The 2020 Democratic National Convention is organized and managed by three special committees of the Democratic National Committee. This past weekend, DNC chairman Tom Perez released a list of the people he has selected for these committers. From their profiles (assembled by Kevin Gosztola of the thegrayzone; here is Gosztola's original twitter thread), it is clear Perez is stacking these committees to frustrate and derail the progressive revolt, led be Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others, that is threatening to seize control of the Democratic Party from the corporate lawyers, lobbyists, and high-dollar consultants who have allowed plutocracy to take root in our republic.
One of the two co-chairs of the Platform Committee, Denis McDonough, served as Obama's chief of staff and is deeply connected to rapacious corporations including Boeing, Duke Energy, Kaiser Permanente, McKinsey & Company, and Walmart. The other co-chair is Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was Obama's Special Assistant to the President and Senior Deputy Director of Public Engagement, and is connected to the Aspen Institute, currently co-chaired by Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor for Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush Sr.
The danger here is that so many members of the Democratic Party cling to the comi-con caricature of Obama as a great liberal lion. But Obama always evinced a congenial readiness to accept the legitimacy of the right wing and the Republican Party, even as it became increasingly clear they were unmoored from reality. This goes back to Obama's years as editor of the Harvard Law Review: in his memoir he recalled fondly how liberals and conservatives on the Review staff and in the law school were able to achieve "consensus." If you're beginning to dislike this criticism of Obama, you should watch this YouTube video of Justice Clarence Thomas visiting with the students of Harvard Law School in Feburary 2013. Note carefully that never, never, is Thomas called to account for his reactionary conservatism on the Supreme Court, which has opened the republic's defensive gates to the floodtide of corruption and oligarchy. Nothing of substance is discussed in over one hour!
As Corey Robin writes in The Obamanauts: What is the defining achievement of Barack Obama?, an extensive review of eight memoirs by former Obama staffers and officials (including Valerie Jarrett's Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward) in the Fall 2019 issue of Dissent,
It requires an especially baroque theory of politics to claim that Obama took up the call for universal healthcare and financial regulation, pushed hard on them in his campaign, expended time and energy on their behalf while in office, and made compromises when it looked like he couldn’t get all that he hoped for—simply because of a neoliberalism that predetermined the outcome from the outset. Neoliberalism can explain why Obama’s commitments to universal healthcare and financial regulation were never as robust as his progressive admirers claimed them to be. It doesn’t explain the final result or elaborate dance along the way.For that, we need the third element of Obama’s public philosophy: a moral minimalism that rendered him not so much ill-prepared for a fight with the Republicans as ideologically indisposed to the very idea of a fight.
The rest of Perez's picks for the Platform Committe are summarized by Thomas Neuburger, blogging as Gaius Publius at DownWith Tyranny:
Of the four Vice-Chairs, one is chief legal officer for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina and a health care lobbyist, and the other was senior policy adviser for the 2016 Clinton campaign.
Of the remaining 25 members, nine are either Obama bundlers; lobbyists opposed to "a ban on fracking, Medicare For All, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), keeping fossil fuels in ground, and measure[s] to halt abuse of eminent domain by fossil fuel industry"; 2016 Clinton supporters and delegates; and/or supporters of Israel's oppression of Palestine who likewise oppose the BDS movement.
All in all, this committee looks well stacked against any change to the corruption of the political process by money and stands strongly against any change to U.S. interventionism abroad, especially in support of Israel's national foreign policy objectives.
On the powerful Rules Committee, Perez embedded as co-chairs health care industrylobbyist, Maria Cardona, of the Dewey Square Group, which has a long record defending corporate interests against progressive reforms, and former congressman Barney Frank, who argued the Green New Deal "would be a loser" for Democrats, on CNBC in February 2019. Frank also wrote a 2015 Politico op-ed entitled “Why Progressives Shouldn’t Support Bernie.”
Of the four vice-chairs of the Rules Committe, "three are either current Biden supporters, former Clinton supporters, TPP supporters, or all three." And, among the other 25 nominees to the Rules Committee, 12 are Clinton 2016 campaign operatives, supporters or bundlers; or in the public record as opponents of Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and raising the minimum wage.
For the important Credentials Committee, Perez retained the two co-chairs from 2016, Lorraine Miller and James Roosevelt. In 2016, Miller and Roosevelt rebuffed two key requests by Sanders: to remove Barney Frank as head of the Rules Committee, and to remove Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy as Platform Committee Chair. Sanders at the time argued that Frank and Malloy were openly hostile toward his campaign.
