2008 DPW Platform
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1 Democratic Party of Wisconsin 2008 Platform
2 Approved by Convention June 14, 2008
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4 Preamble
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6 The Democratic Party of Wisconsin strives to build an open, just and strong society where all citizens have equal opportunities to live meaningful, secure lives. We work actively for open, honest and responsive government that is accountable to the needs and the will of the people.
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11 Justice, Human Concerns, and Democracy
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13 Our government must support values common to all people, including freedom, fairness, family, responsibility and community.
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16 One of the primary jobs of government is to ensure that everyone can lead dignified, healthy and fulfilling lives. We value love, commitment, stability and nurturing of all family members.
18 Our Constitution guarantees that we are all equal regardless of race, color, class, religion, actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, age, occupation, national origin, physical disabilities or appearance, or political beliefs. We support equal legal rights for all individuals in
committed, loving relationships. We will work to ensure that basic civil liberties are forever preserved.
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24 It is vital that government respect, support and protect freedom of expression. When government attempts to limit the rights of its citizens, the fundamental philosophy on which our nation was established is destroyed. We hold sacrosanct our civil liberties, including but hardly
limited to freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the presumption of innocence and the principle of habeus corpus. Nothing less than the humane treatment of our fellow human beings is acceptable. Our government, checked and balanced among its three branches, serves
us, and should it fail to protect our civil rights or one branch usurp another, has itself failed.
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32 Our government serves us and protects our constitutional rights. We must fully fund our law enforcement activities and the defense of our nation. The men and women who serve us are our first line of defense, and we must provide for them. Security of our society must be our
concern, it cannot be given over to foreign interests nor can it be achieved if the resources of our first responders and military are unavailable here at home when we are in our greatest need.
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39 We will work to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, an equal voice in government and fair and equal treatment under the law. We recognize that minorities, senior citizens, and the poor often face formidable challenges, including obstacles to voting. We will work to eliminate those obstacles. We pursue legislation and cultural change that end racial and ethnic profiling, respect the sovereignty of our indigenous Native American host nations
and ensure equality between men and women. We shall work for gender-balanced, qualified representation at all levels of government. Our goal is a government and an electoral process free of the corrupting influences of money and power wielded by some who lobby our
representatives.
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1 Empowerment of citizens in all civic affairs strengthens our nation. Government must be an open institution that people trust, complying with open meeting and public record laws and elected through publicly funded state and national elections. Every citizen is guaranteed the right to vote and equal access thereto, including ex-offenders immediately upon release into their communities. We oppose voter ID requirements as discriminatory, equivalent to a poll tax, a voter suppression tactic, and a fraudulent solution to exaggerated voter fraud. We have
the right and duty to inspect and count all votes and to have a voter-verified paper ballot that guarantees accurate vote counting.
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10 We expect the swift impeachment and removal from office of officials who commit high crimes and misdemeanors.
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13 Access to accurate information and a diversity of viewpoints are essential to citizen empowerment. The broadcast spectrum belongs to all citizens. Therefore we will work to ensure diverse local ownership of media outlets. We will provide strong support for public broadcasting and other community-owned media outlets. We support free and equal access to news media for all candidates for public office.
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19 We respect the religious liberties of all people and welcome them into the Democratic Party. It is vital that we observe a strict separation between government and religion. It is imperative to the survival of our Democratic Republic that the rights of citizens to choose their own religious and philosophical beliefs remain whole.
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24 We require a fair immigration policy providing a reasonable legal path to residency and citizenship. The policy must include a fair opportunity for current undocumented residents to achieve legal status. All people should be afforded the same basic principles of life, liberty, justice, and fair access to economic security.
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29 It is important to care for all generations. We need affordable, quality, licensed daycare centers and government support to pay for childcare. We cannot neglect our nation's future. We need health education and disease prevention programs concerning smoking, alcohol, and sexually
transmitted infections.
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34 Rather than abandoning our elderly and disabled, it is essential that we preserve Social Security programs. Privatizing Social Security threatens the financial security of the most vulnerable.
36 We must enhance programs for the aging and disabled, including subsidized long-term in-home or nursing home care.
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39 We believe access to affordable health care is a right and that the best solution to our national health care crisis is a single-payer system. Such a system must provide universal access for individuals of all ages, promote preventive measures, provide medications and therapy and
cover all physical and mental illnesses equally. Until that system is available, we support broader coverage and increased funding for the current health care programs on local, state and national levels, including BadgerCare, Medicaid and Healthy Wisconsin.
