Union County Democrats Platform

Platform and Principles of the Democratic Party of Union County Oregon

(Adopted November 1, 2017)

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Preamble to the United States Constitution

We, the members of the Democratic Party of Union County Oregon, seek a better future for the present generation and generations to come. We recognize our rights and responsibilities as citizens of our local communities, our state, our nation and the global community. We hold that every person is guaranteed the rights to equity and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are confident that every one of us can maintain these rights while sustaining the interdependent web of life on this planet.

As Union County Democrats, we assert that as citizens of our county, our state and our country, we are the government, and promise to uphold the protections granted to us by our state and national constitutions. We stand firmly opposed to any attempt to compromise those rights and liberties in the name of governmental convenience or security. Where those rights and liberties are not fully realized, we pledge to help everyone within our borders to regain them.

The rise of runaway inequality and the failure of the liberal establishment to address it is an inescapable problem. We Democrats, who once spoke for working people, are in real danger of losing them. Since 2008, we have given up 917 state, local and federal elected offices. There are now 33 Republican governorships. Between 1980 and 2014, the income gap between the top 100 CEOs and the average worker climbed from $40-to-$1 to an incredible $844-to-$1. During that time the real income of the average worker (after accounting for inflation) actually declined. All boats are not rising. Both Republicans and Democrats alike rushed to deregulate Wall Street, which is a major cause of these enormous gaps.

As Union County Democrats we are committed to building a fairer and more just society through unity, progressive vision, massive education and organizing to restore democratic government of, by and for the people. We invite all Americans to join with us to affirm our democracy as a beacon of opportunity, tolerance, and freedom admired throughout the world.

We, the members of the Democratic Party of Union County Oregon, support the platform of Progressive Democrats of America:

• We support Healthcare as a Human Right--It is a moral outrage for a country as wealthy as ours to leave 60 million people with no reliable access to health care and tens of millions more with inadequate or overly expensive coverage. In addition, despite spending nearly twice as much as other developed nations on health care, our system performs poorly, because the private U.S. insurance bureaucracy soaks up as much as one-third of all the money and pharmaceutical interests overburden America by avoiding price competition. The Affordable Care Act and the proposed American Health Care Act must be replaced with universal, publicly funded Improved Medicare for All HB676.
• We support an Equal Rights Amendment—The National ERA 3 State Strategy Issue Team is dedicated to ratifying the ERA in the timeliest manner possible—to finish what Dr. Alice Paul started 90 years ago. Our strategy is two-fold—removing the ERA ratification deadline on the national level by educating Congress to support Joint Resolutions SJRES15 and HJRS113 while simultaneously organizing in targeted un-ratified states to gain the 3 additional states required to make the ERA the 28th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
• We support Ending Corporate Rule--Time and again, whether we are seeking sensible healthcare, environmental, economic, or foreign policy—supported by a majority of Americans—we hit a barrier, because corporate lobbyists and donors have managed to get between our legislators and us. We support reversing Citizens United.
• We support Stopping Global Warming--No issue reveals more clearly the flaws of the U.S. political-economic system than global warming. Greed and corporate power dominate the public good, and impose nearsighted focus on short-term profits instead of serving our long-term needs and the welfare of future generations.
• We support Protecting Voter Access & Election Integrity--The U.S. election system is in crisis. Big-money interests dominate U.S. politics in ways unknown in other industrialized countries, with social and environmental progress often blocked by officials who cater to big donors to insure re-election funds. Incumbents are unfairly insulated by district gerrymandering and rules which obstruct independent candidates and parties.
• We support Economic and Social Justice--The enormous wealth disparity between the top 1% and the rest of America is an unsustainable economic and social injustice. We are committed to an economic recovery that employs all those willing and able, that houses all those needing shelter, and that charges costs based on the ability to pay.
• We support Ending Wars and Occupations--Since 2001, terrorism and instability have increased wherever the U.S. has intervened militarily. We call on the President and Congress to rethink the false premises of an ever-expanding "global war on terror" in which Western-led alliances of absolute monarchs, corrupt governments and proxy forces fight endlessly proliferating enemies in more and more countries.