Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Len’s Letters #23 Nightmare Conventions and their Consequences
Len’s Letters #28 The 2020 Democratic Platform.
Sometimes party platforms are meaningless. Not this time. The platform, voted by the Democratic convention, is based on a negotiated plan between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. More accurately, negotiated by distinguished representatives of each of those men.
When there is a dispute, that can raise the importance of that platform issue. This year, one dispute arose. Some delegates noticed that a commitment to end fossil fuels subsidies disappeared from the climate change section of the platform draft. We don’t know how that happened. We know the result of the dispute was a personal pledge by Joe Biden to make ending those subsidies a priority. That pledge raised the profile of the issue and avoided an awkward effort to revise the platform at this virtual convention. The mysterious disappearance, like so many things political, has had a result counter to the apparent goal.
Take a look at my summary. The summary is, I hope, organized and simple. Consider what the Biden and Sanders forces agreed to as they achieved a unified Democratic Party
Look at the ten areas addressed. Pick out an area of particular interest to you. Review it. Review the rest. You have a picture of what Democrats intend as they become the governing party; as they elect a President, a majority of members of the House of Representatives, and a majority of the members of the US Senate.
Are these proposals reasonable? An overreach? Too little? Too much government? Not enough? Would you call this socialist as the Republicans do? What would you call it?
You want to understand the platform even better? Google the Democratic Platform. You can read the entire document. I encourage you. Immediately below is my summary:
Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Len’s Letters #23 Nightmare Conventions and their Consequences
Len’s Letters #28 The 2020 Democratic Platform.
Sometimes party platforms are meaningless. Not this time. The platform, voted by the Democratic convention, is based on a negotiated plan between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. More accurately, negotiated by distinguished representatives of each of those men.
When there is a dispute, that can raise the importance of that platform issue. This year, one dispute arose. Some delegates noticed that a commitment to end fossil fuels subsidies disappeared from the climate change section of the platform draft. We don’t know how that happened. We know the result of the dispute was a personal pledge by Joe Biden to make ending those subsidies a priority. That pledge raised the profile of the issue and avoided an awkward effort to revise the platform at this virtual convention. The mysterious disappearance, like so many things political, has had a result counter to the apparent goal.
Take a look at my summary. The summary is, I hope, organized and simple. Consider what the Biden and Sanders forces agreed to as they achieved a unified Democratic Party
Look at the ten areas addressed. Pick out an area of particular interest to you. Review it. Review the rest. You have a picture of what Democrats intend as they become the governing party; as they elect a President, a majority of members of the House of Representatives, and a majority of the members of the US Senate.
Are these proposals reasonable? An overreach? Too little? Too much government? Not enough? Would you call this socialist as the Republicans do? What would you call it?
You want to understand the platform even better? Google the Democratic Platform. You can read the entire document. I encourage you. Immediately below is my summary:
- PROTECTING AMERICANS AND RECOVERING FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
- Make COVID-19 testing, treatment, and any eventual vaccines free to everyone.
- Provide financial and health insurance protection to all.
- Provide PPEs and medications by scaling up manufacturing.
- Reform the current unemployment insurance system so more workers can remain attached to their jobs and help small businesses survive.
- Create a coordinated global health and economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic
- BUILDING A STRONGER, FAIRER ECONOMY
- Protect Workers and Families and Create Millions of Jobs Across America
- Raise Wages and Promoting Workers’ Rights (through minimum wage and unions)
- Enact Robust Work-Family Policies (sick leave and family leave)
- Invest in the Engines of Job Creation (infrastructure)
- Build A Fair System of International Trade for Our Workers (worker-oriented trade agreements)
- Put Homeownership in Reach and Guaranteeing Safe Housing for Every American (increase the supply of affordable housing)
- Level the Economic Playing Field
- Reform the Tax Code to Benefit Working Families (Progressive tax code)
- Curb Wall Street Abuses (Enforce Dodd-Frank, revise bankruptcy law)
- End Poverty (Invest in communities in ways that create jobs)
- Protect Consumer Rights and Privacy (strong national standards)
- Tackle Runaway Corporate Concentration (Review mergers, regulate, and, as a last resort, break up corporations).
