The Platform

We are well into Democratic Party post-primary healing mode. There are still diehards who were determined that the FBI would charge Hillary Clinton and allow Bernie Sanders to take the nomination, but these are people who simply would never support a mainstream Democratic candidate for president anyway. Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo can go ahead and vote for Jill Stein, feel good about themselves, and we will go on. I don’t really care anymore about the HA HA Goodmans of the world. But of course this doesn’t mean that Sanders and his more reasonable supporters aren’t still having a positive impact on the party. Now, I am not one to think that party platforms matter all that much except as general statements of principles. So despite a million articles on US Uncut, clearly the model for Salon circa 2016 with its half-truths and conspiracy theories, it seems that a) Sanders and his supporters had a positive impact on the Democratic Party platform and b) Sanders and his supporters had no good reason to think they could simply dictate the platform given that their candidate lost.

Basically, it seems that they won on a lot of the smaller, wonky issues around banking regulations and hedge fund loopholes and either lost or had marginal victories on the bigger issues. I would have liked the party to endorse the $15 minimum wage, yes. But I’m not angry that it only endorsed a $12 minimum wage and had a lot of language about higher wages. $12 would still be a huge improvement over where millions of workers are now. And as for the Sanders supporters wanting a statement that the Democratic Party opposes the Israeli settlements, that’s just a complete non-starter, not because I disagree but because it would divide the party. I’m more dismayed on the TPP, which the party should clearly reject and the carbon tax, which it should clearly support. But if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, these positions can be won by electing people who believe the right things on them. But in any case, Sanders has had a very positive impact on the platform, as he had through the whole election cycle. However, he does need to endorse Hillary Clinton before the convention. He must do this before he is persona non grata in the party.