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46 Personal moral, religious and medical decisions should be left up to the individual. We believe in complete freedom of reproductive choice, as well as the individual’s right to choose death with dignity. Everyone has the right to timely obtain medications, properly and legally
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1 prescribed by their physician, from any licensed pharmacy. It is neither the role of the pharmacist nor the government to interfere in private medical decisions. Funding for stem-cell research should not be influenced by religious beliefs. This research, which would benefit all
people, should be supported on its scientific merits.
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6 Considering the rising cost of corrections and long-lasting effects of incarceration, we support alternatives to prison.
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9 We oppose the death penalty as an inhumane and ineffective means of punishment. We believe in equitable sentencing standards and increasing the authority of judges to modify sentences. The war on drugs is a colossal failure. We must discourage dangerous drug use
without criminalizing the user and provide rehabilitative treatment to addicted persons.
13 Furthermore, the law should be changed immediately to process minor drug offenses as local ordinance violations.
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16 We support reasonable firearms regulations to ensure the safety of citizens and law enforcement officials. We support the right to hunt and bear arms. We support Wisconsin's concealed carry ban.
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21 Education, Labor, and Economics
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23 Quality public education for all is critical to a healthy democracy and economy. Public funding for private schools diverts resources from and adversely impacts public schools. Increased governmental funding and financial aid is essential for all levels of public education. Nobody
should be denied a quality education because of a personal lack of financial resources. The benefits of a quality education always outweigh the costs.
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29 We believe that students have the right to receive their education in a safe, respectful, and nurturing environment, free from harassment or discrimination by teachers, staff, parents, or other students. We support fair and equitable funding for all elements of the curriculum, including art, music and physical education. A strong Wisconsin public education system builds a strong Wisconsin.
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35 Wisconsin’s current educational funding system has failed. The law allowing a limited qualified economic offer has caused diminishing compensation for teachers. Teacher compensation must keep pace with costs of benefits and inflation. Public school teachers must not be taken for granted. They deserve tremendous respect for their work educating our youth under challenging circumstances.
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41 Revenue caps on school districts and other local governments must be eliminated. State or federal governments must fully fund their mandates.
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44 Public investment in arts and humanities promotes healthy communities and a healthy economy. We support increased local, state, and federal funding of arts and humanities.
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47 A strong and secure nation depends on sound economic policy that promotes and sustains full, meaningful employment. Business, labor and the public must work together to re-establish
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American jobs on American soil. We must resist outsourcing, thus reinvigorating domestic industries.
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4 Workers have rights to safe and equitable workplaces, living wages including pay equity for women, and secure benefits. Workers’ rights to organize, bargain collectively and strike without fear of reprisal must continue and be strengthened. We support public employees’ rights to
speedy mediation and binding arbitration of labor disputes. Businesses must be held accountable for contracts with their employees. Right-to-work legislation and the hiring of strikebreakers are anathema to a strong, justly-compensated workforce. Pension and other retirement funds must be strictly safeguarded and responsibly managed through regulation. In the event of bankruptcy, workers’ unpaid wages must be the first claim on remaining assets.
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13 We support a tax system that is based on ability to pay. It is immoral to increase the tax burden on those less able to pay while reducing it for the wealthy. Doing so fails to spur economic and job development and hurts those with the least income. The Federal budget
must be balanced through responsible spending and fair taxation. We call on the State Legislature to make corporate taxes on par with the national average.
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19 State and Federal governments must quickly take measures to protect victims of all forms of fraudulent, unscrupulous, or usurious lending.
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22 America must invest in an healthy economy by supporting worker training, affordable tuition at our state-supported universities and technical colleges and ample funding for research.
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25 American companies have an obligation to our nation to be established here at home, follow our labor and environmental laws and pay taxes for the good of the commons. Furthermore, we must protect our industries from competition by enforcing tariffs against nations that
tolerate unfair worker conditions and environmental degradation.
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30 All products sold by vendors at Democratic Party functions must be marked made in America or union made.
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33 Our wealth should be measured not only by the GDP but also by broad measures of well-being, such as the United Nations Human Development Index, that incorporate factors like health, education, literacy, employment and wages and environmental quality.
