MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 2012 PARTY PLATFORM Preamble

Since the time of Jefferson and Jackson, the Democratic Party has led the struggle to strengthen democracy in our government. Democracy is the belief that the best repository of wisdom is 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 sustainable communities, fairness and opportunity for all, and investment in Maines 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.
In 1944 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt included an "Economic Bill of Rights," in the State of the Union address. These sentiments continue to inspire Democrats in Maine. We include FDR's speech here to highlight the critical role of aspirations for equality and social justice in our proud national heritage.

We adopt this platform as an expression of what Democrats in Maine support and as a guideline for elected officials in their political work.

A.

Economic Security, Economic Opportunity, and Economic Justice

We support a democratic government that, upholds the right of all people to participate fairly in our economy and earn equitable rewards for their contributions. counters the trend of economic inequality through effective regulation, progressive taxation, and responsible spending. keeps markets free from predatory practices. Commits itself, nationally, and as states, to the fundamental principle of fiscal responsibility.

Economic Security in Maine means: 1. Decent jobs with livable wagesa minimum wage high enough to raise a worker out of povertyfor all who can work. 2. Affordable, warm housing and access to transportation. 3. A strong, public Social Security program, unemployment compensation, rigorous regulation of all pensions, and protection of workers pension funds. 4. Public services provided without profit motive. 5. Protection from the repercussions of natural disaster. 1

Economic Opportunity in Maine means: 6. Thriving Maine-owned and operated businesses in all economic sectors including, but not limited to, tourism, arts, working waterfronts, well-managed woodlands, agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, technology, and local banks, credit unions, and other cooperatives. 7. Fair workplaces with all workers guaranteed the opportunity to organize unions, bargain collectively, and strike without replacement or reprisal. We oppose socalled Right to Work laws. Economic Justice in Maine means: 8. Workplaces free from health and safety hazards, discrimination, and harassment; respect for employees' family obligations, health, and other needs; and effective monitoring and enforcement of laws protecting workers. 9. Strong consumer protection in finance as well as products, in an economy free from discrimination. 10. Support for those suffering hardship, with strong measures to fight root causes of poverty and homelessness. 11. Supports elimination of the income cap on Social Security taxes. 12. Supports the repeal of the Social Security Windfall Elimination provision.

B. Health Care
We support a democratic government that: 1. Affirms quality health care as a fundamental human right and therefore promotes a universal, single-payer, non-profit health care system for Maine and the nation, with a primary mission of maintaining and improving health and wellness rather than profitability. We support and commend the progress represented by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 2. Protects womens access to reproductive choice. 3. Provides access to quality health care, including mental health, vision and dental care, especially in underserved areas. 4. Provides health care and community support for people with disabilities to live independently and work productively. 5. Ensures a safe, secure, nutritious food supply, including comprehensive truth-inlabeling requirements. 6. Promotes safe, nonviolent, and economically stable households. 7. Supports individual choice in managing the end of ones life.

C. Education:
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We support a democratic government that: 1. Guarantees an equitable, universal, high quality public education system that spans early childhood through college and workforce training. 2 Strengthens the development and capacities of all children with high quality preschool and childcare programs.

3. Ensure all students can choose from multiple educational pathways that meet their individual learning needs, and can graduate from high school prepared for college, career and citizenship. 4. Ensures all students have teachers who are well trained, equipped, and supported, and parents have opportunities to engage in their childrens learning. 5. Invests in college, apprenticeship, research and development, and workforce training programs that connect individuals to the high-wage employment opportunities of the future. 6. Addresses the skyrocketing cost of higher education by providing sufficient funding for instruction and need-based financial aid and supporting the Opportunity Maine Program to alleviate student debt for Maine Workers. 7. Holds our education system accountable for efficiently and effectively cultivating citizens that are well-educated, well-rounded, and capable of participating successfully in our economy and democracy

D. Ethical Government and Democracy

We support a democratic government that: 1. Promotes the general welfare by: delivering promised social services, making needed public investments, being transparent and accountable, and promoting effective use of available resources. 2. Makes needed public investments and actively works with the Federal Government to develop Maine's infrastructure: roads, bridges, energy production and distribution, and technological infrastructure such as broadband to rural communities. 3. Maintains the integrity of the U.S. and Maine Constitutions by strengthening separation of powers and requiring executive, legislative, and judicial accountability.

