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 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.
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 wages—a minimum wage high enough to raise a worker
out of poverty—for 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.
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 women’s 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-in-labeling requirements.
6. Promotes safe, nonviolent, and economically stable households.
7. Supports individual choice in managing the end of one’s life.
C. Education:
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 children’s 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 public’s 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 society’s 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 earth’s environment for the
sustainable use of future generations.
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 principle—it 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.
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.
8. 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 people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is 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 rights—among 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, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these 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 all—regardless 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;
• 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.
America’s 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.
Source: http://www.mainedems.org/sites/mainedems.ngpvanhost.com/files/2012%20MDP%20Platform.pdf (accessed September 4, 2012)