ORLANDO – If party platforms matter — and the jury is out on that — what happened this weekend in a sweltering Hilton conference room was remarkable.
The Democratic Party shifted further to the left in one election than perhaps since 1972, embracing once-unthinkable stances on carbon pricing, police reform, abortion rights, the minimum wage and the war on drugs. It did so with little ideological resistance and a lot of comity between the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
"We have produced by far the most progressive platform that this party has seen in multiple generations," said Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, co-chairman of the platform committee.
But one reason the committee meeting took so long was that the rival camps kept seeking "unity" amendments. The most dramatic was a police reform plank, committing to "require the use of body cameras," stop "racial profiling," and "stop the use of weapons of war that have no place in our communities." That language was introduced by former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and attorney Benjamin Crump — Sanders and Clinton delegates, respectively.
What else did the Sanders forces win? Support for the senator's college tuition plan (also backed by Clinton) and tough new antitrust language.
What, besides a trade amendment, did the Sanders forces lose? A fracking ban; Medicare-for-All; "an end to occupation and illegal settlements" in Palestinian territory; public financing of elections; and a ban on lobbyists regulating their industries, or regulators leaving to become lobbyists, for four years after their jobs end.
As the meeting closed, some of the people who lost condemned the party for selling out. The raw feelings between Sanders and Clinton supporters were exposed, seemingly by accident, when Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers fought for language to congratulate Clinton and Sanders for a campaign well run. Loud heckling — "she's not the nominee yet!" — forced the amendment to be withdrawn.
That fight may continue at the Democratic convention. Sometime in the next few days, the Sanders delegates may also back a minority report of the amendments that did not make it and decide whether to push for them again at the convention later this month.
