Opinion

Why the Democratic party platform matters

Party platforms reveal the balance of forces of political debate within the major parties. So, what does the Democratic Party platform tell us about the party in 2020?

Does the Democratic Party’s platform actually matter? In April, I asked Arab American Institute co-founder James Zogby exactly that. He was part of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns in the 80s and was a member of Bernie Sanders’s committee to draft the Democratic Party platform in 2016. 

“There are two measures that I look at historically. One is where public opinion is and, for that, I turn to polling. The other is where the balance of forces are in the actual political debate within the two major parties. For that, you look at the platforms,” Zogby told me.

So, let’s apply The Zogby Test to the 2020 Democratic Party. Before we get to the platform, let’s start with the polling. A 2019 Center for American Progress poll found that 56% of American voters support conditioning U.S. aid to Israel if the country continues to expand its settlements or annexes portions of the West Bank. Apply that to just Democratic voters and the numbers go way up: 71% say they want aid to be conditioned.

Data for Progress also polled voters on the question of conditioning aid last year. They didn’t end up with numbers as high as the Center for American Progress did, but their survey also found that a majority of Democratic voters support the policy.

What about BDS? Since the campaign began in the mid-2000s, it’s been derided by many as a foolhardy endeavor that will never make a dent on mainstream society. Last year, Nation columnist Eric Alterman wrote an op-ed for the New York Times mockingly titled, “Does Anyone Take the B.D.S. Movement Seriously?”

It turns out an increasing number of Democratic voters take it seriously. A University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll from January asked 3,016 people about BDS and found 49% of them had heard of the movement. Of the Democrats who had heard of it, 48% said that they “strongly or somewhat” support BDS. 80% of the Democrats surveyed said that they opposed anti-BDS laws. Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, summarized the polls findings when it was released. “For a few years now, the polls have consistently shown a majority of Democrats wanting to take action against Israeli settlements, including imposing sanctions, while Republicans and independents wanted to do nothing or limit opposition to words. But until this fall, I had not asked directly about the BDS movement, as it was not on the radar screen of most Americans. However, the recent debates in Congress and elsewhere have raised the profile of the issue,” he wrote.

So, that’s the base of the party. Broad support for conditioning military aid to Israel and an increasing awareness about BDS that is leading to more and more support for the movement.

Now let’s look at the platform. “Where the balance of forces are in the actual political debate within the two major parties,” as Zogby says. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee rejected a motion to condition aid to Israel and add the word “occupation” to the platform. The vote wasn’t even particularly close. It failed 34-117, with five delegates abstaining.

The amendment was introduced by Bernie Sanders delegate, and executive director of Our Revolution’s Illinois chapter, Clem Balanoff. “At a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans have been marching in our streets – and many of you on this call – for equality and civil rights, it is unconscionable for the Democratic Party not to speak truthfully to the Palestinians efforts to secure those same rights,” he said.

During the meeting, former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, and former undersecretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, both made remarks opposing the amendment. Sherman declared that the $3.8 billion that Israel gets from the U.S. every year is “a mutually beneficial investment, one that protects Israel against very real threats and helps promote security and stability in a region where we know all too well the cost of insecurity and instability.”

Shapiro spoke of the need to speak with one voice during the meeting. After the vote he tweeted, “We’re a diverse party, and many views are heard, but Democrats are unified around these principles.”

Who is possibly buying this? Every poll on the subject shows that the Democratic establishment is completely out of step with the people who actually vote for them. Not just on the issue of Israel, but on a score of others. Motions endorsing Medicare for All and one calling for the federal legalization of pot were also voted down, despite being widely popular among the Democratic electorate.

As Josh Ruebner reports at our site, Balanoff’s proposed amendment was actually a watered down version of a much stronger motion authored by Palestinian-American delegates. This one included conditioned aid, an end to the occupation, an end to settlement expansion, Palestinian rights to Jerusalem, and an assertion of equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

“Their amendment language was duly submitted to the DNC by a Sanders delegate to the platform committee but was not brought up for a vote. It is unclear what happened to this amendment language, as determinations about amendments happen behind closed doors, but its omission from the process further reinforced the marginalization of Palestinian-American voices,” explains Ruebner.

None of these developments are particularly surprising, but as the disconnect on this issue grows deeper, the Dems are about to nominate a presidential candidate who finds the very concept of conditioning aid “outrageous.” The polls currently look good for Biden (although who knows what the Trump administration is capable of this November), but 2021 won’t look like 2009. He’ll be presiding over a country with a stronger BDS movement, a two-state solution consensus that’s obviously cracking, and population whose support for Israel continues to dwindle.

This was an excerpt from our weekly politics newsletter, The Shift, where Michael Arria takes you to the front lines in the battle over Palestine in the United States.

