The
Democrats have drafted a platform for Mr. Obama’s reelection campaign that
calls on the commander-in-chief to come through with some of the very same
promises he made four years earlier while vying for the presidency.
Unbeknownst to
Americans in 2008, the president’s initial platform was actually a two-term plan.
“Four
years ago, Democrats, independent and many Republicans came together as
Americans to move our country forward,” reads the beginning to the draft released Monday. “We were in the midst of the greatest
economic crisis since the Great Depression,
the previous administration had put two wars on our nation’s credit card and
the American Dream had slipped out of reach for too many.”
“Today,
our economy is growing again, al-Qaeda is weaker than at any point since 9/11
and our manufacturing sector is growing for the first time in more than a
decade. But there is more we need to do, and so we come together again to
continue what we started. We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the
largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple
principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be
rewarded and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive
take us.”
As the committee
continues to outline objectives for a second term, they harp on a handful of
issues that were promised during the 2008 campaign — albeit never enacted.
· In the latest draft,
the DNC says they are in the middle of “substantially
reducing the population at Guantánamo Bay, ”and insists, “we
remain committed to working with all branches of government to close the prison
altogether because it is inconsistent with our national security interests and
our values.”
Only
four years earlier, however, the committee was much clearer with its goals.
Back then, reveals the 2008 party platform, the Democrats vowed,
·
“We will close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the
location of so many of the worst constitutional abuses in recent years.” During his first week
in office, President Obama signed an Executive Order that he said would shut
down Gitmo; it remains open three-and-a-half years later.
Elsewhere
in the party’s newest platform, the DNC discusses what the nominee should do to
address immigration in the US.
·
“Americans know that today, our immigration system is badly
broken – separating families, undermining honest employers and workers,
burdening law enforcement, and leaving millions of people working and living in
the shadows,” the platform reveals.
·
Last time around, though, the DNC even then was in agreement
that immigration was in need of a fix, something that has also been largely
ignored. Just four years earlier, the Democrats wrote, “our current immigration system has
been broken for far too long. We need comprehensive immigration reform, not
just piecemeal efforts.”
For the DNC, it seems as if “far too long” didn’t seem like
enough time to address immigration properly, so maybe by the end of the
president’s eighth year in office they can approach it the right way.
In another provision
included in the 2012 draft, the DNC declares,
·
“We recognize that the right to bear arms is an important part
of the American tradition,” but rallies for “commonsense laws and
improvements” to gun
laws in America, an issue that has taken center stage in recent weeks,
especially after a rash of mass shootings across the US.
·
“We can focus on effective enforcement of
existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can
work together to enact commonsense improvements – like reinstating the assault
weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole – so that guns do not fall into
the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few, ”the party writes this
week.
This, also, is an effort
that — on paper, at least — is four years in the making. In 2008, the party
wrote,
·
“We
can work together to enact and enforce commonsense laws and improvements – like
closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system, and
reinstating the assault weapons ban, so that guns do not fall into the hands of
terrorists or criminals”.
While the draft released this week by the DNC indeed offers a
clear alternative to the agenda being used by Republican Party opponent, former
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, its items shouldn’t be considered campaign
promises — at least not any more than they were four years earlier. Instead,
interpret the RNC and DNC platforms this election season as suggestions. Source
