Democrats reward Sanders with Left-leaning election manifesto
THE Democrats have revealed Bernie Sanders’s prize for running such a vigorous presidential campaign: a draft election platform that shifts the party to the Left, advocating a rise in the minimum wage, breaking up big banks and abolishing the death penalty.
The Left-ward lurch reflects growing concern that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, could outflank the Democratic Party with his populist attacks on Hillary Clinton and her ties to Wall Street.
On Friday, Mr Sanders said he would vote for Mrs Clinton in the general election but has so far refused to concede defeat in the race.
The self-styled socialist senator from Vermont surprised many in the party by the way he electrified supporters with his calls for a radical shake-up of the United States, collecting millions of votes and winning 23 states against the overwhelming favourite.
The draft will be put to party officials at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next month and lays the foundations for forthcoming elections at local and national level.
It calls for the expansion of Social Security and says Americans should earn at least $15 (£11) an hour, both key elements of Mr Sanders’s campaign.
Mr Sanders said: “Our job is to pass the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party.”
However, his supporters were thwarted in attempts to include proposals for free healthcare for all and an end to “Israeli occupation” of Palestinian territory in the draft.
The efforts to unite the two wings of the party came at the end of a week in which Mr Trump also attempted to woo grumbling Republican officials and reset his stumbling campaign by outlining the strategy he will use against Mrs Clinton.
Since clinching the votes he needs for the Republican nomination, he has faltered repeatedly, allowing his rival to open a double-digit lead in opinion polls published this week. Financial figures also showed that Mr Trump entered June with a war chest of $1.3 million, against Mrs Clinton’s $41 million.
The result is near panic among key Republicans in 10 crucial swing states, according to focus group discussions held by Politico magazine.
“The fundraising numbers simply highlight what most already know: this is not a serious candidate,” said a New Hampshire Republican. “He is not a serious thinker. He does not have a serious campaign operation. He does not have a serious policy plan. And he is very clearly not a serious fundraiser.”
On Wednesday, before a supportive audience at one of his New York hotels, Mr Trump attempted to reverse the slide, aligning himself with a wave of anger at political elites around the world that in the past week delivered Rome to the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and put Britain on the road out of the European Union.
“This election will decide whether we’re ruled by the people or the politicians,” he said.
He also used inflammatory language to describe Mrs Clinton as a failed Secretary of State, who was out of touch with the country. “No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton,” he said. “Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.”
Jeanne Zaino, political scientist at Iona College in New York State, said the speech was filled with policy initiatives, from toughening immigration controls to reworking trade agreements, that would resonate with Republicans. “Then, of course, there’s nothing to bring Republicans together like attacking the Clintons,” she said.