MCDC Platform
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- Last Updated on Monday, 17 October 2011 00:13
MADISON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE
Madison County, New York
COMPLETE REVISED PARTY PLATFORM
Adopted by the Madison County Democratic Committee on July 30, 2008
Preamble
Madison County Democrats are committed to secure the blessings of liberty and justice at home and to promote them abroad. We embrace democratic, liberal, and progressive principles as well as genuinely conservative principles in taking positions on local, state, national and international issues.
Set of Principles (in Bold Italics) followed by Programmatic Planks
As true conservatives, we insist on preserving the hard won social and economic gains of the New Deal, the Great Society and the Clinton presidency. We insist, on safeguarding our civil liberties while protecting personal and national security. We are committed to protect the environment and conserve natural resources for the benefit of this and future generations. We favor policies that support all families and local communities, which form the bedrock of a strong and just society.
We oppose irresponsible tax cuts benefiting mostly the rich and super-rich. We insist on restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington. Social Security and Medicare contributions taken out of the paychecks of working people should not be misappropriated to cover recurrent budget deficits brought on by irresponsible reductions in federal income taxes. We oppose attempts to weaken and ultimately destroy Medicare by diverting premiums to privately managed accounts.
We oppose the practice of burdening county and municipal governments with un-funded federal and state mandates. We are concerned that the practice in New York State of using multi-billion dollar bond issues to finance ongoing programs instead of using annual appropriations reduces accountability and increases the long-term cost of these programs.
The exercise of the right of dissent must be protected at all times. It is a corrective to the danger of stifling conformity that inevitably leads to shortsighted and chauvinistic decisions. We condemn any attempt to discredit dissent by questioning the patriotism of those who criticize government policies in times of war. We oppose the renewal of those provisions in the Patriot Act that unnecessarily erode constitutional rights.
As rural New Yorkers, we have a special interest in state and national policies that insure the viability of family farms and protect our rivers and lakes against the devastating pollution of acid rain, PCB, mercury and lead. We support cooperative initiatives of government, business and non-profits in support of economic and community development in upstate New York.
We believe in responsible and lawful gun ownership by adults that poses no threat to the community and law enforcement officers. Therefore we support a strengthening of the provisions of the Brady bill and the renewal of the ban on assault weapons.
As tolerant and fair-minded liberals, we believe that every individual must be guaranteed full and equal protection under the law, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Everyone should be empowered to develop their full potential from birth, through a nurturing childhood, formal education, and equal opportunity for training and employment.
To this end, we support improved public family assistance programs, an expanded Headstart program, free vocational training, and subsidized higher education that everyone can afford. Our system of public education sustains a democratic society committed to the ideal of equality. To insure that no child is left behind, the government has to insure that no school is left behind for lack of qualified teachers and suitable facilities with adequate resources and sufficient funding.
We are opposed to quotas but support affirmative action to insure that our increasingly diverse population is adequately represented in all trades and professions. We support removing barriers to career advancement that may hinder those who have been disadvantaged on account of socio-economic status, gender or race.
We recognize that we are a nation of immigrants and a nation where everybody should be under the equal protection of law. Current immigration policies leave millions of workers trapped in the shadows of our economy. We favor a realistic and sustainable immigration system that screens and inspects people and cargo at the border for security threats and grants legal status to hardworking immigrants. We support policies that promote the educational and civic participation by the immigrant community.
We oppose any infringement on freedom of conscience, imposed by restrictions on the free exercise of religion or the imposition of religious observances, such as mandated prayers in public schools.
We hold that proper respect for religious teachings and practices on sexuality, conception and abortion precludes the imposition of any one set of beliefs on the rest of society through legislation or judicial decree. We will fight for a woman’s right to make private and personal decisions regarding reproductive choice without interference or restriction from the government.
As enlightened and responsible progressives, we believe all are entitled to lead a life in dignity and security. Much more must be done to assist the physically and mentally impaired and to abolish our nation’s shameful category of the working poor. Rural poverty as well as urban poverty weakens family bonds and breeds despair and delinquency. We believe changing economic, social and technological conditions call for innovative approaches and progressive solutions.
The dignity of life requires adequate shelter, nutrition, education, gainful employment, and provision in old age as well as health care. In the wealthiest country on earth, we will not tolerate continued homelessness and poverty, conditions that enlightened and compassionate social policy has eliminated in most advanced industrial democracies. We believe social policies must compensate for the inequities that are inevitable in a free market economy.
