Platform

AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT, AND NATURAL RESOURCES

We support natural resource management programs that will ensure both economic and environmental health and sustainability.

We support maintaining land for farming and crop production as well as maintaining forests for recreation and timber production.

We support protecting, enforcing, and strengthening Oregon's Land Use Law-Senate Bill 100-that ensures clean air and water; safe waste disposal; community recycling; land use planning; biological diversity; global warming reduction; energy efficiency; and viable, sustainable agricultural and forestry sectors.

BUSINESS AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS

We support the partnership of communities and small businesses. We believe the community should value and encourage small businesses and their owners. We also believe that businesses should support their communities through their employment and policy practices. We believe businesses should implement policies that support environmental sustainability and community participation.

Businesses should also ensure living wages and benefits for their employees. We support the right of all employees to be recognized and represented by a union if they so choose. We believe that consumers should have the ability to redress grievances with businesses and that the government plays a vital role in monitoring and regulating businesses to ensure fair practices for both consumers and employees.

CHILDREN, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES

We believe that we share with our government the obligation to assist those who are unable to provide for themselves, including those with mental illness. We believe that affordable health care, housing, and energy is a fundamental right and must be seen as our highest priority. Assistance must be provided in a manner that ensures individual initiative, safety, and dignity while encouraging self-sufficiency and independence. We support affordable, high-quality child-care programs, publicly funded libraries and publicly accessible information services. We support reforms to Social Security that will strengthen its financial viability; we oppose alternatives like privatization that would undermine the security that it is supposed to provide.

EDUCATION

We believe that education is the key to participatory democracy. It fosters a healthy society and a competitive economy. We support a public education system-from kindergarten through higher education-that is equitable to all students, that is excellent in content, and that is responsive to a variety of student needs. We believe public education must be adequately funded and available to all. We support access to quality pre-school programs, like Head Start. We support initiatives that encourage after school and summer youth development programs.

FOREIGN POLICY

Human rights and justice are central to the formulation and implementation of our foreign policy. We advocate a foreign policy that promotes global economic justice and fair trade; a policy that provides hope and the promise of long lasting peace and security for our world. We urge international cooperation in efforts to end terrorism, promote peace, safeguard the environment, and institute global democratic reforms. We support the newly modeled Peace Corps as an initiative for international cooperation and peace building.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL REFORM

Free and honest elections are essential to a democratic society. We must ensure that elective office is available to all candidates, regardless of their personal wealth or the wealth of their associates. All eligible voters must have the opportunity to vote and to have their vote counted. We are committed to increasing voter participation in all elections. We support campaign finance reform that helps achieve these goals. We support the vote-by-mail system and are opposed to the introduction of electronic voting machines. We believe that double majority elections and term limits are contrary to participatory democracy. We oppose most elements of the Patriot Act and support repealing this legislation.

HEALTH CARE

We believe that affordable, confidential, and quality health care should be accessible to all people through a comprehensive health care system. We support the maintenance of the Oregon Health Plan. We strongly support aid in the reduction of unintended pregnancies. We support options for women that include full term pregnancy, adoption, and abortion. We believe that abortion should be safe and legal but rare, due to accessable health care. We believe that both health care providers and patients have an inalienable right to freedom from harassment, intimidation, and physical harm. We support programs that protect personal and public health as well as the health of injured workers.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE

As citizens of the United States, it is our responsibility to foster democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and civil society worldwide. We value societal diversity. We oppose all forms of discrimination and any policy that limits protection from discrimination for any group. We support the right of all people to peaceably, publicly assemble and exercise their constitutional rights. Housing is a basic need that must be accessible to all. We oppose laws that criminalize poverty and homelessness. As Democrats, we support the protection of a citizen's rights to redress grievances through our court system. We oppose any action that abridges the constitutional rights and freedoms of any citizen.

LABOR AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

A healthy and sustainable economy is essential to Oregon. We support the right of workers to organize, to bargain collectively, and to strike, if necessary, without fear of permanent replacement. We believe employers should provide jobs that offer family wages and essential benefits. We oppose initiatives and legislation reducing the powers of labor unions to protect workers. We support economic diversity, access to child-care, affordable housing, small business incentives, and programs that promote a skilled and educated work force. We oppose the use of public funds to fight union organizing campaigns.

NATIONAL PRIORITIES

We support the five values proclaimed in the Constitution: Justice, Domestic Tranquility, Common Defense, General Welfare, and the Blessings of Liberty. We recognize that the Federal budget should focus on all of these noble values. We call upon Congress and the President to ensure an equal amount of funds toward every value enshrined in our Constitution; and to work towards a responsible and balanced federal budget. We believe in creating a message of hope rather than of fear.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Personal and public safety are fundamental rights. We affirm the constitutional right of all people to be secure in their person and their property. We support a criminal justice system that protects the rights of both the victim and the accused. We support effective rehabilitation programs and victim restitution programs when appropriate. We believe that the key elements to crime prevention are: education; economic opportunity; community involvement and responsibility; and meaningful consequences. We support the use of Oregon's tax revenues to house prisoners and to prepare them to return to society.

TAX POLICY

We support a progressive tax system that calculates individual and corporate taxes based on the ability to pay. We support a tax system that is simple and rewards thrift, initiative, and responsibility. We believe tax relief and incentives should be directed toward helping small businesses thrive in small or rural communities rather than toward attracting national corporations that disrupt our communities.

TRANSPORTATION

We support comprehensive, affordable, and environmentally sound transportation plans that support rail and light rail, air transportation, roadways, and other transportation alternatives in Oregon and across the United States.