The 2nd Draft of the 2008 Platform of the DPW is currently being reviewed. Edit suggestions are being accepted and voted on at the DPW CD Conventions.
Additional edits can be considered by delegates at the State DPW Convention in Stevens Point this June.
If you are interested in seeing how this draft compares to the 2006 Platform, click on the link to the left for DPW Platform as adopted 2006.
Resolutions should already have been approved at the County Level and are now being edited and approved at the CD Conventions for advancement to the State Convention.
If you have suggestions for Resolutions which cover timely issues of importance, you may submit them to the Platform and Resolutions Committee as a floor Resolution no later than three hours prior to the convening of the State Convention. (Details will be included in your State Convention Delegate packet.)
You will be required to submit a minimum of 50 copies for distribution to the delegates on the floor of the convention. The resolutions must include the name of the author, the name of the County Chair or CD Chair, the name of the CD that it is being submitted from and must not exceed 100 words in length (not including the title or names of the author, Chairs, or CD). Also include the word count. All resolutions must begin with a "Whereas" clause and end with a "Therefore" clause. For an idea of the topical areas covered by Resolutions and the proper format for writing them, please refer to the links to the left which show various resolutions which have been adopted at past State Conventions.
Please contact your Congressional District Representatives on the Platform and Resolution Committee or you County Democratic Party Officials with comments and suggestions. Or attend the State DPW Convention in Stevens Point as a voting Delegate so that you can present them yourself.
Contact your County Democratic Party Chair for information on how to become a Delegate to the State Convention. You will need to be a Democratic Party Member with paid membership, and appointed or elected to delegate position for the State Convention. Paid membership dues and listing as a Democratic Party member on the State rosters is a requirement for Delegate Status.
In addition, your County Party Chair or other officers are responsible for making sure that your name is submitted to the State HQ as a voting delegate, a non-voting alternate, or a guest to the State Party Convention. Check with them to make sure that your name gets on the list, and make sure that your membership dues are paid several months prior to the Convention! (Party rules require that membership dues and the list of delegates are turned in no later than 14 days prior to the State Convention, but bank transaction details are only processed and sent to the State HQ once a month for verification of Check or Credit Card Transactions. If you missed this month, your payment won't be verified/listed until next month's statement!)
Go to:
for a list of the County Chairs in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and their contact information.
For more information on the 2008 DPW State Convention, go to:
To become a Democratic Party Member for your County and State click here:
Democratic Party of Wisconsin 2008 Platform
Second Draft of Platform
Preamble
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.
Justice, Human Concerns, and Democracy
Our government must support values common to all people, including freedom, fairness, family, responsibility and community.
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. 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. Any freedom lost due to government restrictions imposed on any of us violates and endangers us all.
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, has itself failed.
Our government serves us and protects our constitutional rights. We must fully fund our law enforcement activities and the defense of our homeland. 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 National Guard and Homeland Security are unavailable here at home when we are in our greatest need.
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 Native American 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.
Empowerment of citizens in all civic affairs makes our nation ever stronger. 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 thereof. We have the right and duty to inspect and count all votes and to have a paper ballot that guarantees voting accountability.
We expect the swift and immediate impeachment of officials who commit high crimes and misdemeanors, regardless of political affiliations.
The broadcast spectrum belongs to all citizens; access to accurate information and a diversity of viewpoints are essential to citizen empowerment. 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.
We respect the rights of all people to their religious beliefs and welcome all citizens into the Democratic Party regardless of their beliefs. It is vital that we observe a strict separation between government and religion. It is imperative to the survival of our Republic that the rights of citizens to choose their own religious and philosophical beliefs remain whole.
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, and the pursuit of happiness.
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. By making people aware of high-risk behaviors and providing affordable healthcare assistance, they will be better able to adequately care for themselves.
Rather than abandoning our older generation, it is essential that we preserve Social Security. Privatizing Social Security threatens the financial security of the most vulnerable. We must enhance programs for the aging and disabled, including subsidized long-term in-home or nursing home care.
We believe access to affordable health care is a national 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.
