Now that Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign, Joe Biden is truly the presumptive Democratic nominee. Progressives are wasting no time letting Biden know what he must do to win their votes.
Several progressive youth groups have sent a letter to Biden’s campaign, which outlines a long list of demands on everything from policy to personnel.
Sahil Kapur reports at NBC News:
Progressive youth groups issue a list of demands for Joe BidenSeven progressive groups made up of young activists wrote a letter to Joe Biden, the apparent Democratic presidential nominee, with a set of aggressive demands spanning policy and personnel to earn their support in the general election against President Donald Trump.The letter, which comes hours after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ended his campaign, tells Biden that his pitch to “return to normalcy” won’t earn the trust of younger generations or inspire them to vote, arguing that they were already falling behind economically before Trump took office.”Exclusively anti-Trump messaging won’t be enough to lead any candidate to victory. We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process,” read the letter, signed by the Alliance for Youth Action, Justice Democrats, the March for Our Lives Action Fund, NextGen America, Student Action, the Sunrise Movement and United We Dream Action.
The letter, posted online by NextGen America, begins:
Dear Vice President Joe Biden,We write to you as leaders from a diverse array of organizations building political power for young people in the United States. We are all deeply committed to ending a presidency that has set the clock back on all of the issues that impact our lives.While you are now the presumptive Democratic nominee, it is clear that you were unable to win the votes of the vast majority of voters under 45 years old during the primary. With young people poised to play a critical role deciding the next President, you need to have more young people enthusiastically supporting and campaigning with you to defeat Trump. This division must be reconciled so we can unite the party to defeat Trump.Messaging around a “return to normalcy” does not and has not earned the support and trust of voters from our generation.
On policy, their top issue is climate change:
CLIMATE CHANGE: Adopt the frameworks of the Green New Deal and make specific commitments around achieving a just transition to 100% Clean Energy by 2030 for electricity, buildings, and transportation; restart the economy by committing to mobilizing $10 trillion in green stimulus and infrastructure investments over 10 years that will create tens of millions of good jobs of the future; and commit to take on and prosecute the fossil fuel executives and lobbyists who have criminally jeopardized our generation.
Next up is gun control. This is the most telling passage:
hold the gun industry accountable by directing the IRS to probe the NRA’s non-profit status
On personnel, they want far-left figures involved as much as possible:
Commit to appointing progressive elected officials who endorsed Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren as Transition Co-Chairs, such as Representatives Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Ayanna Pressley, or Katie Porter.
This is also noteworthy:
Appoint a DHS Secretary committed to holding ICE and CBP agents accountable and dismantling ICE and CBP as we know them.
Those are just a few highlights. Read the entire thing here.
These folks might be waiting quite a while for satisfaction. While the world is in a pandemic, and the American economy has shut down, this is what their presumptive nominee is talking about:
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