Christian Science Monitor
Bernie Sanders' still-impassioned campaign electrified debate over a draft of the Democratic Party's policy positions Saturday, winning concessions on climate change but failing to include opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
During a frequently combative session in an Orlando hotel ballroom Saturday, members of the Democratic National Convention's full Platform Committee voted down amendments to the party platform to explicitly oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. But Sanders supporters exploded in cheers when they won environmental amendments that included support for pricing greenhouse gases, prioritizing renewable energy and limiting fracking.
"None of this would have happened in this forum without Bernie Sanders pushing this issue front and center over and over again," said environmentalist Bill McKibben, a supporter of the Vermont senator. Recommended: US political convention history: How much do you know?
Hillary Clinton backers offered support for the environmental language, but stressed that pricing greenhouse gases was a reflection of the views of some party members and was not a part of her current climate plans. "Her plan is clearly articulated on her website," said Energy Policy Adviser Trevor Houser. "It's not her plan." Test your knowledge US political convention history: How much do you know? Photos of the Day Photos of the weekend
Since Mrs. Clinton effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Sanders has aggressively campaigned to include his progressive policies in the party platform.
3 comments:
The Democratic Party platform is not something we should get too excited about.
It can, and probably will, be completely ignored as far as its progressive elements are concerned, by Hillary should she win.
Until there are stiff sanctions against elected politicians who disregard their party's platform, party platforms are a sick joke.
The platform is merely lip service for all the gullible and naive lefties that allowed themselves to be corralled back into the corporate neoliberal fold that is the Democratic Party. Nonbinding, largely a rejection of that which Sanders campaign on, it is essentially a polite fuck you to the idealists bamboozled into believing Bernie's 'revolution' was anything more than a preemptive measure to stave off more legitimate expressions of populist angst---call it a controlled Bern, if you will. We were saddened to witness one whom we felt still possessed some modicum of political integrity become so complicit in the scheme.
Every day the Jill Stein campaign is getting sign ups from Bernie's supporters who will not go with corporate criminal Hillary. Jill Stein for Presidnet Green Party
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