Organizers also said they are not dividing, but that it is the party leaders who are nullifying the bases they are dividing, they argued. They aim to come out of polls showing that the majority of Democratic primary voters in every state are in favor of Medicare for all.
“We are going to fight like hell for Biden. And there is no contradiction between doing that and supporting this promise,” said Solomon.
Whitmer said Sanders delegates in Nevada began circulating the pledge Thursday through Slack and delegate groups. Although he did not provide precise numbers, he said it is safe to say that a majority who signed up are Sanders delegates, although some Biden delegates also did. Activists hope that a significant number of Biden delegates will support the vote.
The promise announcement comes as President Donald Trump attempts to paint Biden as a “puppet of the radical left.” Your campaign has spent at least $ 14 million in a misleading ad saying that the police would be condemned by a Biden administration. The former vice president spoke out against the removal of the police almost as soon as it gained importance.
Last week, a DNC committee launched a platform project that did not include support for Medicare for All or other progressive priorities like job guarantee or the “Green New Deal,” despite efforts by Sanders’ aides to include them as tables. Organizers are going public with the promise of Medicare for All now in part because they hope to influence the platform committee of the Democratic National Committee, which is taking the agenda on Monday. Whitmer said activists successfully persuaded a panel member to submit an amendment to support the single payer.
The delegates’ promise to vote against a platform without Medicare for All represents a kind of divided strategy between Sanders and his most passionate supporters. After the moderates accused him of failing to do everything possible to convince his supporters to back Clinton in 2016, a charge he vehemently denied, the Vermont senator has taken several steps to unite the Democratic Party in this cycle.
Sanders established “unity” working groups with Biden, who published recommendations earlier this month. Progressives successfully lobbied Biden’s allies to move left on certain issues, such as climate change, immigration, and a nondeductible public option for health care. But they failed to persuade task force moderates to endorse marijuana legalization, end “qualified immunity,” or accept the single payer.
Sanders’ aides again tried to pressure centrists on the DNC draft committee to endorse Medicare for All, but they did not. However, they managed to insert a wink to the single payer on the platform.
“Generations of Democrats have joined in the fight for universal health care. We are proud that our group welcomes advocates who want to develop and strengthen the Affordable Care Act and those who support a Medicare for All approach; they are all critical in ensuring that medical care is a human right, ”the draft notes.
But some progressive activists were not impressed, pointing out to the more than 5 million people that liberal advocacy group Families USA said they lost their health insurance between February and May due to the coronavirus.
“Democrats who understand the deep need for Medicare for All do not want a pat on the head,” said Solomon. “We want a genuine political commitment to health care as a human right. Biden has not gotten there.
Solomon and others said they have a different role than Sanders and the working groups, and vice versa.
In a Zoom call with his delegates last week, Sanders said of the working groups: “Did we get everything we wanted? Obviously we didn’t. That is sure. But I think we reached agreements in all, in all of these areas. ”
He also urged his supporters to “engage in coalition policies with the goal of defeating Trump” and “to ensure that a Biden administration is the most progressive administration in modern American history.”
Whitmer said she wants the party platform to be a more bottom-up process.
“In the Democratic Party, there is an attitude that we have to write our platform to match the candidate and the candidate’s position,” he said. “We want to go back to the way it should be, which is the people who create the platform based on our values and principles, and what we want the candidate to support.”
