ST. LOUIS (AP) — Allies of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pored over a 15,000-word draft of the Democratic Party’s platform on Friday in a tedious process that exposed some of the party’s dividing lines.
Members of a Democratic National Convention drafting committee began discussing the document at a St. Louis hotel, reviewing the language which will be debated and revised before the party’s July convention. The draft platform includes a dozen themes, including sections dealing with the economy, climate change, education, health care, national security and other issues.
Clinton has secured enough delegates to receive the Democratic nomination, but Sanders, her primary rival, has said he hopes to influence the platform to reflect the views of his supporters, who are generally more liberal than Clinton’s. The platform is a statement of the party’s values and positions on a wide range of issues. While it does not bind the Democratic nominee to stances, it serves as a guidepost for the party moving forward.
Some of the early deliberations on Friday involved how the party should advocate for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Reflecting Sanders’ influence, the document identifies the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour as a “starvation wage” that “must be increased to a living wage,” phrases that Sanders often uses in his speeches. It says that the party believes Americans should earn at least $15 an hour and be able to join a union.
Sanders’ allies wanted the draft to specify that the $15 minimum wage should be indexed with inflation. But Clinton’s side struck down the amendment, noting that the document already included a call to “raise and index the minimum wage.”
The panel also debated language suggested by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a Sanders’ supporter, that would urge the next president to adopt a model executive order related to wages provided by government contractors.
A Clinton ally, Paul Booth, suggested an alternative that would take into account the complexities of labor law, prompting Ellison to question the “spirit of cooperation.” Ellison added: “This process is going to be hard if we go 6-to-8 every time,” he said, referring to the breakdown of Sanders and Clinton supporters on the panel.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, asked both sides to work together, calling the platform “an aspirational document that speaks to what the Democratic party stands for.”
The meeting at times got bogged down by what Cummings called “mechanical problems,” as members complained they didn’t have printouts of the language they were voting on. They were reviewing the draft over two days in a public meeting.
Sanders said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he would vote for Clinton. But he has not yet endorsed her or encouraged his supporters to back her campaign. The Vermont senator has said he wants the platform to include many of his positions on income inequality, education and health care.
“We got 13 million votes, we got in virtually every primary and caucus the vast majority of young people – people 45 years of age or younger – and what those voters are saying to the establishment, to Secretary Clinton, ‘Hey are you going stand up for us?'” Sanders said in an interview Friday with “CBS This Morning.”
The drafting committee will discuss changes to the document ahead of a meeting of the convention’s full Platform Committee in Orlando, Florida, next month.
The drafting committee said it had received testimony from 114 people and organizations during two recent public hearings and more than 1,000 Democrats submitted written or video testimony.
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6 to 8?!???!!??
Maybe DWS will give him a coupla votes.
Typical Bernie: Gotta index that. Oops. Democratc platform already calls for that to be indexed? Well, you got to do it my way or I’m going to make life difficult.
Maybe Bernie should learn to check his facts and take yes for an answer?
OK…I can understand the stresses for Dems of drafting a platform…
but lordy, just think of the fun they will be having over on the GOP side.
Given Trump’s apparent total disdain for “policy” and belief that his gut is his best guide, and better yet, the fact that whatever positions he has taken during the primaries and since then have been literally all over the lot, just who is going to draft and control the contents of the platform, how will it square with whatever Trump believes that week…and better yet…will there even be one?
"we got in virtually every primary and caucus the vast majority of young people - people 45 years of age or younger "
Those votes don’t count more than the votes of people 45 and over, and don’t negate the fact that Clinton won a significant majority of contests amongst all voters to the tune of a 4M vote lead, 58% of the total vote, and 55% of the pledged delegates.
Parsing out which voters matter is specious, and only done by the campaign that got fewer votes.
I was an attendee at yesterday’'s session although I left prior early And I will be there tnhis morning again. I can tell you that the one person who was making this a miserable experiebce was Keith Ellison. The consensus was that he approached the issues in a “my way or the highway” attitude. Let’s see what happens today. Cornell West is one acarey looking dude. Rep Barbara Lee - great. Chairman Cummings - calm, measured and sensible. DWS’s plane was delayed but looking forward to seeing her there this morning.