Plank Problems

The Democratic fight ahead

The document was thick and windy, roughly 40,000 words of predictably partisan rhetoric. There was a perfunctory apology: "After four years in office, we Democrats have not solved all America's problems." But as it emerged from a 158-member committee in Washington, the Democratic platform for the 1980 presidential election blamed most of the country's problems on Jimmy Carter's predecessors: "Eight years of Republican politics [that] left this nation weak, rudderless and divided." The Republicans were handily accused of causing inflation, unemployment, continued dependence on foreign oil and even the current recession.

For the most part, the document reflected the views of Carter's partisans on the platform committee. Senator Edward Kennedy's forces, outnumbered by almost 2 to 1, were defeated on all their major platform goals, including a huge antirecession program to create 800,000 jobs.

Kennedy counterattacked in an angry speech to the Service Employees International Union in New York City. He promised a fight over the platform when it comes up for adoption at the convention in August. With rhetoric that rolled with the nostalgic cadences of his brothers in the 1960s, Kennedy declared that "the jobless do not have seats on the committees of the Democratic Convention, but my campaign does. The families without adequate health care and winter heat do not have floor passes to the convention, but my campaign does. The farmers who have lost their livelihoods do not have a place on the podium or a microphone under a state banner, but my campaign does. And we will speak for all of them." Warned Kennedy: "There surely is a right-wing threat, but we will not defeat it by tilting toward it. Too many Democrats may choose the genuine article. Too many may not vote at all. And others may turn to an independent candidate who seems responsive to their needs."

In addition, Kennedy intends to urge adoption of an "accountability rule" that would require the Democratic presidential nominee--all but certainly Carter--to state in writing any reservations that he may have about the party's platform. At least three planks in the plat form could embarrass Carter. One is a commitment to an is sue he would rather have avoided: civil rights for homosexuals. The platform not only pledges to protect people from discrimination based on "sexual orientation," but also calls for Government action to achieve this goal. The second is a departure from Carter's commitment to nuclear power. The platform promises that "as alternative fuels become available in the future, we will retire nuclear plants in an orderly manner." On the third troublesome plank, the drafters brushed aside an attempt by Carter sup porters to soft-pedal the abortion issue. The platform now flatly opposes "any constitutional amendment" restricting the 1973 Supreme Court decision on abortion. That could be the most divisive plank of all, particularly if Republican platform drafters follow Ronald Reagan's lead in endorsing just such an amendment.

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