A set of internal meeting notes circulating among Democratic Party strategists this week outlines what the party is calling a 'Contract With American Workers' ahead of the 2028 presidential campaign, offering what the document describes as 'the most aggressive pro-labor platform in a generation.'

The platform's three pillars are: an exemption from federal income tax on non-obligatory severance packages, a federally protected unpaid gender-neutral parental leave, and one annual photograph of President Gavin Newsom with a union leader to be selected by a SurveyMonkey poll distributed to all 'documented' American workers.

The document, which spans fourteen pages and includes a cover sheet reading 'CONFIDENTIAL — WINNING BACK THE HEARTLAND,' was provided to The New Newmanton News by a source with access to party communications who asked to remain anonymous because they were, in their words, 'not supposed to have printed this.'

THE SEVERANCE PROVISION

The severance tax exemption applies exclusively to packages described in the document as 'non-obligatory,' meaning severance paid at an employer's discretion rather than under contractual obligation. Legal analysts contacted by The News noted that non-obligatory severance is, by definition, not guaranteed, rendering the tax benefit contingent on an event that employers are under no requirement to provide.

It is a tax incentive for something that doesn't have to happen. If your employer chooses not to give you severance, the tax break is irrelevant. If your employer does give you severance, you would now pay slightly less tax on it. This is the proposal.

said one labor attorney, who asked not to be named.

The unpaid gender-neutral parental leave provision guarantees eligible workers the right to take leave without pay following the birth or adoption of a child, for a duration not specified in the leaked document. A footnote on page nine reads: 'Duration TBD pending cost modeling.' A second footnote reads: 'Cost modeling TBD.'

The union photograph program would allow any worker who appears in a federal employment database to vote annually via SurveyMonkey for the union leader they would most like to be photographed with President Newsom.

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CONTROVERSIAL LANGUAGE

On page eleven, under a section heading titled 'Coalition Recalibration,' the document lists several marginalized groups and describes the party's willingness to 'sell them down the river' in the interest of appealing to what the document calls 'the persuadable middle.'

The phrase 'sell down the river' — a term with documented origins in the antebellum slave trade, referring to the practice of selling enslaved people to buyers in the Deep South — appears seven times in the eleven-page section. The document uses it without apparent awareness of its etymology.

A party spokesperson, reached by phone Thursday, described the phrasing as 'an unfortunate choice of words that does not reflect the party position.'

Asked whether the party's official position differed from the document's on the question of which groups would be deprioritized, the spokesperson said the call was breaking up and ended the call.

The groups listed in the 'Coalition Recalibration' section were not individually named in the portions of the document provided to The News. A header above the list reads: 'Painful but necessary.' A subheader below that reads: 'This is how you win.'

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LOCAL REACTION

David Pressler, a senior fellow at the Newmanton Center for Applied Moderation, called the platform 'exactly the kind of serious, costed-out proposal the party needs right now' and said the severance tax provision in particular showed 'a sophisticated understanding of where working families actually are.' Asked whether working families had been consulted, Pressler said the question was 'reductive' and that polling data was 'a more reliable instrument than anecdote.' He said he had not seen the polling data but assumed it existed.

Frank DelVecchio, a retired electrician, said the platform was 'the stupidest thing I've ever read, and I've been reading this newspaper for forty years.' He said the problem with the severance tax break was that his former employer had offered him no severance when his position was eliminated in 2019. 'So the tax break on the nothing I received would be,' he paused, 'nothing.' He said he had not been asked what he wanted from the Democratic Party but that if asked, his answer would not have been a photograph.

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WHAT THE DOCUMENT EXCLUDES

The document does not include wage policy, union organizing protections, healthcare cost provisions, housing affordability measures, or changes to collective bargaining law. A margin note on page four, handwritten, reads: 'Too far?'

A party spokesperson confirmed Friday that a subsequent amendment to the internal draft had removed the term 'gender-neutral parental leave' from the platform document on the grounds that it might alienate voters in key districts, replacing it with the phrase 'maternity leave, because only girls take care of babies.'