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38 Agriculture and Environment
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40 We must preserve family farming by creating market systems that assure a fair return to both farmers and processors. True Cooperatives and family farm subsidies are essential to the economic viability and quality of life in rural areas. In addition we support value-added agriculture which includes farming endeavors outside traditional forms of agriculture. Price supports for non-owner operated farms should be eliminated.
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46 We encourage legislators and Democratic Party leaders to support farming systems that are humane to animals, preserve our soil, water and forest resources, and produce wholesome, safe food for consumers. We support agricultural sustainability through growth in “buy fresh
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1 buy local” practices which insure markets for local farmers and save fuel by eliminating costly transport. We also support truth in labeling of conventional, organic, and genetically modified food.
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5 Protecting the ecological systems of our planet is essential to the economic and social welfare of our state and nation and to the future of humanity. Our legislators and leaders must pay heed to soil, water, and atmospheric pollution; scientific evidence of global warming; invasive
species; and decreasing biodiversity while enacting appropriate legislation to safeguard our environment. We must maintain the integrity of the vast fresh water supply in the Great Lakes.
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11 We must reduce greenhouse gases by developing alternative and sustainable fuels and energy sources; increase production of fuel-efficient vehicles; reduce urban sprawl onto prime agricultural soils; improve and expand local, regional and national mass transportation systems;
14 and increase recycling and waste management, all while maintaining biodiversity. We will restore responsible environmental regulations affecting open space, wilderness areas, soil conservation, forest management, toxic and hazardous waste disposal and cleanup and
watershed protection. We call for the use of advanced technology and environmentally-friendly practices to be implemented in industrial settings and mining natural resources and the enforcement and strengthening of safety regulations. To ensure the protection of our state's valuable natural resources, we support the re-establishment of a Public Intervener's Office and an independent Department of Natural Resources.
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24 Foreign Affairs
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26 We stand for human rights, social and economic justice, the rule of law, and popularly adopted democratic government worldwide. Our leaders must honor international law and honor and promote international agreements that provide groundwork for a just, prosperous,
environmentally healthy, and peaceful world. Our United Nations dues must be fully paid.
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31 We call on our government to be a cooperative and effective leader, a partner in the pursuit of global accords to improve the human condition and protect the environment. We encourage international efforts to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, discrimination, genocide,
torture, genital mutilation, human slavery and trafficking, capital punishment, pollution, and global warming. We support expansion of the Peace Corps.
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37 We oppose unfair trade and immigration policies that undermine our economy, harm working people in our country and elsewhere, and harm the environment.
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40 We oppose unfettered international arms trade, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, land mines, radioactive materials in conventional munitions, ballistic missile defense systems, cluster bombs, militarization of space, American-run internment camps and torture.
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44 We support a strong military as essential to our security and providing amply for the health and well-being of members of the military after their service.
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1 War must always be a last resort. We must address the grievances that foster terrorism rather than fight wars that perpetuate them. All in our Government and military must abide by the Geneva Conventions.
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5 Preemptive war without direct threat to our country and the continued occupation of Iraq are fraudulent, illegal, and disastrous. The occupation diverts our attention from defeating terrorists in Afghanistan and is killing or maiming tens of thousands of our military and millions of innocent Iraqis, contributing to devastation of our economy, encouraging terrorism, and undermining our credibility and standing in the world. We must end our occupation of Iraq.
10 Congressional action to stop funding it is long overdue.
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12 The bulk of today’s dangerous misdirection in our foreign affairs and turmoil undermining our military strength is due to individuals at the highest levels of our government who disdain our Constitution and the rule of law. Therefore we call upon Congress to begin impeachment proceedings immediately against President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and that they investigate and prosecute all members of the Bush Administration who have exceeded their office.
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19 We support leaders with vision and values who will uphold our Constitution, reverse the failures and illegalities of Bush’s administrations, and regain the global community’s admiration for our
country.
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24 Conclusion
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26 The membership of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has crafted and adopted this platform.
27 Our state and our country will become stronger and better by following the principles outlined herein. We expect all candidates supported by the Democratic Party to support this Platform and, when elected, to work to implement it.
To get a copy of the original document from the state Democratic Party of Wisconsin (
www.WisDems.org ) website click on the link below: