gonna do a thread on the @DNC removal of fossil fuel subsidy language, and why it's, ah, sorta suspect. Sit down. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC and if you read my tweets yest., you know that it's politically popular, both Biden and Harris campaigned on it, and removal of #EndFossilFuelSubsidies language is just mystifying. But let's look carefully at the DNC stated reason.
@DNC as quoted in @blkahn excellent piece yest. bit.ly/3hpmDdX the #EndFossilFuelSubsidies language was included in a manager's mark "by mistake" and removed later by agreement of the Biden/Bernie campaigns. I'm gonna go into some process deets, bear with me.
@DNC 7/21: original draft is released (at 11 PM on a Tues). It's not very good. @MDeatrick asks outside people/ groups, like me, to submit amendments to her. She is a platform committee member. Only members can formally propose amendments.
@DNC I submit amendments supported by @ClimateHawkVote folk. I know that @collinrees and the Oil Change folk also submit #EndFossilFuelSubsidies language. They copy the 2016 platform language precisely.
@DNC And Michelle, who's doing a great job with @DNCClimate council, collects all the outside folks' amendments plus some of her own, and negotiates with the Biden/ Bernie teams 7/24-7/26. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC All of the non-controversial amendments, INCLUDING #EndFossilFuelSubsidies, go into a manager's mark. And on 7/27 DNC platform committee does a hearing. All of the non-controversial amendments are approved, quickly, "consent calendar" if you speak Robert's Rules.
@DNC thereafter, according to the DNC, they discover the #EndFossilFuelSubsidies language. And Bernie/ Biden campaigns agree to remove it.
But the removal was never ratified by the platform committee.
But the removal was never ratified by the platform committee.
@DNC So we have #EndFossilFuelSubsidies amendment that WAS discussed (not very seriously, because everyone assumed that 2016 language was good in 2020) over the weekend. And typed into a manager's mark. And voted. And then, oh, ooops, my bad we goofed. O RLY?
@DNC but IF this was really just a goof, why not go to people like @MDeatrick to tell her about it? why not ask the platform committee to ratify the correction?
It just doesn't make sense. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
It just doesn't make sense. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC Regardless --two fixes for it. First, let's ask Joe Biden what he thinks! And voila, his spox tweets this:
@DNC and let me be absolutely clear, the problem is NOT Joe Biden. He (thru his spox) is absolutely trying to do the right thing -- clean up the #EndFossilFuelSubsidies mess the DNC created.
@DNC please, people tweeting "Dems and Repubs are the same, there is no opposition party" memes at me, I beg to differ. Joe Biden is correct here.
No, the problem is the DNC. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
No, the problem is the DNC. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC Important comment from a member of the platform committee -- he is one of the insider people besides Michelle I was working with. Read this. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC I'm laying all this out in the open, not to do a gotcha on the DNC, but because I ran for DNC on a platform of transparency and accountability, and I want to keep that promise. And the DNC won't be trusted til it fesses up to these manipulative actions. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC I know I'm making myself really unpopular within the DNC. Sorry! I'm never going to be appointed to plum committees. Never going to get prime speaking spots. Just going to be a PITA. I've never gotten an email from them since June! #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC as for people asking me WHY, all I can do is speculate. The Moniz/ Zichal/ Bordoff/ all of the above wing of the party? Bldg trade unions? IDK. #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
@DNC thread, ended for now. I may have more to say later.
