Tom Perez Stacks 2020 Convention Committees With 'From the Swamp' Nominations

This is the face of the corporate owned DNC. This is the plan to maintain the deadly status quo of the corporate DNC which is the core of the patriarchal neoliberal predatory capitalist system that is destroying our country and the Earth. This is what must be seen for what it is, stopped and shut down, and completely dismantled if there’s to be any chance of a livable planet for our children and grandchildren and all species everywhere. This is about so much more than getting rid of Trump. This is about engaging in the fight of our lives. Everything we love and cherish is at stake. — Molly

Perez's nominations clearly show that the swamp seems in it to win for itself, regardless of the electoral outcome for the nation.

By

Thomas Neuburger

"Where would you stick the knife in?"—2020 Democratic Convention Rules Committee nominee John Podesta, referring to candidate Bernie Sanders in 2016

DNC chair Tom Perez recently presented his nominations for the 2020 Democratic Convention standing committees. The full list can be seen here.

If you think the Democratic Party as currently run is determined that no progressive will receive the nomination, the DNC and the superdelegates, who get to vote in all but the first round of voting, are the last bulwarks against such an outcome.

We'll have more to say about the superdelegates and what they may do later. For today let's consider how Tom Perez, Barack Obama's pick for DNC chair over Keith Ellison, is loading up the 2020 Convention standing committees with determined anti-progressives, Clinton and Obama loyalists and operatives, enemies of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, a bevy of corporate and national security lobbyists and high-dollar Democratic Party consultants and firms.

As you read the following, consider this:

• Given the popularity of progressive policies in the actual country—that is, among people who vote—it certainly appears possible that the primary goal of the DNC is to guarantee the continuous flow of corporate dollars to DNC coffers and approved consultants and lobbyists. In that sense, the whole organization seems focused first on insider jobs and wealth security.

• Only after the first goal is achieved is a secondary goal — winning elections — taken into account. 

Is this too cynical? Is this cynicism justified? Read on and decide for yourself.

The 2020 Platform Committee

Kevin Gosztola offers us a rundown of Perez's nominations in a series of tweets, many points with accompanying documentation. The tweets are here. I've summarized his main points below, absent much, but not all, of the documentation that he provides (emphasis and some reparagraphing mine).

Of the nominees for the Platform Committee, Gosztola notes the following:

• [Co-Chair] Denis McDonough was Barack Obama's chief of staff during his second term. He also chairs Rework America Task Force, which launched Rework America Business Network with Heidi Capozzi, senior vice president of human resources at Boeing, in December 2018.

[The] Rework America Business Network that McDonough helped launch counts as its founding members the following: Aon, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Boeing, Duke Energy, Kaiser Permanente, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Stanley Black & Decker, Walmart, & Zurich Insurance

Jon Hamm portrayed McDonough in 2019 film, "The Report," which told the story of Senate's CIA torture report through perspective of Senate staffer Daniel Jones. On behalf of the CIA, McDonough advocated for more redactions from the executive summary that was released.

• [Vice-Chair] Danielle Gray, former Obama administration official, is the senior vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Gray was a partner in the New York law firm of O’Melveny and Myers, where she advised "health care companies, financial services institutions, universities, and clients in a range of industries on litigation, internal investigations, and government enforcement actions."

• [Vice-Chair] Jake Sullivan is a member of the Alliance for Securing Democracy's Advisory Council. He was a senior policy adviser for Hillary Clinton's 2016 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Sullivan was also a national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

• Georgia State Senator Nikema Williams served as member of Obama Victory Fund 2012. She was one of "top ten influential African American bundlers for Obama."

• Carol Browner is senior counselor for Albright Stonebridge Group, business firm founded in 2009 by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She worked on climate change policy in Obama admin.

Clinton's campaign appointed Browner to 2016 DNC Platform Drafting Committee. As a Clinton delegate, during the 2016 Platform Drafting Committee meeting, voted against a ban on fracking, Medicare For All, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), keeping fossil fuels in ground, and measure[s] to halt abuse of eminent domain by fossil fuel industry.

• Mary Kay Henry is the president of SEIU. In 2015, she ensured the major union endorsed Hillary Clinton early. SEIU donated $1 million to Priorities USA, the primary super PAC that supported Clinton's 2016 campaign in spite of Clinton's reluctance to back a $15 minimum wage.

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