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Maine Democratic Party
2006 Platform
Since Jefferson and Jackson, the Democratic
Party has led the struggle to increase democracy
in our government. Democracy is the belief that
the best repository of wisdom lies in the hands
of an informed and educated electorate and that
this electorate has a right to control the
political agenda and debate those issues that
are of importance to them. In keeping with this
philosophy, Maine Democrats believe in serving
the people in Maine by promoting strong
communities, fairness and opportunity for all,
and investment in Maine’s future. Economic
opportunity and security, universal access to
quality education and healthcare, good
government, fair taxes, safety and national
security, human rights, environmental
protection, and international cooperation are
the policies and principles for which we have
long fought and will continue to fight.
We support a democratic government that:
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Economic
Security, Opportunity and Justice |
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- Builds strong communities
by ensuring: jobs for all who can work; a
living wage; affordable housing, food, fuel,
healthcare and other essential commodities;
and support for those hit by hardship
- Provides economic
security through: a strong, non-privatized
Social Security program, stricter regulation
of public and private pensions, and
guaranteed protection of workers’ pension
funds and rights.
- Opposes reducing the
Social Security benefits earned by workers
because they have also earned a benefit from
certain public retirement plans; works to
repeal discriminatory laws that penalize
some retired workers and their families
while allowing others to receive full
benefits.
- Ensures a fair workplace
by: guaranteeing the rights, and the
ability, of all workers to form unions,
bargain collectively, and strike without
replacement or reprisal; keeping the
workplace free from health and safety
hazards, discrimination, and harassment; and
enacting rules that respect employees’
family obligations and other needs.
- Encourages a sustainable
economy by promoting Maine owned and
operated businesses, tourism (including
ecotourism), our cultural diversity, working
waterfronts, high-value woodland management,
active and potential farmland, in state
manufacturing and export of value-added
products, and Maine food and fiber products.
- Creates economic
opportunity by investing in ports, public
and commercial transportation, renewable
energy, research and development, and
information technology, as well as arts,
culture, and other amenities that stimulate
a creative economy, attract business and
tourism, and improve quality of life.
- Creates an equitable
economic environment through strong consumer
protection, banking, and corporate
governance laws, and by encouraging growth
of local banks, credit unions, and other
cooperatives; supports a rational energy
policy.
- Believes that, since the
founders of the U.S. government did not
intend to allow corporations to be included
in the definition of the word “person” and
“people” in the U.S. Constitution, and other
founding principles and documents,
corporations may not claim they are
“persons” or “people” under the U.S.
constitution and obtain Constitutional
rights thereby.
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Healthy
Communities and Educational Opportunity
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- Guarantees a fair,
stable, cost-effective and fully-funded
healthcare system for all – specifically a
comprehensive, national single-payer health
insurance system; keeps its promises for
Medicare, Medicaid, Dirigo, veteran’s
benefits and services and other governmental
healthcare initiatives; and invests in
initiatives and research to improve public
health and healthcare system effectiveness.
- Works to ensure
availability of health and community
services so that people with disabilities
can live with maximum autonomy in their
community.
- Helps children succeed
by: providing vital services to families,
supporting affordable, quality early
childhood education, preventing domestic
violence; protecting children from abuse,
neglect, and the dangers of poverty; and
revitalizing Maine’s commitment to families
by focusing prevention and intervention on
systems proven to reduce these risks,
without imposing unfunded mandates.
- Invests in public
educational institutions and promotes
quality lifelong education for all, with
equitable funding for all school districts;
and improves educational quality through
better teacher pay and training, small
classes, administrative excellence, and
student-centered education.
- Ensures a supportive
learning environment that: challenges all
children to reach their highest potential;
respects their backgrounds; protects them
from violence, abuse, and bullying; and
provides programs to prevent substance
abuse, suicide, and other destructive
behaviors.
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Good
Government, Fair Taxes and Fiscal Responsibility |
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- Supports the elimination
of the Social Security tax earnings limit.
- Promotes the general
welfare, delivers promised social services,
makes needed public investments, and
embraces transparency, accountability, and
fiscal responsibility.
- Ensures an informed
citizenry by: promoting the diversification
of communications media; supporting public
broadcasting and upholding public interest
standards for broadcasters; expanding cable
franchising, and increasing public access to
communications by supporting an uncensored
and democratically managed Internet; and
extending low-cost, high speed Internet
access to all communities.
- Promotes democratic
accountability through: campaign finance
reform including publicly funded elections
at all levels; a fair
redistricting process; eliminating term
limits or increasing the number of terms for
state legislators; and a transparent,
equitable voting system where: every vote
counts, no voter is intimidated, ballots
have a verifiable paper trail, and
preference voting is supported through
reforms such as instant runoff voting or
fusion voting.