Of the four vice-chairs of the Credentials Committee, three have been identified (by Kevin Gosztola and Thomas Neuburger) as Clinton hacks determined to prevent Sanders from being nominated.
One name on Perez's list merits particular attention: John Podesta, under the Rules Committee. Podesta was Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, Counselor to President Barack Obama, and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. In the leaked DNC emails, it was Podesta who responded to former Clinton White House adviser Joel Johnson's urging to make sure Sanders is "ground to a pulp," by agreeing "in principle" and asking "where would you stick the knife in?" There is simply no possible way that Podesta can be expected to bring fairness and disinterested balance to the running of the convention. Just the opposite: Podesta can be expected to use any means necessary to deny Sanders the nomination.
Is the Democratic Party establishment more intent on stopping the rising tide of progressives, than it is on replacing Donald Trump with a Democrat? Justice Thomas' visit to Harvard Law School should be very instructive: the policy elites of this country shun disagreeable confrontations over substantive issues and place a premium on preserving the appearances of decorum and civility. That is why they dislike Trump so much: he says and does crude things. Ian Welsh noted the same social principle in Bernie Sanders' interaction with the New York Times editors interviewing him:
To the people running the most important newspaper in the US, and probably in the world, this is embarrassing. Sanders manner is embarrassing to them. These are courtiers. These are people who know how everyone should act. The problem with Sanders, to them, is less the content of his policies (though they despise those too), than his display: his manners. It’s not what he does, it’s how he appears while he’s doing it.
This is straight, fifteenth century Italian courtier stuff. Straight Louis the XIVth Versailles stuff. These are broken people. They are influential, they have a tiny bit of power, but they are broken. The system has shaped them (no one gets near the top of the NYTimes without having kissed ass all their life) into the perfect servants to power. Their judgment is pure aesthetics; pure look-and-feel. It is nearly void of content.
As DownWithTyranny writes today in The Anybody But Bernie Movement Starts Revving Up The Machine:
The status quo is what Bernie is threatening to overturn for the benefit of working families but for the "money people" and slime like Bennett and Emanuel, the status quo works just fine, thank you. They recognize Bernie as their enemy, as much as he recognizes them as his. They don't want Medicare-For-All or free college or a more equitable distribution of wealth or fairer taxes. They're fine with Women's Choice and gays marrying each other but... that's about as "Democratic" as they get.
Perez's packing of the Convention committees with establishment partisans is a travesty, and must be opposed. Here is a public list of the members of the DNC, which includes their phone numbers and email addresses. It was compiled in November 2016, so there may be changes in the membership roster it does not reflect. For example, it lists Donna Brazile as chairperson, instead of Perez. You can also google your own state Democratic Party and find a list of the DNC members for your state.
Here is the text of a letter written by Amar Shergill, Progressive Caucus Chair of the California Democratic Party:
We must act immediately to ensure that the 2020 Democratic Party nomination process is not tainted by the same improper influence which was a scourge in 2016.
Yesterday, I became aware that DNC Chair Perez had published his committee appointments for ratification. It is essential that DNC Rules Committee members act based on their own decisions and, just as important, not be seen as controlled by any presidential candidate. Taking money, as an employee, consultant or contractor, from any presidential campaign while also serving on the Rules Committee destroys any notion of independence.
To address this issue, I have delivered this letter to the Chair of the DNC, Tom Perez. We are also circulating the letter for signatures by delegates to state parties and to the DNC. These signatures will be delivered to the Chair this week and we trust he will address it promptly.
We cannot afford to have the Democratic nominee for President undermined after the Convention by allegations that the Rules Committee was able to improperly maneuver the process in their favor.
Fuller details, and profiles of Perez's selections, are available at the following links:
Kevin Gosztola's original twitter stream
To rig primary against Bernie, DNC chair Tom Perez nominates regime-change agents, Israel lobbyists, and Wall Street consultants
Kevin Gosztola [thegrayzone 1-27-19]
Video of Gosztola describing Perez's picks: Democratic Party Elites Rig 2020 Convention Committees Against Sanders
"A Who's-Who" of People Against Progressive Agenda: DNC's Perez Under Fire for Convention Committee Picks
Andrea Germanos [Common Dreams 1-26-20]
Tom Perez Stacks 2020 Convention Committees With "From the Swamp" Nominations
Gaius Publius [DownWithTyranny 1-27-20]
The Ethics of Not Supporting Sanders
Ian Welsh 1-27-20