2024-08-19
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
On July 13, 2024, the day former President Donald Trump was assassinated, the Democratic National Committee released the Democratic Party's new draft platform. The draft platform details the "historic achievements" made by the Biden-Harris administration in the past four years, and also looks forward to the Democratic Party's policy guidelines in many major areas in the next four years.
The shooting failed to bring down Trump, but it scared the Democrats. In just one month, the Democratic Party has undergone many adjustments and seems to be in disarray. However, various polls show that after Harris led the Democratic campaign team, her support rate has surpassed Trump.This shows that the Republican Party is not necessarily destined to win this election. For this reason, the Democratic Party’s new party platform is also worth paying attention to.。
The new draft of the Democratic Party's platform is a refinement and supplement to Biden's "vision for the first 100 days of his second term" at a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan on July 12. In his speech at the campaign rally, Biden claimed that within the first 100 days of his second term, he would restore the abortion rights lost when Roe v. Wade was overturned, sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, expand Social Security and Medicare, raise the federal minimum wage, ban assault weapons, and tax billionaires.
Overall, the Democratic Party’s 80-page new party platform has not changed much compared to the party platform four years ago.On the issue of abortion, the Democratic Party will work to restore the right to abortion and actively promote related legislation to protect reproductive rights and women's right to in vitro fertilization; on gender issues, the Democratic Party will work to end violence against women; in promoting democracy and equality, the Democratic Party will continue to strengthen the diversity of judicial candidates and continue to protect the rights of the LGBTQI+ community; on economic issues, the Democratic Party hopes to establish a "bottom-up, inside-out" economy in order to achieve a minimum wage of $15; in health care, the Democratic Party will reduce health care costs and permanently ensure the solvency of health insurance by raising taxes on the rich; in energy, the Democratic Party will expand clean energy projects while cutting subsidies for oil and gas; on gun violence and crime, the Democratic Party advocates gun control and a ban on semi-automatic rifles;In foreign policy, the Democrats will continue to support NATO allies and Ukraine, maintain competition with China, and achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East through negotiations to reach a "two-state solution."
However, there are some changes in the Democratic Party’s new platform that cannot be ignored.First and foremost, the new party platform reiterates the "One China Policy" in a distorted way.The new platform claims to adhere to the "One China Policy" under the guidance of the Three Joint Communiqués, the controversial "Six Assurances" to Taiwan, and the so-called Taiwan Relations Act. The new platform also claims to continue to unwaveringly "maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait." In addition, the new platform does not mention the Black Lives Matter movement, does not explicitly mention universal health care, and does not include the content of declaring the United States to be in a "climate emergency" as expected by extreme climate activists.Therefore, in the eyes of progressives, the new draft party platform is still slightly conservative.But unlike previous years, there were no obvious differences in the drafting stage of this year's new party platform, and it was placed on the voting table at the Democratic National Convention relatively smoothly.
However, interestingly, the biggest feature of the draft party platform is that it mentions Trump 153 times in the entire text. As early as in his campaign rally speech in Michigan, Biden had already fiercely criticized the "Project 2025" jointly proposed by the American far-right think tank The Heritage Foundation. The new draft of the Democratic Party's platform directly ties the plan to Trump, believing that Trump's real purpose is to implement the plan during his second term. Not only that, the new party platform of the Democratic Party criticizes Trump's performance during his administration on almost every issue. A press release was also issued on its official website, criticizing the "2025 Plan" paragraph by paragraph. Even the Biden-Harris campaign team held a press conference in Milwaukee with Senator Alex Padilla and other Democrats to criticize Trump-Vance's governing policies.In other words, the Democratic Party’s new party constitution is entirely against Trump, constantly sending a message to voters: We are different from Trump.
In terms of China policy, the overall policy focus of the Republican Party’s new platform has shifted to the domestic front, and it has not hyped up China issues too much, reflecting its strong “America First” color. However, the Democratic Party’s new platform draft puts China issues under Chapter 9, “Strengthening America’s leadership in the world.”The United States acknowledges that China is its most important strategic competitor, claims that it will compete with China but does not seek conflict, seeks "de-risking" rather than "economic decoupling," and continues to insist on building a "small courtyard with high walls" to restrict China's access to advanced technology.
In contrast, the passage of the new Republican Party platform experienced some minor setbacks. According to Politico, an informed source revealed that before passing the party platform, the Republican National Committee took extremely radical confidentiality measures, such as prohibiting members from using mobile phones, strictly controlling the release of the draft, and prohibiting the media and most outside observers from attending meetings, in order to forcibly suppress the opposition voices of "Rhinos" (RINOs, Republicans In Name Only, referring to Republicans in name only) to ensure that this party platform tailored for the Trump-Vance team can be voted on and passed smoothly. After all, this year's Republican Party has bet everything on Trump, and there is no other alternative.
Although Harris is likely to continue most of the policies during Biden's administration, Harris is not a clone of Biden after all, and she holds different opinions from Biden on some issues. When Harris officially becomes the new presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, her different opinions may be directly reflected in the final version of the Democratic Party's platform. For example, on the issue of climate change, Harris proposed a $10 trillion climate plan and co-sponsored the Green New Deal, while Biden proposed the Build Back Better bill, but did not support the Green New Deal.
For another example, on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, Biden has been outspoken in his support for Israel since the outbreak of the new Gaza crisis on October 7 last year, and has continued to provide military assistance to the Benjamin Netanyahu government, which has aroused the dissatisfaction of progressives and indirectly affected Biden's poll approval rating. On the other hand, Harris expressed sympathy for the Palestinians caught in the Gaza war. She was also one of the first leaders to call for an immediate ceasefire. She also strongly condemned Israel's practice of blocking aid supplies from entering Gaza.
Currently, the Democratic Party’s new draft platform simply acknowledges the death toll on both sides of the conflict in the Gaza crisis, saying that Biden and Harris "recognize the value of every innocent life, whether Israeli or Palestinian."The Palestinian-Israeli issue may become a manifestation of the deepening divisions within the Democratic Party, and may even ultimately affect the final text of the new party platform.
Collect and organize the latest news information and make it available for free for everyone to read
