SPOKANE — Opposition to the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal remained strong among Washington state’s Bernie Sanders delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, even though Washington is one of the nation’s most trade-dependent states.
Sandra Williams, a Sanders delegate from Spokane, noted that both Sanders and opponent Hillary Clinton opposed the trade agreement during the primaries.
“I am upset because despite her stated opposition, it was Clinton and DNC appointees on the platform committee that opposed including clear opposition to the TPP in the platform,” Williams wrote in an email to the Associated Press. “That feels like yet another contradiction between what Clinton says and what she actually does.”
Ava Sharifi, an 18-year-old Sanders delegate from Spokane who is the state’s youngest delegate, said she opposes the proposed trade deal.
“It will only help monopolies and big business,” Sharifi said. “It would hurt small business and the environment.”
A glass ceiling will shatter at the convention in Philadelphia as Clinton ascends to the presidential nomination with Tuesday’s roll call of the states, making her the first female presidential nominee of a major party.
Hostility is being heard, too. Sanders’ primary challenge has unleashed supporters’ vitriol toward the party establishment that Sanders himself has been unable to rein in. His backers have even booed Clinton’s name.
Williams said Sanders delegates are frustrated “at being dismissed and disregarded repeatedly.”
“When your voice is ignored, you sometimes feel forced to raise it louder and louder until it is heard,” Williams said. “The solution for the Clinton campaign and the DNC is to start actually listening to the concerns and grievances that are being expressed.”
Williams said she remains a Sanders supporter.
“I have to say that I came into this process a disappointed Democrat and nothing thus far has happened to change that,” Williams said. “In fact just the opposite, so the DNC and the Clinton campaign have a lot of work to do before November!”
But Yvette Joseph, a Clinton delegate, said the former first lady has nothing to prove.
“Hillary has long fought to protect families and children.” Joseph said. “Hillary believes in Bernie’s delegates and values their children and families. When Citizens United is overturned, our mutual concerns will be achieved.”
Meanwhile, Sharifi wrote that she was in tears during Sanders’ speech on Monday night
“He left us with a message that we must remember for the rest of our lives, to truly be revolutionaries,” Sharifi wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for everything, Bernie.”
Washington delegates during their breakfast meeting Tuesday heard from U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and television personality Jerry Springer.
Cantwell recalled how she was the first person in her family to go to college, and she relied on Pell Grants and help from relatives to make ends meet.
“We moved from the working class to the middle class,” Cantwell said, adding that the Democratic platform plank calling for debt-free college would help more people achieve social mobility.
