2008 Albany County Platform
2008
“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
This platform has been developed
around three principles that Albany County
Democrats believe capture the most
important guidance for public policy and
legislation in 2008:
Integrity
Recognizing the ease with which
lofty concepts can be agreed upon, but set
aside when it comes time to
translate the abstract into the practical, we
provide limited elaboration of
each of these concepts as guidance to
ourselves and our candidates, officers,
and elected officials.
Integrity
Albany County Democrats recognize
the basic integrity of constitutional
government and public policy at all
levels as the foundation upon which our
society is built. All participants
should be confident that the fundamental
processes of election, appointment,
legislation, administration, and enforcement
are sound and faithfully adhered
to.
Government.
We recognize
government as the collective agent of “we the
people,” held to the same high
standards of morality, equality, and honesty
as we aspire to
individually.
Rule of Law.
We promote an
unflinching dedication to the rule of law—the
same law for everyone—including
the founding principles of checks and balances
and the separation of powers
between the legislative, executive, and
judicial branches, as mandated by the
U.S. Constitution, and including the faithful
execution of the laws, as
written, by competent and objective
executive-branch
agencies.
We
deplore recent actions of the national
executive branch to claim extraordinary
powers, under the doctrine of the “unitary
executive,” that encroach upon
constitutional limitations and upon functions
appropriate to the other two
branches. The President, with the complicity
of his party in Congress, has
compromised the Constitution, congressional
legislation, the judicial system,
and the principle of the balance of powers so
frequently as to endanger the
integrity of the processes upon which we
depend. This administration has
violated the Fourth Amendment through secret
domestic surveillance of private
communications, violated treaty obligations
and
In
defiance of his constitutional
responsibilities to “take Care the Laws be
faithfully executed” the President has
routinely used “signing statements” to
declare his intention to use or ignore the
legislation in ways that deny its
clear intention. He has further circumvented
legislation by issuing
regulations, instructing agency enforcement,
and making appointments in such
ways as to compromise the legislation’s intent
and purpose.
It is the
responsibility of the Congress, as the most
direct representatives of the
people, through its powers of oversight and
ultimately, through its powers of
impeachment, to restrain the executive and
restore the balances that the
Constitution requires.
Democrats urge
the Congress to accept these
responsibilities.
Transparency.
We believe that
the power of money can be a serious threat to
the integrity of government. We
therefore support full reporting of campaign
contributions to be made public
prior to elections, reasonable limits on
campaign contributions by individuals
and PACs, strict limits on gifts to office
holders and staff, and full
disclosure of formal connections with persons
or entities with financial
interests in legislation under consideration
or in government decisions or
actions, and full reporting by lobbyists of
expenditures on behalf of their
clients.
Similarly, we support a system
of electronic voting in the Wyoming
Legislature that places all votes in the
public record and methods of primary and
general election voting that leave a
full paper record of ballots.
Civil Rights.
We endorse the
freedoms embodied in The Bill of Rights,
recognizing that our desires for
personal, financial, and national security do
not trump our commitment to
respect and protect the individual rights and
privacy of our fellow citizens. We respect every
person's right to enter into
civil unions, regardless of gender, sex, or
sexual preferences.
Foreign Affairs.
We demand the same
commitment to democracy, self-determination,
open government, civil and human
rights, and the rule of law (national and
international) in our conduct of
foreign affairs as we espouse at
home.
Albany County Democrats are
committed to equal opportunity across our
society. While
government cannot and should not
guarantee outcomes, we believe public policy
should foster a social, economic,
and institutional environment in which all
individuals have the opportunity to
pursue life, liberty, and happiness to the
full extent of their abilities.
Education. We
support
investment in a strong and diverse educational
system, including statewide
funding and a commitment to development of the
knowledge required for the full
participation in the responsibilities of
citizenship, productive human
relations, and social and economic life.
In particular, access to higher
education must be maintained and
supported. We
recognize the importance
of job training and retraining in our
educational system, and emphasize that
public resources should be applied to ensure
general education as well.
We believe efforts like “No Child
Left Behind” go too far in replacing teacher
initiative and inspiration with
legislated standardization and testing.
We should make serious efforts to
improve the education of teachers,
including subject matter preparation and
review of teacher certification, and should
provide our teachers with the resources and
pay supportive of quality
instruction.
Employment.
Opportunities for
satisfying and justly-rewarded employment are
basic to a stable and successful
society. Quality
job creation should be
promoted by public development and maintenance
of supporting infrastructure
(transportation, communication, utilities),
public services, and the
recreational and cultural amenities that make
our communities attractive places
to live and do business.
We support the
development and implementation of clean energy
technologies. We
respect and recognize the right of workers
to collectively bargain to improve wages and
conditions when and where it is
necessary. The
diversification of the
We support just distributions of
the fruits of our labors and the burdens of
our taxes through maintenance of a
living wage and strongly progressive tax
policies, encompassing all forms of
income, to promote the prosperity of workers
and the middle class, the backbone
of our economy.
Immigration. The
Health Care.
Universal basic
health care is a necessity for the well being
of individual citizens and the
general, social, and economic welfare of the
nation. The
current, insurance-industry-based system
has failed to provide the means for basic care
for all.
Employer-based health care is a
poorly-distributed
burden which compromises the competitiveness
of participating employers and the
economic mobility of employees. We favor
moving as rapidly as possible toward a single
payer system modeled on
Medicare/Medicaid, paid for through payroll
taxes and the general fund. In the absence of the
necessary federal
policy, we applaud state-sponsored initiatives
in this regard.
We believe that health care for
women should include access to the full range
of reproductive health care
options. We
recognize the difficulty
with which some segments of our society accept
pregnancy terminations, and
emphasize the importance of comprehensive sex
education and pregnancy
prevention services, and believe that a
woman's fundamental right to choose
must be maintained.
Sustainability
Albany County Democrats encourage
a long-term vision for
Economy. In
Energy Policy and Climate
Change.
The thrust of current
Natural Resources.
At the state and
local level, we celebrate the importance of
clean air, land, and water, open
spaces, and
War and Diplomacy.
We must adjust to
a global economic, political, and military
environment by shifting our emphasis
from instruments of military power and
hegemony to efforts to engage problems through
diplomatic initiatives.
Refusals to talk to another party until they
have acceded to our demands have
often characterized the “diplomacy” of the
current administration with results
of stalemates rather than progress, anger
rather than reason, and a general
loss of our constructive influence in the
world. We must recognize the
legitimate interests of other nations and
their histories and cultures so as to
engage problems in the spirit of searching for
what we might do collectively to
resolve them.
The invasion of
We should demonstrate the seriousness
of our efforts to reduce the threat of
war
by reviewing our nuclear policies
with other nations, notably the former
Commendations