IT'S NOT A PROGRESSIVE PARTY:

Few process­es are giv­en more impor­tance, yet are as arcane and opaque, as the writ­ing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty plat­form. Osten­si­bly the pol­i­cy agen­da of the next Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­dent (and the par­ty as a whole), the plat­form is the result of hours of intense debate and nego­ti­a­tion between some­times con­tentious fac­tions of com­pet­ing polit­i­cal inter­ests. It is also, more often than not, writ­ten by the winners. 

This year, those win­ners aren't only for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic estab­lish­ment -- but the Oba­ma wing of that establishment.

Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma installed his labor sec­re­tary, Tom Perez, as the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee (DNC) chair in Feb­ru­ary 2017. A close look at Perez's nom­i­nees to the 2020 plat­form com­mit­tees sug­gests the par­ty will adhere to Obama's incre­men­tal­ist vision of pol­i­tics, one that stands in stark con­trast to the bold push for change advo­cat­ed by run­ner-up Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑Vt.) and his supporters. 

Now, with the Sanders-Biden uni­ty task forces hav­ing wrapped up and issued their rec­om­men­da­tions, what hap­pens from here is in their hands. One Wall Street advi­so­ry firm is already declar­ing a vic­to­ry for cor­po­rate Amer­i­ca, call­ing the 110-page doc­u­ment ​"a very suc­cess­ful effort by Biden and his team to con­trol the nar­ra­tive and pol­i­cy direc­tion, while mak­ing just enough con­ces­sions to the pro­gres­sive wing to avoid an open rift in the party." 

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