Word: platform
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...demonstrators was the orchestra vocalist, a bald, leather-jacketed hybrid of Johnny Rotten and Guy Lombardo who forgot the words to "If I Had a Hammer," an error that by all accounts was quite welcome. In the end, it was almost anti-climactic that Kennedy won his platform battle; his real fight, with the party, with the bitterness of a year-long campaign that led nowhere slowly, was won in the tide of cheers that refused...
Last Tuesday morning, as the Democratic Party proper began its platform debate, part of its shrinking left edge rallied under the name "Democratic Agenda" at an aging theater on West 43rd St. Harrington, chairman of the Democratic Socialist organizing committee, called Democratic Agenda a "coalition that uniquely brings together all the progressive constituencies around the idea that we cannot solve any of our problems without full employment." If Democratic Agenda truly represents "all progressive constituencies" the the left is seriously arthritic. Almost every spokesman at the rally was a veteran, most well past the zenith of their influence. Gloria Steinem...
Even the method for obtaining full employment divides the group. To Fraser and many of his labor colleagues, it is a matter of maintaining and expanding old programs--"the platform we adopted in '76 was pretty good, and it just hasn't been used yet," Fraser said. To Harrington and the 38 socialist delegtes at the convention who caucused Wednesday, the party must "go as far beyond FDR as he went beyond Hoover, to a new a much more radical liberalism...
...stands now, a delegate's position already borders on impotence. He or she cannot place rules or platform amendments on the floor without previous approval of a convention committee, and frequently delegates do not even have much say in nominating those who serve on those important committees, as the candidates' organizations agree to each other's nominees in advance and often present delegates with an approved list "in order to save time...
...most ironic moments of the political year-might choose another man. Meetings between Carter and Kennedy aides to work out compromises for the convention came to nothing at first, although some "progress" was reported at week's end. Kennedy could end up waging spectacular floor fights on 18 platform issues. Said he of some of the petty procedural disagreements: "That grown men and women have to spend hours and hours on this type of detail is tragic...