Extra

News analysis of first two days of the DNC

A thunder and lightning storm raged on over Philadelphia Monday night as feelings and factions in the Democratic Party ebbed and flowed, if not to healing at least toward tolerance. Packed tightly into the Wells Fargo Center, the DNC stage line-up on the first night of the convention consisted of arguably the party’s best rhetorical set of speakers. 

It was an all-star team from the center left—FLOTUS Michelle Obama, N.J. Sen., Corey Booker, Mass. Sen., Elizabeth Warren, and ending with, Bernie Sanders, still a presidential candidate in what was perhaps his political send-off,. While many of the more than nineteen hundred Bernie Sanders supporters hooted, catcalled, and chanted the name of their candidate throughout the night, the strategy on the part of mainstream Democrats was to make their left flank, Warren and Sanders, feel comfortable and loved by employing a big tent attitude. The applause for all four speakers was remarkably loud and exuberant, and in marked contrast to the divisive scenes that have unfolded here since Sunday. 

Sanders supporters marched Sunday in two large rallies through the streets of Philadelphia, making it clear that Bernie backers were not going down without a fight. Thousands of “Bernie or Bust” activists, a youthful army supported by hundreds of gray-haired peace and justice activists, took to the streets advocating for bread and butter progressive issues. In multiple interviews with marchers what seemed to matter most to them, not being sufficiently addressed by the Democratic National Committee, or at all in the party platform, were the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a ban on fracking, publicly financed elections, more stringent climate change rules, and single-payer healthcare. Most of the marchers interviewed were articulate, focused and united in their passion for Bernie Sanders’ agenda, yet disappointed he did not wait until the convention roll call vote tonight before endorsing Hillary Clinton. 

Daniel Hanley, 34, is a software developer and fitness instructor. He had just finished the 12-hour drive from Atlanta, Georgia in a van with eight others including three Sanders delegates. He was looking for coffee at Starbucks on Sunday morning. “I’ve slept one hour,” he said. Philadelphia is “a convergence of people who are deeply outraged.” 

About what? 

Kia Hinton, a community organizer is mad about our continued reliance on “dirty energy, we have to go a different way,” she says. “Bernie made space to hear people, he listens to Black Lives Matter too.” 

Peter Lumsdaine, 61, from the state of Washington, made Philadelphia a stopover on his family’s vacation just to be here. He said, “Personally my central concern is the destruction of the environment and the marginalization of poor people that’s occurred.” 

Well over 4000 demonstrators took to the streets in a “People’s Climate March,” demanding immediate action on climate change and also advocating for Bernie Sanders. Mara Heilker, 39 from Charlotte, N.C. said she’s “expecting major changes in the Democratic party” and hopes that this convention will be the end of super-delegates. Dion Lerman of Philadelphia held peace-keeping training sessions for marchers. He says you can’t create a revolution through a political party. “A revolution comes from people,” he said, “and people taking the power from entrenched authority.” 

While the climate march left from the back of Philadelphia’s city hall, another march, “Shut Down the DNC,” was assembling at the front. This march was filled with more outspoken Bernie supporters than those in the climate march, and was a bit smaller. A little over 3000 were counted by this reporter. 

FDR Park is six miles from Philadelphia city hall and a few hundred feet from where the DNC is meeting. Martha Wildy from Vancouver, Washington, was there only to praise Bernie She said this was “one of my last opportunities to show him I admire him. What’s important is that we take this home to our local politicians.” 

Silvia Mauer, an immigrant from Germany came from Kendall, Wisconsin. She is voting in her first election, but said she “doesn’t like [her] choices for president.” She will vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, she said. 

Joe Ferraro, who runs a computer company in Audubon, Pa. says he can’t vote for Hillary because of her 2002 war vote, and besides that “I think there’s enough people who are pissed off about the cheating, you know, the WikiLeaks story?” 