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 obtain medications, properly and legally prescribed by their physician, from any licensed pharmacy in a timely manner. It is neither the role of the pharmacist nor the government to interfere in the private, personal decisions of citizens. Funding for stem-cell research should not be influenced by religious beliefs. This research, which would benefit all of mankind, should be supported on its scientific merits.
We oppose the death penalty as an inhumane and ineffective means of punishment. We believe in equitable sentencing standards and increasing the authority of duly elected judges to modify sentences. Furthermore, minor marijuana offenses should be processed as local ordinance violations.
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.
Education, Labor, and Economics
Quality public education for all is critical to a healthy democracy. Any form of public funding for private schools diverts resources from and adversely impacts public schools. Increased governmental funding is essential for all levels of public education, from early childhood to financial aid for attending UW and Technical Colleges. No child should be denied a quality education because of a personal lack of financial resources. The benefits of a quality education always outweigh the costs.
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 continued funding for all elements of the curriculum, including art, music and physical education. A strong Wisconsin public education system builds a strong Wisconsin.
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.
A strong and secure nation depends on sound economic policy including meaningful full employment. Business, labor and the public must work together to re-establish American jobs on American soil. We must resist outsourcing, thus reinvigorating domestic industries.
Workers have rights to safe and equitable workplaces, living wages and secure benefits and their rights to organize, bargain collectively and strike without fear of reprisal must continue. 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.
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 who have the least income. The Federal budget must be balanced through wise spending and fair taxation. We believe this generation should be responsible for paying its own debts.
America must invest in a healthy economy by supporting worker training, affordable tuition at our state-supported Universities and funding for ongoing research. American companies have an obligation to our nation to be established here at home, follow our environmental and labor 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.
Our wealth should be measured not only by the GDP but also by broad measures of wellbeing, such as the United Nations Human Development Index, that incorporate factors like health, education, literacy, employment and wages and environmental quality.
Agriculture and Environment
Wisconsin is America's Dairyland. We must preserve family farming by creating market systems that assure a fair return to both the farmer and the processor. 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 mega-farms should be eliminated.
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 food for consumers. We support agricultural sustainability through growth in the “buy fresh buy local” phenomenon which insures markets for local farmers and saves fuel by eliminating costly transport. We also support truth in labeling of conventional, organic, and genetically modified food.
Protecting the ecological systems of our planet is essential to the economic and social welfare of our state and our 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.
There is much to be done that has been ignored for too long. 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; 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 the creation of an independent Department of Natural Resources.
Foreign Affairs
Wisconsin Democrats work to protect and promote democratic forms of government, human rights, social and economic justice, and the rule of law worldwide. We call upon our leaders to promote and honor international protocols, conventions, covenants, accords and treaties that lay the groundwork for a just, prosperous and peaceful world.
We encourage international efforts to combat poverty, famine, disease, illiteracy, genocide, torture, capital punishment, pollution and global warming.
We find deplorable unfair trade and immigration policies, military and nuclear arms proliferation, land mines, chemical and biological weapons, the use of radioactive waste as munitions, ballistic missile defense systems, the militarism of space and American-run internment camps.
A strong military is essential to America's security, but preemptive war and the continued occupation of Iraq is a major mistake. The bulk of today's turmoil lies with individuals whose disdain for our Constitution and the rule of law is common knowledge. We have publicly and frequently detailed their long list of transgressions at home and abroad. The executive branch of government must maintain transparency in all decisions.
We pledge to lead with vision and values that respect the diversity of viewpoints and the right to self-determination for sovereign nations. We promise to uphold our Constitution, reverse the failures of the Bush administrations, and regain the admiration of our global community.
Our nation must seek to befriend others and encourage the native growth of democracy worldwide. We must address the grievances and problems that foster terrorism rather than preemptively fight the wars that perpetuate them. We have an obligation and duty to lead by example rather than by force. We pledge the United States to be a cooperative and effective leader, a partner with allied nations in the fight against terrorism and the pursuit of global accords on human rights, economic justice, ecological protection and alleviation of disease.
A pre-emptive war is against our nation's principles and harms our credibility and standing in the world. War must always be a last resort. All branches of our Government and military must conform to the Geneva Conventions and not tolerate the use of torture.
Conclusion
The membership of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has crafted and adopted this platform. 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.