Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday said he has prepared for a fight on the floor at July’s Democratic National Convention to be held in Philadelphia, if the Democrats do not take stances that are more progressive on trade, climate change, minimum wage and other issues he supports.
The senator from Vermont said there were a number of very good and progressive provisions within the document that was approved in St. Louis on Saturday by the Platform Drafting Committee that consists of 15 members including supporters for both Sanders and Hillary Clinton the presumptive president nominee for the party.
However, Sanders and his many supporters will work with environmental, human rights and labor groups requesting amendments be made when the draft goes to be approval by the full Platform Committee of 187 members on July 8 and 9 in Orlando.
Sanders has acknowledged that it would be much easier if the changes he wants were adopted in July in Orlando. A fight on the floor of the convention could possibly prolong it and require debates followed by voting. When asked if that would bother him he seemed not to mind.
Sanders announced this week he would vote for Clinton, but he has yet to endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee or even conceded his attempt to win the nomination.
He won close to 45% of the delegates that were pledged in state caucuses and primaries, which gives him sufficient representation on the platform committee of the party to file a minority report or even dissents from position help by the conventions majority of delegates.
Rules in the Democratic Party allow for the minority reports when requested from members that represent at least 25% of the votes on the conventions credentials, rules committee and platform.
The thing most important to the Vermont senator he said was that the platform is opposed to a vote by Congress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a proposed trade pact by 12 nations he said would end in disastrous consequences for workers in the U.S. and for the environment.
Supporters of Clinton on the party’s drafting committee rejected the amendment by one of the supporters of Sanders last weekend.
Both Sanders and Clinton opposed the TPP through the primaries and an official with the Clinton campaign said she continues to oppose it.
