Bernie Sanders got more representatives on the Democratic platform committee than any losing candidate for the presidential nomination in recent memory and is continuing his campaign largely in order to have influence on that document.
So how did he do? Based on the draft version of the platform that was released Friday night before the July 4th weekend, the results were mixed at best.
There was a big win for Sanders on the $15 an hour minimum wage, a proposal that is controversial on the basis of economics but popular with voters. There was also plenty of progressive rhetoric in the document that contained nearly twelves times as many references to Donald Trump as to God (though the Trump mentions were far more negative).
But the proposed platform largely sidesteps the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal Hillary Clinton once supported but moved toward Sanders in opposing in its current form. The language on Israel, while out of place for a Republican platform, reflects Clinton’s position more than Sanders’.
“A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism,” the platform reads. “That is why we will always support Israel’s right to defend itself, including by retaining its qualitative military edge, and oppose any effort to delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement.”
Sanders could endorse the “strong and secure Israel” part, but he put a BDS backer on the platform committee and briefly tapped someone sympathetic to BDS as his campaign’s Jewish outreach coordinator. She was ultimately fired when vulgar comments she made about Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu came to light.
The draft platform states, “We believe as Democrats that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and our healthcare system should put people before profits.” It does endorse a government “public option,” whether through expanded Medicare or some other mechanism. But is largely a defense of Obamacare and a far cry from Sanders’ single-payer advocacy.
There were small efforts to distance the platform from democratic socialism. While Donald Trump has often stiffed small businesses — nearly bankrupting some — with his deceptive and reckless corporate practices, the Democratic Party will make it easier to start and grow a small business in America,” the Democrats declared.
Translation: we are more supportive of small business than Trump.
On regulating Wall Street, Sanders’ signature political issue, he had more impact. He wanted to break up the banks and reinstate Glas-Steagall rules repealed under President Bill Clinton. The platform would “empower regulators to downsize or break apart financial institutions when necessary to protect the public and safeguard financial stability.”
“Democrats support a variety of ways to stop this from happening, including 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,” the draft also says.
All this comes as Trump has continued to be aggressive in pursuing Sanders’ voters — perhaps more aggressive than he has been in courting Republicans who backed Ted Cruz and other candidates in the primaries. He clearly sees some crossover opportunities as well as the possibility of getting progressive millennials to stay home rather than vote for Clinton.
The Democratic platform is not yet written in stone and shaping it remains the whole point of Sanders’ campaign. But the Vermont senator, who never ran as an actual Democrat in an important election prior to this year’s elections, clearly has his work cut out for him.