- Guarantee a Secure and dignified Retirement
- Protect Social Security and make it easier to invest (fiduciary responsibility for advisors)
- Protect Workers and Families and Create Millions of Jobs Across America
- ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE
- Secure Universal Health Care Through a Public Option (Shore up ACA, including a Public Option)
- Bring Down Drug Prices and Take on the Pharmaceutical Industry
- Reduce Health Care Costs and Improve Health Care Quality (An income-based cap on premium cost)
- Expand Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment (enforce parity law)
- Expand Long-Term Care Services and Supports (Modernize Medicaid eligibility)
- Eliminate Racial, Gender, and Geographic Health Inequities (Expand coverage, make health care more affordable, and tackle implicit bias)
- Protect Native American Health (Focus on access and environmental justice)
- Secure Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Repeal the Title X domestic gag rule, the Hyde Amendment, restore funding to Planned Parenthood, and codify the right to reproductive freedom)
- Protect and Promote Maternal Health (Expand postpartum Medicaid coverage)
- Protect LGBTQ+ Health (Restore non-discriminatory protections for LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV/AIDS)
- Strengthen and Support the Health Care Workforce. ($15 minimum wage and unionization)
- Invest in Health Science and Research (increased and sustainable funding)
- PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND BUILDING TRUST BY REFORMING OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
- End police brutality, end mass incarceration, end the school to prison pipeline, end the War on Drugs, hold people accountable, make data available, increase diversity in the police force, treat substance abuse as a disease, treat adolescents differently from adults, end cash bail and imprisonment and drivers license revocation for failure to pay fines. Increase the number of judges, work to end mandatory minimum sentences, end type of cocaine discrimination, end private prisons, and develop ways to welcome people back from prison.
- HEALING THE SOUL OF AMERICA (American moral obligations)
- Protect Americans’ Civil Rights (end racial and religious discrimination and profiling, restore the Voting Rights Act.)
- Achieve Racial Justice and Equity (embed racial justice in every element of governing, eliminate government symbols of racism, and find ways to eliminate the income gap and wealth gaps)
- Protect Women’s Rights (end pay inequality and ensure the right to women’s health services)
- Protect LGBTQ+ Rights (outlaw discrimination in areas ranging from access to credit to jury service, ensure mental health services and ban conversion therapy, protect LGBTQ+ people from homelessness)
- Protect Disability Rights (Expand support services, phase out subminimum wages, and develop helpful technologies)
- Honor Indigenous Tribal Nations (Restore tribal lands, expand tribal authority, and ensure satisfactory health care and protections, such as the Violence Against Women Act. Invest in education, housing, and economic development. Support Native Americans not living on reservations.)
- End Violence Against Women (Reenact the Violence Against Women Act and expand resources for victims of violence)
- End the Epidemic of Gun Violence (Study gun violence as a public health issue, enact universal background checks, end online sales of guns and ammunition, end loopholes that allow dangerous people to have guns, and require safe storage of guns in homes.)
- Support Faith and Service (Protection for Houses of Worship and combat hate crimes.)
- Support Press Freedom (A particular concern about media corporate consolidation)
- Support the Arts and Culture (Fund NEH and NEA and arts in schools)
- COMBATING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PURSUING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
- Build a green energy economy
- Ensure equity in this effort and benefit disadvantaged and front-line communities
- Achieve net zero greenhouse gas admissions through
- Wind, Solar, retrofit, new infrastructure
- Address agriculture
- Reverse Trump administration roll backs
- Clean air, clean water, and freedom from toxic waste
- Professionalize FEMA
- Support workers’ health
- Protect public lands
- Build a green energy economy
- RESTORING AND STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY
- Protect and Enforce Voting Rights
- Every person should have the right to vote.
- Oppose onerous voter ID laws and excessive voter roll purges
- Ensure easy access to voting: no long lines, no fees, professional vote staff, and ensure all votes are counted
- Restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act
- Make Election Day a National Holiday
- End gerrymandering
- End interference in elections from foreign and domestic enemies
- Provide necessary technology
- Every person should have the right to vote.
- Reform the Broken Campaign Finance System
- Support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United
- Create a federal match for small donors
- Require full disclosure of all political donations
- Build and Effective and Transparent Federal Government
- Establish a federal ethics commission
- Require candidates for federal office to disclose 10 years of taxes
- Re-empower and restore independent inspector generals
- Structural Court Reforms
- Make Washington DC the 51st State
- Guarantee Self-Determination for Puerto Rico
- Revise disaster relief and financial relief
- Support the US Territories
- Establish a Congressional Commission to ensure voting rights
- Reconsider disaster relief, health care and other government programs that should be serving the territories.
- Strengthen the US Postal Service
- Fight privatization
- Maintain service levels and restore those that have been eroded
- Repeal the “pre-fund” retiree mandate
- Support new revenue streams
- Protect and Enforce Voting Rights
- CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
- Right the Wrongs of the Trump Administration
- Rescind the fake national emergency authorizing the wall construction
- Terminate travel bans
- Provide protections for Dreamers and parents of American citizens
- Set family unity as a guiding principle
- Provide a road map for remaining to the undocumented who have been here for an extended period of time
- Ensure that enforcement mechanisms are humane and consistent with our values and international requirements
- Minimize detention and end for-profit detention
- End political pressure on immigration judges
- Address the root causes of immigration
- Right the Wrongs of the Trump Administration
- PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION IN EVERY ZIP CODE
- Guarantee Universal Early Childhood Education
- Pre-school for 3s and 4s, affordable child care for all children
- Support High Quality K-12 Education Across America
- Close K-12 funding gaps, triple Title I funding
- Expand free lunch
- Provide wrap around health care in schools
- Offer multiple pathways to success for students – career and tech ed, Magnet arts and science schools, IBA, and early college high schools.
