America’s Democratic Socialist Party

When Hillary Clinton officially becomes the Democratic nominee for president later this month, she will stand on a party platform that is the most radical document in the party’s history.

From weed to government regulation of business to abortion to immigration, this is not your father’s Democratic Party. Or in the case of Clinton, her husband’s.

“It is the most extreme pro-abortion platform the Democrats have ever had — but of course, that’s where Hillary Clinton is.”

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who formally endorsed Clinton on Tuesday, won significant concessions in drafting the party’s statement of principles. The document also takes numerous shots at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, mentioning him by name 35 times.

Here is a look at some of the major provisions of the platform:

Abortion — no restrictions 
It used to be that Democrats couched their support of legalized abortion with expressions that it should be rare. No more. A draft of the platform calls only for “safe and legal abortion.” For the first time, it also explicitly calls for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from paying for abortion.

“We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people,” the draft states.

Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, said the language shows how far left the party has drifted.

“It is the most extreme pro-abortion platform the Democrats have ever had — but of course, that’s where Hillary Clinton is,” she said. “Conscience has always been an area were we have been able to find consensus … She’s moved to the left even of Barack Obama.”

Quigley said Democrats in some states have pushed to allow non-doctors to perform abortions and oppose “commonsense health and safety standards.”

The no-limits abortion stance is at odds with a poll conducted in January by Marist University on behalf of the Knights of Columbus, which found broad support for an array of abortion restrictions. Even some notable Democrats have expressed concern that the platform goes too far.

“That’s crazy,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told the Weekly Standard earlier this month. “It’s something that I know most Democrats in West Virginia and most West Virginians would not agree with. I don’t either.”

Immigration — virtually open borders
The platform draft reiterates the party’s support for a “path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants and states that they should be  “incorporated completely into our society.” It pledges support for Obama’s executive actions — currently held up by the courts — to suspend deportations and issue green cards to millions of illegal immigrants.

Arguing that foreigners should enter through “visas and not through smugglers,” the platform rejects reducing the number of legal immigrants moving to the United States each year.

“Immigration is not a problem to be solved, it is a defining aspect of the American character and history,” the draft states.

The platform calls on the United States to live up to its “responsibility” to take its fair share of the 60 million or so refugees who have been displaced across the globe because of war.

“The immigration bar and advocates for illegal immigrants have recognized that if you can essentially grind the judicial system to a halt, they win.”

The document also pledges to end even limited raids that the Department of Homeland Security has conducted to locate foreign children who have been ordered to be deported but failed to report. The platform would even take the unprecedented step of guaranteeing a taxpayer-funded lawyer for every unaccompanied minor who shows up at the U.S. border.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, said such a provision would paralyze the immigration system.

“That seems to be a clear objective. The immigration bar and advocates for illegal immigrants have recognized that if you can essentially grind the judicial system to a halt, they win,” he said.

Mehlman noted that the Democratic platform from just eight years ago had strong language calling for border enforcement.

“It’s quite a contrast,” he said. “It’s amazing how far the Democratic Party has swung in the last 20 years.”

Drugs and violence
Sanders supporters pushed through an amendment strengthening an already strong statement in favor of marijuana legalization. Whereas the draft had supported giving states a free hand to decriminalize the drug, an amendment approved over the weekend calls for removing the drug from the Class I schedule of controlled substances, “providing a reasoned pathway for future legalization.”

The platform also calls for requiring that police be outfitted with body cameras and to stop “racial profiling.” It would require the Department of Justice to investigate all “questionable or suspicious police-involved shootings,” and would ban the possession of “weapons of war.”

Trade — Hillary’s true ‘heart’
For all of the victories Sanders supporters won in drafting the platform, one of the few notable exceptions was on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Vermont senator made opposition to the 12-nation trade pact a key piece of his campaign. But he failed to get the party to codify it in the platform. Instead, the plank merely acknowledges “a diversity of views” on the deal.

“But all Democrats believe that any trade agreement must protect workers and the environment and not undermine access to critically needed prescription drugs,” the draft states.

Curtis Ellis, executive director of the American Jobs Alliance, said it is telling Sanders did not get a stronger statement on trade.

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“Bernie Sanders clearly lost the fight,” he said. “It’s feel-good language so subjective and open to interpretation that any politician — particularly Hillary Clinton — will be able to work around it … It creates a loophole so big, Hillary Clinton could drive the TPP and all 12 nations of the TPP through it with room to spare.”

Ostensibly, Clinton opposes the TPP after earlier praising it. But Ellis said it would be quite easy for her to reverse course again, following a pattern established by her husband. When Bill Clinton was running for president in 1992, he voiced opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. As president, he negotiated side agreements with Mexico and Canada on labor and environmental standards and then signed the pact.

Ellis said the Democratic platform contrasts sharply with the proposed Republican platform, which flatly rejects a vote on the TPP during a lame-duck session of Congress after the election. He said Clinton could have pushed the Democrats for a similar commitment.

“It shows where her heart is,” he said.