4. Call upon the United States Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission and to restore constitutional rights and fair elections to the people. 5. Opposes contracting the jobs of public employees to private entities or profitmaking agencies. 6. Understands that representative democracy depends on a well informed electorate, and promotes the free exchange of ideas and information without control or censorship. 7. Promotes democratic accountability through: campaign finance reform, including publicly funded elections at all levels; a fair assignment of Congressional and legislative districts; increasing the allowable number of terms for state legislators; and electoral reforms such as preference voting, proportional representation, voter-verified paper ballots, non-partisan election commissions, Election Day National Holiday, elimination of excessive personal identification for voting, and counting of every vote including valid provisional votes. 8. Restores the integrity of the Maine Clean Elections Act by crafting a robust requalifying option that ensures publicly-funded candidates remain competitive. 9. Supports fair compensation for state legislators and provides tools and resources they need to perform their work. 10. Promotes reforms to reduce the influence of professional lobbyists and increase the publics ability to influence laws and rules. Opposes the appointment of professional lobbyists as heads of state agencies. 11. Places a priority on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, reconciliation, and restitution; and enables prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of conflict. 12. Limits land taking by eminent domain to government entities, exclusively for projects directly benefiting the public and not for private gain. 13. Supports government regulation to protect citizens and consumers.

E. Freedom, Safety, and National Security

We support a democratic government that: 1. Cherishes our Constitutional and individual liberties and respects international law. 2. Protects the full enjoyment of the Constitution, especially its guarantees of free speech, free exercise of religion, separation of church and state, and freedom from all forms of discrimination.

3. Endorses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including rights to food, water, shelter, health, and education. 4. Neither conducts, aids nor condones torture. 5. Guarantees the right to privacy and rejects spying on citizens without warrants. 6. Upholds habeas corpus for all persons, rejects secret or indefinite detention, and provides detainees access to adequate and competent counsel and loved ones.

F. Civil Rights
We support a democratic government that: 1. Promotes full participation of all persons in all of societys activities. 2. Promotes and enforces laws, including Affirmative Action and hate crimes laws, that protect civil rights; prohibits racial, ethnic and religious profiling; guarantees equal access to education, employment, and housing; and prohibits discrimination based on race, color, gender, age, physical and mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, or sexual orientation. 3. Respects the dignity of all immigrants, ensures their human rights, and offers a path to legal residence for long-term and otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants. 4. Extends to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their partners all the same legal and social rights heterosexual couples receive, including civil marriage, and opposes legislation to deny these rights to any family. 5. Implements a transparent, equitable voting system where every vote counts, including write-ins, and enforces laws against intimidating voters or restricting voter rights. 6. Protects employees against unfair and arbitrary dismissal by (at a minimum) creating a right to administrative due process. 7. Fairly and uniformly protects injured workers and enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act, bringing into full compliance all public accommodations, including federal facilities.

G. Environmental Protection
We support a democratic government that: 1. Recognizes our obligation to actively protect earths environment for the sustainable use of future generations. 5