- Improve professional development
- Ban for-profit charter schools and ensure charter schools serve needy children
- Desegregate the increasingly segregated schools
- Ensure safe schools (safety from ICE, too)
- Ensure effective education of children with disabilities
- End the high stakes testing experiment
- Support educators with higher pay, rights to organize, and encourage people into the profession
- Make Higher Education Affordable and Accessible
- Make public colleges tuition free for most families
- Create a collegiate Title I type program to serve low-income students more effectively
- Address unfairness in higher education employment for adjuncts, graduate students, and lecturers.
- Restore opportunity for students from abroad
- Provide Borrowers Relief from Crushing Student Debt
- Authorize up to $10,000 relief from debt per student
- Pause monthly billing and accrual of interest for students earning $25,000 or less
- Forgive, without tax liability, student loan debt after 20 years.
- Make the Public Service loan forgiveness routine and retroactive
- Guarantee Universal Early Childhood Education
- RENEWING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP
- Revitalize American Diplomacy
- Rebuild America’s Tool of First Resort (Rely on an agile and flexible state department rather than military solutions)
- Reinvent Alliances. (old partnerships like NATO and new ones throughout the world)
- International Institutions (rejoin and reform WHO, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Population Fund)
- Foreign Assistance and Development (Strengthen the US Agency for International Development, reaffirm a commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and support private sector coordination)
- Transform Our Armed Forces for the 21st
- End Forever Wars
- Secure Our Competitive Edge (Develop platforms that are agile and flexible)
- Defense Spending (Spend effectively to allow spending less.)
- Keep Faith with Veterans (End the transgender ban, root out racism, end military deportation, reunite military who have been departed with their families, and ensure veterans’ path to citizenship. Revitalize the VA.)
- Civil-Military Relations (Explain legal and policy justifications for military operations regularly)
- Mobilize the World to Address Transnational Challenges
- Global Health and Pandemics (Revitalize and expand existing agencies. Establish a Global Health Security Board and fully resource WHO)
- Climate Change (Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, convene a new world summit on the topic, recommit to the Green Climate Fund, stop China and others from outsourcing pollution, and work toward a more sustainable planet.)
- Technology (Recommit to net neutrality and an open internet, oppose efforts to silo off individual countries, preserve the openness of democratic countries and identify disinformation. Protect the privacy of data. Ensure that biotechnology is a force for global good.)
- Nonproliferation (Prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Maintain a strong nuclear deterrent.)
- Terrorism (Focus on counter-terrorism against Islamicist, white nationalist and other terrorists. Prioritize diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence tools. Close the Guantanamo detention center.)
- Democracy and Human Rights. (The fight for human rights and human dignity, a civil society and a free press begins at home. Goals include gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, freedom of religion, freedom from ethnic oppression, labor standards, protection for indigenous peoples and under-represented communities, and an end to human trafficking and to torture.
- Advance American Interests
- Global Economy and Trade (Invest in American competitiveness before negotiating trade deals. Insist trade deals include enforceable standards for labor, human rights, and the environment. Enlist neighbors to stand up to China. Oppose corruption and use sanctions strategically.
- Africa (Revitalize partnerships, address the regions vulnerability to climate change and pandemics, and its persistent challenges – illicit financial flows, poor governance, and food, water, and health insecurity.
- Americas (Enforce existing trade agreements, address the root causes of migration – violence and insecurity, weak rule of law, lack of educational and economic opportunity, pervasive corruption, and environmental degradation.)
- Asia-Pacific (Maintain regional alliances and contain N. Koria. Meet China’s primarily cultural and economic challenge – against which a democratic America based on the rule of law is well suited to compete. Meet China’s military challenges in the South China Sea and the straits of Taiwan as well.)
- Europe (Understand Russia as a strategic rival, not a strategic partner; restore the European alliance as central on the US’s influence on the world, and encourage the growth of democracy.)
- Middle East (Move from military confrontation to diplomacy, restore the Iran agreement and continue diplomacy with Iran, complete the defeat of ISIS, stand by the Kurds, protect human rights in Syria, and promote stability in Lebanon. Maintain the US’s permanent commitment to Israel while seeking to negotiate a two-state solution to the differences between Israel and the Palestinians. Oppose efforts to single out Israel unfairly or to delegitimize Israel through BDS, while protecting Americans’ right to free speech.
- Revitalize American Diplomacy