A leaked draft of the 2020 Democratic Party platform shows the party intends to focus heavily on identity politics as it moves forward to the November elections and beyond.
The document, which was obtained by Politico and published this week, also targets white Americans multiple times while implying the party will take up initiatives to level the playing field for non-white Americans.
Highlighting its support for the Black Lives Matter movement, the document recognizes national civil unrest, but makes no mention of the leftist groups which have attacked police officers and historical monuments.
“We will give hate no safe harbor. We will never amplify or legitimize the voices of bigotry, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or white supremacy,” the document says.
Furthermore, in the same paragraph, the platform draft commits the party to “the vision articulated by Frederick Douglass of ‘a Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all.’”
TRENDING: Regis Philbin Dead at Age 88
Ironically, a statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, was toppled by rioters earlier this month.
That information did not make it into the draft reported by Politico.
In a segment about building a “stronger, fairer economy,” the 2020 Democratic platform draft criticizes the U.S. in comparison to other countries, such as Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and goes after white households while invoking a supposed gender wage disparity.
“Women still earn just 82 cents to every dollar men earn, with even greater disparities for women of color. Median incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher for Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, compared to median white households,” the document states.
Do you think President Donald Trump will be re-elected?
“And there is a persistent, pernicious racial wealth gap that holds millions of Americans back, with the typical white household holding six times more wealth than the typical Latino family and 10 times more wealth than the typical Black family. President Trump’s recession threatens to deepen existing inequities.”
The document further portrays the U.S. as an inherently racist country, specifically with regard to wages.
“We cannot hope to raise wages without taking on the profound racial biases at work in our employment system,” it says.
“The wage gap between Black workers and white workers is higher today than it was 20 years ago. It takes a typical Black woman 19 months to earn what a typical white man earns in 12 months.”
The document capitalizes the words “Black” and “Latino,” though it does not capitalize the word “white.”
This is particularly evident when the platform draft discusses perceived health inequities among different ethnicities.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the uninsured rate was nearly three times higher for Latinos and nearly twice as high for Black Americans as it was for whites,” the draft says.
“Black children are far more likely than white children to suffer from asthma. Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Black Americans are diagnosed with diabetes at higher rates than whites.”
On the subject of “Healing the Soul of America,” Democrats vow to challenge “structural racism” by challenging the “extreme gap in household wealth and income between white and minority Americans.”
“Democrats recognize that racial wealth gaps are rooted in longstanding discrimination and unjust policies.”
The Democrats’ platform draft also promises to reform policing nationwide, systemically target “white nationalist terrorism,” protect the media and challenge the Second Amendment.
“Democrats will enact universal background checks, end online sales of guns and ammunition, close dangerous loopholes that currently allow stalkers and some individuals convicted of assault or battery to buy and possess firearms, and adequately fund the federal background check system,” the party says on the subject.
“Democrats will ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
“We will incentivize states to enact licensing requirements for owning firearms and ‘red flag’ laws that allow courts to temporarily remove guns from the possession of those who are a danger to themselves or others.”
The party also promises to enact legislation requiring firearms to be stored “safely,” and vows to make gun manufacturers civilly liable for crimes committed with firearms.
Politico reported the 2020 Democratic Party platform draft was created during several weeks of “a tug-of-war between moderates and progressives” in the party.
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
