Democratic Party

The Democratic Party in the United States is one of the political parties dominating the political sphere. They affiliate with the left side of the political spectrum.

The Democratic National Committee is the party's organization administration. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Mission

The Democratic Party has an agenda emphasizing more government involvement in American lives,"strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, open, honest and accountable government, and securing our nation while protecting our civil rights and liberties."

Communist Party infiltration of the Democratic Party

Communist Party USA plans to infiltrate and manipulate the Democratic Party can be illustrated by direct quotes from Communist Party literature.

In 1972, Gus Hall, then leader of the Communist Party USA, wrote in his book, "A Lame Duck in Turbulent Waters," describing what had been the long-time party policy:

Our electoral policy has for 25 years been expressed in the phrase, 'the three legs of a stool'....The stool was constructed at a time when the Party was under sharp attack....a reflection of the Party's response to the difficulties.

The flexibility was contained in the idea that no one leg of the stool was the main leg. Depending on the political pressures, one could choose a particular leg or legs. In fact the concept was built on the idea that when the other two legs, namely, the Communist Party and the forces of political independence, got strong enough, then and only then would the stool sit on three legs. But until that day comes the one operating leg would be the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Hall, writing this in 1972, at that time claimed that he had decided the policy was wrong. It is apparent, however, from later quotes and actions of top Communists, including Hall, that the policy was in fact been continued and even augmented.

Gus Hall himself said at the time:

We are going to work towards independence, but I think it is clear we are going to work with people who for some time will be 'riding two horses' in the field of political action.

Mitchell on moving the Democrats left

Charlene Mitchell, then Executive Director of the African-American Commission of the Communist Party USA, wrote in the Peoples Daily World June 9, 1983:

To date, most of the debate has centered on the personalities of potential Black candidates and the pros and cons of such a challenge. The thrust of such a candidacy must be to develop the popular electoral base to prevent the Democratic Party from continuing its shift to the right and force a more progressive platform and program in the 1984 campaign.

Mitchell went further in the March 1989 issue of Political Affairs, the monthly theoretical journal of the Communist Party USA;

We see building political independence based on the alliance of labor with the African-American community as the aim for changing the relationship of forces in elected office. The Party Program maintains the ultimate expression of this would be a mass anti-monopoly people's party...

From the standpoint of process, even if it is currently developing primarily through the Democratic Party, the fact that labor, the Rainbow Coalition, and the African-American community are the main generators of the new developments substantiates our policy and our historic approach of basing the building of political independence on the alliance of the trade union movement and the African-American people...

Should the party strive to play a leading role helping those forces gain and consolidate new positions of strength, even inside the Democratic Party or shouldn't it?, I think it should.

How is our party going to develop its all-sided electoral presence? This cannot and should not repose solely on Communist or Left-independent candidates. Not if there is any intention of emerging as an integral component of the overall progressive coalition. especially in view of the fact that the Jackson-led progressive wing of the Democratic Party is that coalition's major organized. component.

"People's forces"

In the September/October 1988 issue, Political Affairs states:

Beyond the rhetoric, politics in the United States invariably reflects the class struggle. Even as parties of capitalism, the dynamics between and within the Democratic and Republican parties express the interests and demands of competing sections of the ruling class, on the one hand; and cross-purposes of contending class forces vying for control of the Democratic Party, on the

other.

During the Reagan-Bush years the Republican Party has become the party of the ultra-Right. Organized forces of the working class and people are almost totally absent from it.

For the last fifty years the Democratic Party has housed a broad mix of class and social forces that are often in conflict with each other. This has given rise to a sometimes subtle, sometimes sharp struggle over direction.

The status and intensity of this struggle depend on the level and strength of the political independence of the labor movement and other people's forces operating inside the (Democratic) party.

Political Affairs for March 1989 contained the following statement:

Organized mass movements, especially the African American community, the Rainbow Coalition, labor on all levels, SANE-Freeze, and other mass organizations- became more independent of the Democratic Party establishment on policy and political direction. but more organizationally involved in the Democratic Party.

The same issue also contained the following:

This much is clear - the overall movement will grow. So will the role of the Rainbow Coalition and the labor movement. And it will unfold in the 1989-1992 quadrennial cycle primarily, but not exclusively-through the medium of the Democratic Party.

CPLAN

In the late 1980's Communist Party USA publications also specifically described a party apparatus for directly influencing the votes of Congress and even Congressional and Presidential Elections. This is called CPLAN, or the Communist Party Legislative Action Network.

This network was organized to influence other mass organizations cooperating with the Communists through the "All Peoples Front" to stimulate telephone networks and letter writing campaigns to influence Congress on legislation and even to reach voters regarding election campaigns.

The May 1987 issue of Political Affairs described CPLAN in more detail:

Every party organization should assign a comrade to be in touch with the legislative and political action department of the Central Committee. This could be a key for rapid mobilization.

The aim is to activate within a day or two all party organizations, as well as our mass movements connections, to pressure their Senators and Representatives. . .

Nationally, CPLAN would be ableto generate tens of thousands of letters, telephone calls, mailgrams, etc....There are few questions on which CPLAN cannot make the difference in how at least 5 to 10 Senators or Representatives would vote...