2. Confronts the causes of human-induced climate change through: reducing reliance on fossil fuels; supporting the development and utilization of renewable energy sources; lowering energy use through conservation, efficiency, and building standards; and decreasing transportation costs by supporting local producers. 3. Applies the precautionary principleit is the responsibility of those developing, manufacturing or selling products and technologies, and of agencies approving them, to prove their safety to the environment and all life. It is not the responsibility of consumers and affected citizens to disprove the safety of products and technologies. 4. Conserves our working landscape and natural heritage through responsible stewardship. 5. Promotes protection of open space and responsible land, freshwater and marine use; makes comprehensive environmental and socioeconomic impact reports an integral part of decision-making for proposed projects that would affect Maine's communities and environment; and supports local control of development and fosters environmental stewardship. 6. Conserves and protects land, water, forest, wetland, vernal pools, airspace, agricultural and marine resources; expands public lands to preserve biodiversity, vital habitats, scenery, recreation, hunting, and fishing. 7. Ensures access to clean, safe, public drinking and swimming waters, and protects surface waters and aquifers against economic exploitation. 8. Leads the region in fighting airborne pollution; defines, limits, and monitors out-of-state waste; eliminates harmful waste and prohibits improper chemical disposal; enforces the state's Solid Waste Hierarchy; and promotes redemption and recycling. 9. Limits and monitors sound and light pollution. 10. Protects the Gulf of Maine and its environs by support of the U.S. Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration and Conservation Plan.

H. Global Peace, Security, and Justice

We support a democratic government that: 1. Safeguards national security through peaceful solutions to international challenges; supports international law; works closely with allies; strengthens the United Nations; opposes subversion of democratically elected governments; acts to prevent genocide; and joins the International Criminal Court. 6

2. Reduces our international military footprint while maintaining a strong, effective defense force, equipped and organized to handle legitimate foreign threats and complemented by a reliable intelligence service; never launches undeclared or pre-emptive wars; minimizes use of private contractors; prevents civilian casualties; and works to reduce the world arms trade and eliminate weapons of mass destruction. 3. Strengthens the role of the Department of State; expands citizen cultural and educational exchanges with all nations; and supports NGOs and universities in the developing world. 4. Prioritizes multilateral efforts to end the threat of terrorism as well as situations of inequity and injustice which are the breeding grounds of terrorism. 5. Strives for a comprehensive approach to sustainable peace and stability in the greater Middle East through renewed emphasis on diplomacy, economic and social development, human rights, and reduction of military presence, notably: a. In Iraq, by continuing to reduce our security presence, while fostering an international stabilization program to support the Iraqi people. b. In Afghanistan, by refining strategic objectives to focus on eliminating the threat of terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies, achieving rapid and responsible military disengagement within one year; and supporting a legitimate government, protection of women, and functioning economy. c. In Iran, by redoubling nonviolent multilateral efforts to prevent development of nuclear weapons. d. In Israel and Palestine, based on recognition that both Israelis and Palestinians have rights to a presence and self-determination in the land that they share, by providing vigorous and persistent American leadership to achieve as soon as possible a just and lasting peace which provides for two viable States, Israel and Palestine, resolves all issues between the parties, and ensures security and equal rights for the citizens of each State. 6. Supports democratic reform and human rights and avoids support for nondemocratic regimes throughout the world. 7. Increases support for humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, international development, and the elimination of poverty, while decreasing funds for military assistance across the board. 8. Leads in shaping a global economy that supports a fairer distribution of growth and development among all peoples; respects indigenous leadership, trades and resources; and protects the environment, labor rights (including right to a fair wage), public health, and the public good.

9. Strengthens international financial mechanisms and regulation of international transactions. 10. Ensures that current and future trade agreements support and strengthen domestic jobs, businesses, and farms; eliminates all forms of government assistance for corporations that outsource jobs and businesses; and reforms existing trade agreements to include enforceable protections for workers and consumers rights and a sustainable environment. 11. Acts deliberately to reduce the U.S. trade deficit.

We, as Democrats of Maine, support these principles and pledge to work cooperatively with local governments, other states and nations, and all other parties for a better future for all Maine's people. Franklin D. Roosevelt, An Economic Bill of Rights Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our peoplewhether it be one-third or one-fifth or onetenthis ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rightsamong them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, howeveras our industrial economy expandedthese political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for allregardless of station, race, or creed. Among these are: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; 8

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; The right of every family to a decent home; The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and wellbeing. Americas own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. Source: The Public Papers & Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Samuel Rosenman, ed.), Vol. XIII (NY: Harper, 1950), 40-42