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https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/federal-debt-tops-26-trillion-first-time-jumps-2-trillion-just
 
U.S. “Federal Debt Tops $26 Trillion for First Time; Jumps $2 Trillion in Just 63 Days” CNS News, June 10/20, by Terrence P. Jeffrey

To state the obvious, the U.S. is in accelerating decline financially and in international influence while the value of its dollar is dropping and the average American’s standard of living is in free fall. 

Meanwhile, “Israel,” the expansionist, racist, illegal/brutal occupier and ethnic cleanser of the indigenous Palestinians has always been an historical anachronism, a huge burden for the U.S., including creating enemies, (e.g., 9/11) and a leach on its taxpayers. 

Ever increasing taxpayer provided financial aid is now about $12 million per day for a total of well over $134.7 billion since 1948. At the same time, rapidly growing numbers of Americans, young and old, including Jews, are becoming disgusted with and enraged at Zionist “Israel’s” well documented and accelerating crimes committed every day against the essentially defenseless indigenous Palestinians.

As history attests, sooner or later, all nations act in their own best interests and the U.S. will not be an exception. Colonialist settler states always become an unmanageable burden, e.g., France abandoned Algeria, Britain dumped Rhodesia, Italy ceased propping up Libya and Ethiopia and Belgium said ‘good-bye’ to the Congo. 

Inevitably, as its citizens grasp the ugly truth about their colony, America will have no option other than to end its “special relationship” with Israel. It’s only a matter of time. The 2024 election will prove to be a major milestone.

Meanwhile, during an accelerating major U.S. financial crisis, “Israel” continues to play American taxpayers for suckers!!

https://israelpalestinenews.org/congress-passes-legislation-to-expend-19-million-day-on-behalf-of-israel/?utm_source=If+Americans+Knew+Subscribers&utm_campaign=1ffdd31abb-IAK_Daily_Updates&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_492062bf3f-1ffdd31abb-79059701
“Congress passes legislation to expend $19 million/day on behalf of Israel”

While some Americans know that the U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day ($7,000 per minute), they may be unaware that additional spending on behalf of Israel significantly increases the cost to American taxpayers…”

By Alison Weir, If Americans Knew, Israel-Palestine News, July 31/20

EXCERPT:
“Congress has just passed legislation to expend over $7.03 billion in 2021 on behalf of Israel. If signed into law, as expected, this will cost American taxpayers over $19 million per day.

“This comes in the midst of coronavirus hits to a fragile US economy, and despite Israel’s long record of human rights violations, causing hostility against the United States, Israel’s actions against the US, and the fact that most Americans feel the US gives Israel too much money (on average, 7,000 times more per capita than to others around the world).

“Spending for Israel takes two forms: some expenditures go directly to Israel; others go to different countries and projects because they benefit Israel.

“As eminent economist Thomas Stauffer has written: ‘Protection of Israel and subsidies to countries willing to sign peace treaties with Israel, such as Egypt and Jordan, has been the prime driver of U.S. outlays.'”

My name is Jose Torres. I’m a citizen of the USA – 2nd generation, of Mexican & Spanish descent. My parents are educators, so I’m historically, geographically, & culturally aware of the world, in addition to being a graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

This article seems to be explaining context of the Democratic platform to your readership, whom I assume are Palestinian-aligned people worldwide. Yes?

The analysis in this article seems to guess at what the Democratic party’s thinking is and is not from outside of a fishbowl. I’d be happy to help build deeper understanding amongst our two peoples – facilitating communication & enriching the political analysis of the USA.

Here’s a fundamental truth about American politics: If the group doesn’t show up at the ballot box, its influence is zero. Or its influence on American politics is proportional to the votes that show up at the ballot box.

For proof, read Robert Caro’s books on the USA president Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson knew that if Black Americans were given the right to vote, they would get basic services, and the basic elements of their lives would improve.

My grandparents lives probably improved as a result of LBJ’s work. But mostly, Hispanic people in the USA don’t vote – not enough, or in enough concentration – to really move the needle.

So – Palestinians – if that even is the right name – Muscle up some votes. Or allies that do vote. (and don’t use Sanders. Bleh!!! – as a Democrat)

@JoseTorresAZ5 on Twitter

It turns out an increasing number of Democratic voters take it seriously.”

So effing what? There’s a lot of other things they take seriously, too, and these will never materialize, either.

For the umpteenth time, give me one (1) single, teeny clear example of a case when the “increasing number of Democratic voters” or any of the peóns have ever achieved to change anything at all against the wishes and interests of the owners of this “Part”, main administrative organ of US imperialism. Call it ruling class, call it “out-of-sight upper class” or whatever you want. Until now, only fake gestures about things that do not touch their empire and war interests have ever been allowed, like going public about what you do with your weewee or renaming army camps or pulling down statues — but not war and empire.

Only when the Democrat and Publican “parties” are razed to the ground and salt sown in their foundations will this ïncreasing number of voters’ get a chance to impel any serious change, and you know it