernie never said anything about Hillary being untrustworthy during even the most heated parts of the primaries. If anything it was the total opposite.
Politifact Truthful Rankings:
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2016/mar/27/final-five-truth-o-meter/
Hillary Clinton Wiki Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton
In short, the ‘Big Bernie vs. Hillary Knife Fight’ never existed except in the minds of some of their followers. They both like and respect each other and have worked together to form an incredible political platform.
I voted for Bernie in the Primaries. I wanted Bernie to win. He didn’t.
However, his policies did!!!
The Democratic Party has adopted almost his ENTIRE DOMESTIC POLICY. Break up of 'too big to fail' banks, reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, further empowerment of Todd-Frank, further empowerment of Warren’s Consumer Protection Bureau, ending Prisons for Profit, 15 minimum wage, Expansion of Social Security, Universal Healthcare, FREE COLLEGE for families making under 125,000 a year and campaign reform including the overturn of Citizen's United is all included in it.
And all these things were put in jointly by Sanders and Clinton at Clinton’s encouragement.
If the BoBers care about the principles Bernie Sanders represents they will stop this display and be HAPPY that the REVOLUTION is SUCCEEDING!!
The only two major things that are not in it is flat-out rejection of the TPP and fracking. These are two items that are also high on my list but I understand that no political platform will ever contain 100% of all the things I want in it. 95% and the knowledge that this a political party that listens to it’s voters is more than enough for me.
The Democratic Party platform is the most Progressive and Pro Working Class America Since the 60's.
Democratic Party Platform Highlights:
Ambitious and Progressive Jobs Plan: This year’s platform contains the most ambitious jobs plan on record, including historic investments in infrastructure, a strong commitment to small business, a robust technology and innovation agenda, and promises to increase American manufacturing and stop companies from shipping jobs overseas. This platform also includes a robust stand-alone plank on youth jobs, and Democrats’ view that our economic revitalization efforts should have a focus on communities that are being left out and left behind.
Increasing the Minimum Wage: Acknowledging that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage, the platform draft already included language declaring that Americans should earn at least $15 an hour, that the minimum wage should be raised and indexed, and that all workers have the right to form and join a union. It also includes a call to end sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and people with disabilities.
Support for Public Education: The draft platform demands strong public schools in every zip code. The Committee approved language that reaffirmed Democrats’ commitment to supporting teachers, schools and communities and providing them with the resources they need to raise achievement for all students.
Abolishing the Death Penalty: Recognizing the death penalty as a cruel and unusual form of punishment, the Drafting Committee unanimously adopted an amendment to abolish the death penalty. This is the first time in the Democratic Party’s history it has done so.
Trade: The draft strengthens the language on trade by pointing out that trade deals should not boost corporate profits while failing to protect worker’s rights, labor standards, the environment and public health. Existing deals must be continuously re-examined and enforcement of those existing agreements must be tougher. A higher standard must be applied to any future trade agreements.
Looking out for Working People/The Earned Income Tax Credit: The Platform Committee unanimously agreed on an amendment proposed by Congressman Keith Ellison to expanding the EITC to low wage workers who don’t have children and to workers age 21 and older.
Wall Street Reform: The Democratic Platform will make clear that Wall Street cannot be an island unto itself, gambling trillions in risky financial instruments and making huge profits, all the while thinking that taxpayers will be there to bail them out again. The draft calls for defending and expanding Dodd-Frank. The Clinton and Sanders teams brought forward an amendment for an updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall and breaking up too big to fail financial institutions that pose a systemic risk to the stability of our economy, which the Committee unanimously adopted.
Multi-Millionaire Surtax: Committee members Ellison and Tanden worked together on an amendment calling for a multi-millionaire surtax that was unanimously adopted by the Committee. The Committee also approved language already in the draft that provided additional ways to ensure millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share, including shutting down the “private tax system” for the most fortunate, immediately closing egregious loopholes, restoring fair taxation on multi-million dollar estates, and ensuring millionaires can no longer pay a lower rate than their secretaries.
Expand Social Security: The Democratic Platform makes clear that not only will Democrats fight every effort to cut, privatize, or weaken Social Security, but we will in fact expand it while requiring those at the top to pay more. And pursuant to an amendment crafted by members McKibben and Tanden, the Committee added language that said we would we would achieve this goal by taxing some of the income of people above $250,000.
Immigration: In addition to re-affirming our commitment to fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, the current draft platform goes significantly further than 2012 to include keeping families together, ending family detention, closing private detention centers, and guaranteeing legal counsel for all unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings. The Platform Committee also unanimously included language proposed by members of the Sanders and Clinton teams to re-frame the conversation on immigration saying, “Immigration is not a problem to be solved, it is a defining aspect of the American character and history to be supported and defended against those who would exclude or eliminate legal immigration avenues and denigrate immigrants”
Universal Healthcare: The Platform Committee also adopted language strongly re-affirming the Democratic Party’s long held stance that health care is a right. The passage of the Affordable Care Act was a critical and hard-fought step to achieving this goal. The platform protects and builds on this progress by including access to public coverage through Medicare or a public option. The Platform Committee also agreed to take forceful action to curb prescription drug costs, including letting Medicare negotiate prices, and to expand community health centers, which offer comprehensive primary care and mental health services to underserved populations.
Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations: The Platform Committee unanimously adopted the most comprehensive language ever in the party’s platform recognizing our moral and legal responsibility to honor the sovereignty of and relationship to Indigenous tribes— and acknowledge previous failures to live up to that responsibility.
Climate Change and Clean Energy: Moving beyond the “all of the above” energy approach in the 2012 platform, the 2016 platform draft re-frames the urgency of climate change as a central challenge of our time, already impacting American communities and calling for generating 50 percent clean electricity within the next ten years. The Committee unanimously adopted a joint proposal from Sanders and Clinton representatives to commit to making America run entirely on clean energy by mid-century, and supporting the ambitious goals put forward by President Obama and the Paris climate agreement. Another joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change was also adopted by unanimous consent.
Reproductive Rights: The platform goes further than previous Democratic platforms on women’s reproductive rights. It champions Planned Parenthood health centers and commits to push back on all Republican efforts to defund it. The platform also vows to oppose, and seek to overturn, all federal and state laws that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. It also strongly supports the repeal of harmful restrictions that obstruct women’s access to healthcare around the world, including the Global Gag Rule and the Helms Amendment, which bars US assistance to other countries that provide safe, legal, abortion.
Criminal Justice Reform: The current draft calls for ending the era of mass incarceration, shutting down private prisons, ending racial profiling, reforming the grand jury process, investing in re-entry programs, banning the box to help give people a second chance and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for individuals suffering addiction. The Committee also voted unanimously to recognize the role activists and recent movements have played in putting these issues front and center in the national conversation, as they should be.
Marijuana: Committee members McKibben and Browner worked on an amendment supporting states that choose to decriminalize marijuana. The amendment also recognized that marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African Americans far outstripping arrest rates among whites, despite similar usage rates. The Committee passed the amendment unanimously.
This is from the first draft contained in the link below:
https://www.demconvention.com/news/democratic-platform-drafting-meeting-concludes/
Full Text of the platform taken to the Convention:
https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Democratic-Party-Platform-7.21.16-no-lines.pdf
Now, you would think this would be a resounding victory, wouldn’t you?
So, PLEASE Bernie or Busters, read this and be HAPPY.
YOUR revolution is succeeding!!!