Spotlight: U.S. Democrats adopt "most progressive" party platform with clear Sanders imprint

U.S. Democrats on Monday formally adopted what the party called "the most progressive platform in the history of party politics," in an apparent attempt to rally Bernie Sanders' supporters behind Hillary Clinton, who is poised to clinch Democratic presidential nomination this week.

The platform, which amounts to an assembled policy statement but is unenforceable on the party's nominee, includes many of the agenda sought by the supporters of Sanders, Clinton's bitter challenger in a bruising primary season. But it lacks concessions they sought on healthcare and trade.

The platform was ratified at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which kicked off here on Monday.

"What stands out are support for the 15 dollar an hour minimum wage, free junior college, allowing adults over 55 to participate in Medicare, expanding social security to provide more benefits to those who had to leave the work force for family or other reasons," said Robert Shapiro, professor and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, told Xinhua.

"These responded to Sanders's positions and those of his supporters," he said. But "the platform did not go as far as Sanders would have wanted on regulation of Wall Street and taking a harder line against Israel, and also universal health care."

Having created a campaign that galvanized millions of voters, Sanders has been given a prominent say in writing the party platform in a move party leaders hoped would soothe the bitter split in the Democratic Party.

The most notable imprint of Sanders, the senator of Vermont, on the platform is the inclusion of his signature call for raising the minimum federal wage to 15 U.S. dollars an hour from the current 7.25 dollars per hour. Clinton, former secretary of state and former first lady, has favored the minimum 12 dollars an hour.

Education also bore a clear mark of Sanders, who called himself "a Democratic Socialist," as the platform sided with his proposal of making free public college tuition for those with incomes up to 125,000 dollars a year.

Sanders has called the education proposal "a very bold initiative" and a significant step for party unity, though it fell short of his call for free college tuition for all, a core position igniting his young voters base.

Nevertheless, Sanders has lost a battle on his top priority: opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal involving the United States and 11 other nations. The platform vaguely suggests, "we will oppose trade agreements that do not support good American jobs, raise wages, and improve our national security."

Clinton openly pushed for the deal during her tenure as secretary of state of the Barack Obama administration, but backtracked during the primary season. Sanders said he's against it primarily because it will allow corporations to move jobs overseas.

Sanders, who won primary and caucus elections in 23 contests garnering nearly 1,900 delegates, has endorsed Clinton, though he has vowed to take his campaign to the national convention. To clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate has to win 2,383 combined pledged delegates and superdelegates.

With Sanders' persistent momentum on the campaign trail and his appeal among the progressives and young voters, the deep discord has overshadowed Clinton's run to the White House.

Democrats gathering for the national convention aim to seek party unity to nominate Clinton as their standard-bearer in a general election to fight Donald Trump, who has won the Republican presidential nomination last week in Cleveland, the state of Ohio.

But the recent disclosure of emails showing the DNC officials working to undermine Sanders' campaign threatened to ruin the "United Together" theme of the opening night. Sanders, as well as First Lady Michele Obama, is set to deliver a speech on Monday night.

In a letter to his supporters on Monday before his night speech at the convention, Sanders acknowledged efforts of his 13 million supporters to carry on the "political revolution" that has helped change the party platform and Clinton's campaign.

He also tried to rally his supporters to "defeat Trump, the worst presidential candidate in the modern history of our country."

It, however, seemed hard for Sanders to sway his staunch supporters. Outside the convention center, thousands of his supporters were marching down Philadephia's Broad Street in scorching heat, chanting "Hell, NO, DNC. We won't vote for Hillary." Endit