The Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee has completed its draft platform – the full Platform Committee will meet in Orlando on July 8-9 from 8 am to 4 pm, and you can still submit comments at the Democratic Convention Platform site. Also, here’s a DNC summary of the Draft Platform.
The part on trade agreements is good. It addresses some of the legitimate concerns people have regarding trade agreements.
Recognizing that no deal is perfect, I think it should also discuss that we need to provide resources (job training, etc), for those impacted.
In addition to covering some of the problems of trade deals, it should point out the benefits, such as the many thousands of dollars that people save every year in costs of consumer goods, money that re-enters the economy and creates more jobs. Also the fact that 1 Billion people around the world have been lifted out of abject poverty in the past quarter century due to global trade highlights the progressive values of the Democratic party.
The Democratic Party opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty
In November 2015, after seven years of close-door negotiations with the public, press and policymakers locked out, the final TPP text was released. Although it is called a “trade” agreement, the TPP is not mainly about trade. Of TPP’s 30 chapters, only six deal with traditional trade issues. Instead, it represents corporate demands to the detriment of the public interest. The text reveals that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S. wages. If passed, the TPP would:
1. make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequality;
2. flood our country with unsafe imported food;
3. jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market;
4. empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards;
5. ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs;
6. roll back Wall Street reforms;
7. sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom;
8. and undermine human rights.*
*From Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy
Americans want the United States to lead and be engaged in the world, but are wary of overzealous intervention and want to see a coherent, proactive vision for how America will lead and when we will act. Progressive principles to guide US foreign policy and Congress’ foreign policy agenda that we support include:
1. The United States needs a new Marshall Plan for at-risk regions.
2. The United States is strongest when it works with partners and allies.
3. When we send U.S. service members to fight, the United States must always have clear goals and exit strategies, act only with congressional authorization, and uphold its commitment to care for every serviceman and woman when they return.
4. When military action is deemed necessary for reasons other than self-defense, it should serve as a shaping mechanism for local political solutions. If there is no achievable political solution on the ground, it should cause Congress to question the wisdom of the proposed military action.
5. Covert actions such as mass surveillance and large-scale CIA lethal operations must be constrained. The dramatic expansion of the U.S. intelligence apparatus after 9/11, largely unseen and unchecked, requires greater oversight and restraint. Decisions about surveillance, lethal drone strikes, and interrogation techniques must be made in the light of day with greater congressional oversight.
6. The United States should practice what it preaches regarding civil and human rights, and defend its values internationally. America’s reputation as a beacon of freedom and opportunity is a powerful asset. Inadequate respect for civil rights domestically robs from the United States the moral authority to root out abuses and corruption overseas. Actions abroad that are illegal under U.S. law and out of step with American values, such as torture, must be prohibited.
7. The United States’ strength abroad is rooted in its strength at home. As we engage with the rest of the world, we must also recognize that America’s ability to project strength abroad depends on a thriving, prosperous foundation at home. How can the United States preach economic empowerment overseas if millions of Americans feel economically hopeless? If Washington is to maintain credible U.S. global leadership, the United States need significant new investments in infrastructure and education, and new policies to address the stagnant incomes and rising costs that are crippling too many American families.
8. Climate change presents an immediate threat to the world, and the United States must rigorously address this crisis. In 2007, a group of 11 retired three-star and four-star admirals and generals unequivocally stated that climate change is a “significant national security challenge” that can serve as a “threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.”*
*From “Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy,” a June 8, 2015 Foreign Affairs Magazine snapshot article
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-06-08/principles-progressive-foreign-policy
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