CPLAN is an important means of strengthening the unity of the independent forces, and this could have a great bearing not only on the l00th Congress but on the 1988 electoral struggle.

The same issue of Political Affairs went on to say:

When account is taken of the Party district and club organizations, as well as the thousands of trade unions, coalitions, and mass organizations on the grassroots, citywide, and national levels that Communists belong to, help lead, are active in, have friends, relatives, and contacts in, then the answer as to how to organize a Party legislative apparatus, as well as the Party's potential for influencing the legislative scene, become clear. . .the basis for an extraordinary legislative action network that could impact on the l00th Congress in a major way.

Infiltration, 2018

In a Janary 24 2018 article on the Communist Party USA website "Survey says, CPUSA members want to be heard" John Bachtell wrote;

Most members are involved in their communities and in a range of labor, social justice, environmental and peace organizations.

Among the labor activists are trade union leaders and members of central labor councils, retiree organizations, Jobs with Justice and the Fight for 15.

Others are involved in feminist organizations including Planned Parenthood, defense of abortion clinics and the new #MeToo movement.

Many are involved in racial justice groups including Black Lives Matter and the NAACP, immigrant rights, LGTBQ organizations and disability rights groups.

Members were involved with Bernie Sanders campaign and are continuing their activism in Our Revolution, Swing Left, Indivisible, Working Families Party, statewide groups like the New Virginia Majority and local Democratic Party groups and 2018 electoral campaigns.

Several members are elected officials.

European Socialist ties

The Party of European Socialism dialogue with the US Democrats and the Transatlantic partnership was a priority over the last years (written in 2009).

Delegations, meetings and exchanges of information were held on a regular basis. After the victory in the Congress, where the Democrats won the double majority, a PES Delegation, led by PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, discovered the new mood in Washington D.C., on 15-18 April 2007. It had meetings with Governor Howard Dean, Chair of the DLC; Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the Committee on Financial Services; Senator Bernie Sanders and with Senator Ben Cardin; John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress, Former Chief of staff of President Clinton; John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO and Andy Stern, Chair of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The underlying motive of the delegation was reiterated with the need for US and EU progressive forces to actively prepare for the post-Bush EU-US relations.

A PES Delegation with PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen; Par Nüder, MP, former Finance Minister, SAP, Sweden and Geir Axelsen, Vice Finance Minister, DNA, Norway visited New York and Washington D.C., on 4-8 February 2008, to meet with Congress members (Barney Frank, Chair of the House Committee on Financial Services and George Miller, Chair of the house, education and labour committee) and well known economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, Economy Nobel Prize, to discuss about Financial markets reform.

The PES attended the US Democrats’ Convention, in Denver, 23-25 August 2008, leading to the nomination of Senator Barack Obama as official candidate for the Presidential election.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Philip Cordery, PES Secretary General attended the 4th Clinton Global Initiative and the SI Presidium in New York, 23-27 September 2008.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen had meetings in California, 26-30 October 2008 to meet with Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey and Economists from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen visited New York and Washington on 10-16 November 2008 to meet with Dominique Strauss Kahn, Director General of IMF; Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Joseph Stiglitz, Co-President IPD; Barney Frank, US House of Representatives; Chair-House Financial Services Committee and many other people.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen attended Inauguration Day, on 20 January 2009 in Washington D.C., with the Oaths of Office to President-elect Barack Obama and to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Philip Cordery, PES Secretary General attended the 5th Clinton Global Initiative and the SI Presidium in New York, 21-24 September 2008.

In the meantime, the delegation attended Pittsburgh for the G20 preparation with the ITUC leadership and met the new President of AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka.

Party leaders 2015

• Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Chairman
• Rep. Ben Ray Luján, Democratic Congressional Committee Chair
• Sen. Jon Tester, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair
• Gov. Steve Bullock, Democratic Governors Association Chair

2016 Platform Drafting Committee

Bernie Sanders supporters Dr. Cornel West and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will be among those on the Democratic Party's important Platform Drafting Committee after the Vermont senator won a key concession as he looks to leave his mark on the party's platform.

The roster of the drafting committee, released by the Democratic National Committee May 2016, reflects the party's agreement that Sanders would have five supporters on the committee, compared to six for Hillary Clinton.

Sanders previously panned DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who appoints all of the committee members, for failing to include enough of his supporters on an initial list. But the latest statement notes that Wasserman Schultz allocated the campaign's seats "proportionally according to the current vote tally."

Sanders supporters on the committee are author Bill McKibben, Arab American Institute head James Zogby and Native American activist Deborah Parker.

Clinton loyalists on the committee are Ambassador Wendy Sherman, former Clinton staffer and current Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden, Ohio Rep. Alicia Reece, environmentalist Carol Browner, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez and union head Paul Booth.

The remaining four members were chosen by Wasserman Schultz.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has endorsed Clinton, will lead the committee and called Sanders's outsized role on the platform "pretty unusual" for a candidate that likely will not be the party's nominee during a Monday interview on MSNBC. And California Rep. Barbara Lee, who has not endorsed either candidate.

Former Rep. Howard Berman and philanthropist and former CEO of Claire's Stores Bonnie Schaefer were also appointed.

External links

• Democratic National Committee website

References

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