The platform committee of the Democratic National Committee will take the proposal on Monday.
“Support for Medicare for all has never been mentioned on a Democratic Party platform. Their inclusion is now significant, ”said Analilia Mejia, Sanders policy director, who spearheaded the Vermont senator’s strategy on the platform’s drafting committee. “The way we approach our movement is sometimes making big and rapid changes, and sometimes it requires smaller gains that ultimately transform the discourse.”
The most controversial debates between moderates and progressives in drafting the platform were about health care, criminal justice reform and Israel, according to people involved in the process. Although their deliberations both on the panel and in the working groups were more hidden from public view compared to 2016, when the intraparty conflict was showcased in national meetings on the Democratic agenda, the opposing party flanks still fought this year even for minor editorial changes.
For example, Sanders’ aides tried to pressure moderates to remove language from the platform about the right to “affordable” healthcare, preferring instead to emphasize the right to simply receive healthcare, people on the committee said. They were largely unsuccessful.
However, progressives earned a positive mention of Medicare for all, despite Biden’s opposition to the idea. Sanders staff said that furthers their goal of standardizing single-payer health care.
“Generations of Democrats have joined in the fight for universal health care,” says the draft. “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 to ensuring that healthcare is a human right. “
Andrew Bates, Biden’s rapid response director, said the line reflects the comments Biden made in an attempt to dabble with Sanders’ supporters after the nomination actually ended earlier this year.
“On March 10, when Joe Biden delivered his speech in Philadelphia, he contacted sponsors of other candidates and has not stopped since then,” he said. “Of course, we welcome supporters of Medicare for All, and everyone who wants to get more health care for Americans and prevent Donald Trump from costing tens of millions of his coverage.”
Sanders’ aides see the drafting committee as part of a multi-step process, which also included the “unity” task forces they formed with Biden, to push the former vice president and the Democratic Party to the left this year.
They anticipate that there will be more lobbying, including on foreign policy, in the coming days among platform committee members. Progressives on that panel are considering pushing amendments to support the legalization of marijuana and underfunding the police, which Biden opposes, as well as changes involving Israel.
Sanders himself is also pushing for the DNC to re-adopt the party reforms it supported in 2016, including a diminished role for superdelegates preventing them from voting on the first vote, said Faiz Shakir, Sanders 2020 campaign manager.
Three of Sanders’ current and former aides: Mejia, Senior Advisor Josh Orton, and Heather Gautney, a former senior policy adviser, was on the drafting committee for the 15-person platform. Shakir and Jeff Weaver, their longtime senior advisor, also worked with them to influence the platform.
Progressives said they successfully lobbied for a more explicit promise to increase Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing coverage on the platform. The draft states that “Democrats will fight any effort to reduce Medicare benefits and support the search for financially sustainable policies to expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing services.” The task force’s recommendations said that “coverage gaps such as dental, vision and hearing services can have serious health consequences for Medicare patients” and Democrats “will fill the coverage gaps.”
The Sanders team also requested and received a mention on the platform about endorsing an “updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall”, something the working groups did not mention. An investment bank previously told clients in a report that the working groups “did not propose breaking the big banks,” and that their recommendations were “light on detail” and “positive.”
But progressives again failed, as they had in the task forces, in trying to persuade drafting committee moderates to support the legalization of marijuana and end “qualified immunity,” a legal doctrine that prevents Law enforcement officials are sued for misconduct.
Sanders employees also pointed to anti-interventionist language in the draft as a victory, particularly compared to the platform’s 2016 foreign policy proposals, which they deemed too hawkish. “Democrats believe that the United States should not impose regime change on other countries and reject it as the goal of US policy toward Iran,” the 2020 document read.
Another achievement for the left is the opposition of the project to the expansion of settlements in Israel. The left wing tried and failed to include that on the party platform in 2016, said James Zogby, president of the American Arab Institute and an ally of Sanders who served on the DNC’s Unit Reform Commission that year.
Progressives said discussions on the platform section on world affairs were less heated this time than four years ago.
“Partly because of the Trump war and partly because of the committee’s work, the 2020 platform has moved significantly” left on foreign policy since 2016, an assistant to Sanders said.
However, Sanders’ staff failed to persuade moderates to include on the platform a reference to Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank, as well as a call to impose conditions for military aid to the country. Instead, the platform’s draft said a 2016 vote by former President Barack Obama to provide assistance to Israel is “irresistible.”
In a demonstration of the commitment behind the document, it reads: “We oppose any effort to unfairly identify and delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, while protecting the constitutional right to our citizens to freedom of expression. “
Progressives saw it as a step forward.
“It is a statement of personal preference on the part of whoever wrote the draft, but affirmation of the fact that everyone has the right to do so. The second clause overrides the first clause, making it a victory, “said Zogby.” It’s like the Republican platform that says, ‘We are against abortion, but all women have the right to choose.’ “
