MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 2006 PLATFORM COMMITTEE INITIAL PROPOSAL RECOMMENDED MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM Download a PDF of this Platform Draft 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 and Opportunity 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. Ensures a fair workplace by: guaranteeing the rights 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. 4. 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, instate manufacturing and export of value-added products, and Maine food and fiber products. 5. 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. 6. 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. Healthy Communities and Educational Opportunity 1. Guarantees a fair healthcare system for all – specifically a comprehensive, national single-payer health insurance system; keeps its promises for Medicare, Medicaid, Dirigo, and other governmental healthcare initiatives; and invests in initiatives and research to improve public health and healthcare system effectiveness. 2. Ensures that people with disabilities can live with maximum autonomy in the community. 3. Helps children succeed by: providing vital services to families 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. 4. 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. 5. 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 and Fair Taxes 1. Promotes the general welfare, delivers promised social services, makes needed public investments, and embraces transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility. 2. 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, highspeed Internet access to all communities. 3. Promotes democratic accountability through: campaign finance reform; a fair redistricting process; extending or eliminating term limits 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. 4. 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. Freedom, Safety, and National Security 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. Endorses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including its guarantee that all people have the right to food, shelter, medical care and a good education. 4. Supports domestic security and rejects spying on American citizens without warrants. 5. Protects our communities by requiring businesses and organizations to act responsibly toward their employees, their communities, and the environment. 6. Protects our communities by cracking down on corporate crime, preventing crime of all kinds, reforming sentencing of non-violent offenders, and uniformly enforcing laws. Environmental Protection 1. 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" approach. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. Ensures access to clean, safe public drinking water; leads the fight against airborne pollution; and promotes domestic, environmentally sound, renewable energy sources to increase efficiency and reduce pollution, global climate change, and reliance on fossil fuels. International Peace, Security, and Justice 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. Works for a settlement, adhering to relevant international law, allowing Israel and Palestine to be at peace, with mutually recognized borders. 5. 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. 6. Promotes human dignity and national and international security by dramatically increasing support for humanitarian assistance, international development, and the elimination of poverty. 7. 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. 8. Ensures that current and future trade agreements strengthen, not undermine, domestic job markets, businesses, and farms by assisting their integration with the global economy. MDP2006Platform DraftInitial Final Hancock County Platform Committee members: Par Kettis – kettis@verizon.net 326-4548 Kent Price – kentprice@earthlink.net 469-1903 Kerri Jones – tgbeck@verizon.net 326-8491