The dignity of labor requires that workers and employees are guaranteed by law the unrestricted right to organize and bargain collectively with corporate management. Public law should protect this right as effectively as it protects the rights of investors and property owners. Public law should protect hard earned pension and other employee benefits against the arbitrary power of unscrupulous corporate interests.
Every worker is entitled to a living wage with overtime compensation for hours worked beyond the normal work week. The statutory minimum wage in New York State should be raised to the level of a living wage, which in the words of President Roosevelt supports ”a decent living” at “more than a bare subsistence level.“ Such a minimum wage law could set a lower level for temporary and part-time workers under the age of 18.
More than half a century after President Harry Truman urged Congress to adopt universal health
insurance over forty million Americans are still without protection. Workers and employees insured by private employers are at risk of losing their benefits. We believe the single-payer system of health insurance, that already protects senior citizens under Medicare and all members of Congress under separate legislation, provides for the fairest and most efficient allocation of our nation’s health care resources.
We believe that the deregulation of public utilities, the privatization of public enterprises, and the outsourcing of governmental services have frequently benefited private interests at public expense. We oppose deregulation, privatization and outsourcing, unless it can be convincingly shown that every such proposal serves the public interest without being part of an ideological agenda.
Our freedom and welfare rest on the bedrock of constitutional democracy. Democratic government is based on the principles of fair and equal representation, the rule of the majority, and the right of the minority to be heard. We insist that Congress and the Supreme Court protect the integrity of the electoral and governing process.
We oppose efforts to compromise the principle of fair and equal representation for partisan gain by gerrymandering, judicial interference with majority rule, and the invalidation of electoral decisions through partisan impeachment proceedings and recall elections.
We support a constitutional amendment that abolishes the Electoral College and guarantees that the elected President reflects the will of the popular majority and that the electoral contest is conducted in such a manner that citizens throughout the United States can have an equal opportunity to affect its outcome.
We support the strengthening of campaign finance reform. Only public financing of elections will level the playing field so that winning public office at the federal and state level will not be limited to candidates of independent wealth or beholden to the support of corporate and other special interests.
We support a constitutional amendment that grants the citizens of the District of Columbia home rule and fair and equal representation in Congress.
The present Madison County governance system of representation by a single board of supervisors with weighted voting confers undue power to a few individuals and denies representation to large minorities in the towns they represent. We urge reforms that that will change the current system to provide for fair and equal representation throughout Madison County.
Our security and welfare in an increasingly interdependent world depends on the cooperation of the United States with all other nations that are committed to promoting international stability and the rule of law through a more effective United Nations, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the protection of human rights, and the promotion of world trade and economic development.
We believe in a foreign policy that affirms traditional American values and commands the support of our traditional allies, especially in the European Union, and the respect of other nations that do not fully share our interests and values.
We support a system of world order based upon the Charter of the United Nations, adopted more than fifty years ago in San Francisco. It guarantees the right of individual and collective self-defense and provides for diplomatic procedures that reduce conflict and avoid war by handling disputes through negotiations and sanctions.
We repudiate the principle of unilateral preemptive war with which the second Bush administration has justified its war against Iraq in defiance of the United Nations. It set a dangerous precedent, which other nations will invoke to justify a war of aggression. The administration’s action has weakened a fragile world order and impairs the ability of the United States to gain the cooperation of the world community in support of its legitimate interests.
We condemn as dangerous self-defeating hysteria the indiscriminate rhetoric of a war on terror, that brands all opponents of the United States and critics of administration policy abroad and at home as terrorists. We must focus attention on what motivates the hatred of those who choose to engage in acts of terror and all those who lend their active or tacit support. Only by enlisting the cooperation of the entire international community, including nations that are not our allies, can we hope to identify and neutralize terrorist enemies.
The globalization of the world economy through international trade and foreign investment can benefit the advanced industrial nations as well as the developing nations. However, the government should not grant tax benefits and other subsidies to corporations that move American manufacturing and high-end service jobs abroad. Congress should ratify only those trade agreements that incorporate enforceable sanctions against environmental degradation and the exploitation of foreign workers. Trade agreements must be accompanied by federal legislation that provides for the retraining and relocation of displaced American workers and employees. .