To make matters worse for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, on the minds of many Sanders supporters was the WikiLeaks document dump of 20,000 DNC emails last Friday. Several of these emails seem to indicate to these people that the DNC conducted a dirty tricks campaign against Sanders. With events moving quickly, just before these rallies started came the news that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC chair, had resigned, which they took as evidence that she participated in undermining the Sanders campaign. Many protesters said they suspected a DNC plot against their candidate long before the scandal broke. 

Then on Monday at the California delegates’ breakfast Bernie supporters began to shout down elected officials who were actively endorsing Hillary Clinton. As each breakfast speaker brought up the name of Hillary Clinton, Sanders delegates rose to their feet and broke into chants of “Bernie, Bernie.” Even Rep. Barbara Lee of Berkeley, arguably the most liberal member of congress, was not immune, and when she asked delegates to join her in voting for Clinton, dozens of Sanders supporters rose to their feet shouting “Bernie, Bernie.” 

But the most ire was directed at California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla who is in charge of elections. Bernie supporters contend that over a million California votes were not counted in the presidential primary. The voices became even louder. “Count our votes, count our votes,” they chanted over and over. 

When asked later about the Bernie supporters’ outburst, Lee seemed unfazed. She told the Planet, “It comes with the territory. I did not endorse Clinton or Sanders in the primary and I worked hard on the platform committee to embrace the most progressive positions,” she said. “It’s the most progressive platform in our nation’s history,” Lee added. 

Bob Mulholland, an adviser to the California Democratic Party and one of Clinton’s superdelegates, witnessed the brouhaha. “No delegate is worth their salt if they don’t speak up for their candidate,” he said, “but no Sanders delegate should get in the face of other delegates.” 

Rep. Maxine Waters from Los Angeles was more sanguine. “In a setting like this you get a chance to do that (protest),” she said. Mulholland added, “Look, the voters decide…she has three and a half million more voters than Sanders.” 

On Monday afternoon, before his convention speech that evening, Sanders met with his pledged delegates. “The Bernie meeting was notable,” said an alternate delegate who had slipped into the delegates-only meeting told the Planet off the record. “There was a high level of enthusiasm until he said he was voting for Hillary, and then he was booed quite loudly.” 

The booing and chanting of “Bernie, Bernie?” was consistent, and at times quite passionate during the evening convention session. Often throughout the night when Clinton’s name was mentioned the chanting began in earnest. But because there are 4, 764 delegates, Bernie’s 1900 are spread throughout the arena, and as a result there was never a coalescing of voices to clearly disrupt podium speakers. Although Sanders was not booed inside the DNC last night during his lengthy and well-received speech, he was jeered today when he addressed California delegates. 

He was a surprise guest at the same breakfast that a day earlier saw loud chants and boos from many of his California delegates. While he was warmly received when first announced today, some of his words were not. “Elections come and go, and our immediate task is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton,” he said and the boos started in earnest again. 

Sanders paused for a moment and shot back, “In my view, it’s easy to boo but it is harder to look your kids in the face when they are living under a Donald Trump presidency.” He finally added, “What a political revolution means is that we keep going. 

Later, the Planet caught up with pioneer civil rights activist, Rep. John Lewis from Georgia. Lewis told the Planet, “Every voter should make his or her vote count. If you vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson you are throwing your vote away.” 

In interviews with some Sanders delegates today, they said that they were firm, that the protests would continue. Their demands continue to be, according to a dozen interviewed after this morning’s breakfast, to get rid of the superdelegate process, put language that opposes the Transpacific Partnership (TTP) trade agreement into the party platform, to ban fracking nationwide, to institute single-payer healthcare, and to rein in Wall Street. In addition, Sanders supporters also were discouraged by the choice of Virginia Gov., Tim Kaine for vice-president, but seem to believe organized opposition would be futile now. 

Perhaps Mulholland, the long-time advisor to the Democratic Party, characterized the turbulent presidential process best when he said in an interview on the convention floor last night that running for President of the United States was like climbing Mount Everest. Six hikers start up the mountain and three die along the way he said. “Do you stop? No, you want to reach the top, so you step over the dead bodies” and continue.