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The New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand
The New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand told an energetic crowd of hundreds in Washington: ‘Income inequality is the greatest threat to democracy right now.’ Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
The New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand told an energetic crowd of hundreds in Washington: ‘Income inequality is the greatest threat to democracy right now.’ Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

Democratic 2020 hopefuls toe progressive line at liberal conference

This article is more than 5 years old

Potential presidential hopefuls argued for a social safety net and condemned Trump

Potential Democratic presidential candidates set out their 2020 credentials on Tuesday for a gathering of liberal activists, with barely a hint of daylight between them on a range of key progressive issues.

Speaking to an energetic crowd of hundreds in a Washington hotel ballroom, the candidates took turns touting their liberal bona fides in both prepared remarks and in answers to questions from questioners who had been chosen in advance.

Five Democratic senators appeared at the We The People Summit, an event hosted by number of major progressive groups, including the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Planned Parenthood, that rallied attendees on issues ranging from mass incarceration to Medicare for All.

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Chris Shelton, the president of CWA, which was one of the few unions to back Bernie Sanders in 2016, set the tone in his opening remarks when he said: “Today we come together to send a clear message to the Democratic party: that it must embrace a clear people’s agenda.”

He was followed by one of the event’s moderators, Heather McGhee of the thinktank Demos, who said: “We’re not pulling the party left, we’re pulling it into the future.”

The impact of that pull was seen in the question-and-answer session when the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand embraced a financial transactions tax, saying: “Income inequality is the greatest threat to democracy right now.” Cory Booker, who was attacked during the 2012 election for defending Bain Capital, the private equity firm that once employed Mitt Romney, criticized the company by name along with several other hedge funds for “toxic” practices. Bain acquired Toys R Us, a New Jersey-based company, in 2005 as part of a leveraged buyout. The toy retailer recently declared bankruptcy, leaving its 30,000 workers without severance.

But all of the potential presidential hopefuls shared an allegiance to a laundry list of progressive issues.

They argued for a strong social safety net and condemned the Trump administration in equal measure. Booker insisted “you cannot have life, liberty or pursuit of happiness without public education, without retirement security, equal justice under the law” while the California Senator Kamala Harris said government had three essential functions “public education, public safety and public health”.

The room did not lack for criticisms of Trump. Bernie Sanders proclaimed that right-to-work laws were an “obscenity” while deriding the president for his demographic desire to divide up the country.

Elizabeth Warren at one point echoed Trump’s rhetoric about “draining the swamp” when she called for “hosing out the cesspool of corruption” in Washington DC.

Perhaps the most vigorous applause in the room was for the outgoing congressman Luis Gutiérrez, who received standing ovations and loud cheers when he condemned the Trump administration’s immigration policy and its efforts to crack down on asylum seekers and separate migrant families at the US-Mexico border. “I can think of nothing more cruel, more evil than to rip a child from a mother’s arms who is fleeing systematic rape, murder, torture.”

The Illinois Democrat also received loud cheers when he insisted that Puerto Rico’s energy grid should be rebuilt with “no carbon footprint”.

Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, executive director of NJ Citizen Action, a progressive advocacy group, was pleased that the crop of potential 2020 Democratic candidates is farther to the left than at any time in recent memory. But she said there was still work to do.

“It’s a good bench,” she said. “But 2020 is years away and I think some of them still need to be more progressive.”

Laila El-Zayatie and Xavier Thomas, college students in Pennsylvania, said they were impressed by Gillibrand and Gutiérrez, neither of whom they had heard of before the conference.

“His speech was the best of the night,” said Thomas. “He spoke straight from the heart.”

And yet after the summit finished both of them, who were Sanders supporters in 2016, still had a soft spot for the Vermonter.

“I agreed with so much of what he stood for before he ran,” said El-Zayatie. “He really has dedicated his entire life to trying to actively help people.” She also found another reason to support Sanders. “We’re both Jewish. We need that representation,” said the student at Millersville University.

Stacey Nelson, an SEIU member from Newark, New Jersey, said the remarks by her home state senator Cory Booker brought tears to her eyes.

“I really liked his message that we need to treat people the same,” Nelson said, nodding emphatically when asked if she would like him to run for president.

She said being in the room of activists was uplifting despite what she said was a constant stream of setbacks for people of color and immigrants.

“It feels like we’re in a fight – a real fight,” she said.

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