- Supports a fair,
progressive tax system that focuses tax
responsibilities on those most able to pay,
reduces reliance on property taxes, and
expands the tax base to include taxes on
non-essential services.
- That limits land taking
by eminent domain exclusively to federal,
state and local governments, only for
projects directly benefiting the public and
not for private gain or benefit.
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Freedom,
Safety, and National Security |
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- Protects the full
enjoyment of the Bill of Rights as a living
document, especially free speech, free
exercise of religion, separation of church
and state, and freedom from all forms of
discrimination.
- Supports the right to
privacy, to allow women to be secure in
their persons, as articulated in Roe v.
Wade, and guarantees the right to access all
forms of reproductive choices.
- Endorses the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, including its
guarantee that all people have the right to
food, water, shelter, medical care and a
good education.
- Supports domestic
security and rejects spying on American
citizens without warrants.
- Protects our communities
by requiring businesses and organizations to
act responsibly toward their employees,
their communities, and the environment.
- Protects our communities
by strongly prosecuting corporate crime,
preventing crime of all kinds, reforming
prosecution of non- violent offenders, and
uniformly enforcing laws.
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Civil Rights |
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- Enforces all laws that
protect civil rights, provide equal
treatment, and prohibit discrimination based
on race, color, gender, age, physical and
mental ability, religion, ancestry, national
origin, and sexual orientation.
- Supports affirmative
action to guarantee equal access for all
higher education, employment and other
opportunities based on race and gender.
- Enforces Maine’s hate
crimes law and supports enacting same at the
federal level; opposes racial, ethnic, and
religious profiling; and prosecutes efforts
to intimidate voters and restrict voter
rights, particularly on the basis of race.
- Respects the dignity of
all immigrants, ensures their basic human
rights, and offers a path to legal residence
for undocumented immigrants.
- Extends to Gay and
Lesbian couples and their families all the
same legal and social rights and protections
that other couples now receive through civil
marriage; and opposes any constitutional
amendment or legislation that would deny
these rights.
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Environmental
Protection |
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- Conserves our working
landscape and natural heritage through
responsible stewardship of our environment
and natural resources; and opposes
environmental degradation, in accordance
with the “precautionary” principle.
- Promotes protection of
open space and responsible land and marine
use laws and planning processes, and makes
comprehensive environmental and
socioeconomic impact reports an integral
part of the decision-making process for all
proposed projects that may significantly
affect Maine’s communities and environment.
- Conserves and protects
land, water, forest, wetland and marine
resources; expands public lands to preserve
biodiversity, vital habitats, scenery,
recreation, hunting, and fishing; and
promotes sustainable farming and fishing.
- Ensures access to clean,
safe public drinking, bathing and swimming
waters.
- Leads New England’s
campaign against airborne pollution,
eliminates harmful waste, and promotes
recycling.
- Promotes domestic,
environmentally sound, renewable energy
sources to increase efficiency, reduce
pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, and
to mitigate global climate change.
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Global Peace,
Security, and Justice |
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- Safeguards our national
security through peaceful solutions to
international challenges; supports
international law; honors ratified treaties;
works in good faith with other nations;
strengthens the United Nations and its
peacekeeping operations; and opposes
subversion of popularly elected governments.
- Establishes a Peace
Department in Maine Government
- Maintains a strong
defense force that is equipped and organized
to handle today’s foreign threats and is
supported by a reliable intelligence
service; works to reduce arms worldwide and
ultimately to eliminate all weapons of mass
destruction; and opposes new arms races and
pre-emptive war.
- Resolves the Iraq
conflict by handing real control of the
country to Iraqi authorities, bringing our
troops home, supporting Iraq’s
government and democratic process,
cooperating with the U.N. to finance and
organize reconstruction, and renouncing any
design on permanent bases or control of
Iraqi oil and other resources.
- Works for a settlement,
adhering to relevant international law,
allowing Israel and Palestine to be at
peace, with mutually recognized borders.
- Observes and strengthens
human rights everywhere in the world,
including the right to be free from torture,
the death penalty, or any other cruel
treatment; and leads the fight against
genocide.
- Promotes human dignity
and national and international security by
dramatically increasing support for
humanitarian assistance, international
development, and the elimination of poverty.
- Leads in shaping a global
economy that supports a fairer distribution
of growth and development among all peoples,
strengthens democracy, and protects the
environment, labor rights, public health,
and the public good.
- Ensures that current and
future trade agreements strengthen, not
undermine, domestic job markets, businesses,
and farms by assisting their integration
with the global economy.
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