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:
Economic Security, Opportunity and Justice.
- 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.
Healthy Communities and Educational Opportunity
- 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.
Good Government, Fair Taxes and Fiscal Responsibility
- 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.
Freedom, Safety, and National Security
- 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.
Civil Rights
- 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.
Environmental Protection
- 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.
Global Peace, Security, and Justice
- 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.
Source: Maine Democratic Party Internet site http://www.mainedems.org/about/platform-rules.aspx. Accessed May 6, 2007. (Not accessible August 16, 2011)