O'ahu County Democratic Party Platform

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O‘ahu County Convention
May 6, 2006- McKinley High School

O‘AHU COUNTY PLATFORM

[adopted May 6, 2006 by the O‘ahu County Convention]

Preamble
Agriculture
Environment & Energy
Government & Political Reform
Healthcare
Human Rights & Civil Rights
Native Hawaiians & Indigenous People
Labor & Economic Justice
Transportation
Roll of the Democratic Party

PREAMBLE

The O‘ahu County Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i holds that democratic principles are the foundation of a safe, stable, and prosperous future and that these principles must be woven into the fabric of our social, cultural, and economic lives. In this platform, we declare our commitment to human rights, justice, and opportunity for all.

We value:
A premiere public education system available to every student, wherever they live in our islands and whatever their learning capacities, that will provide the foundation for a productive, resourceful, innovative and globally oriented civil society.

Economic progress as a means of attaining sustainable growth and broad-based prosperity, while providing equal and fair pay that provides security to Hawai'i's workers and contributes to the stability of our community.

Preservation of the fragile and complex ecology of our beloved islands by ensuring protection of our environment and habitat for the well being and enjoyment of future generations and to serve as an example to the rest of the world.

Quality affordable healthcare and a safety net of social services for all who are in need.

Respect for our host culture, encouraging its revitalization and self-determination efforts, as well as the new culture emerging from acceptance by and interaction with our hosts.

A government that will adequately, efficiently, courteously, openly and fairly administer to the needs of the people.

We recognize:
While rights are stated as individual rights in the state and national constitutions, each person also draws purpose and identity from group affiliations, and we believe the histories and needs of groups must be recognized and the legal obligations to them upheld.

We O'ahu Democrats abide by these guiding principles:

A recognition that we are responsible for our ethical, economic, environmental and educational legacy;
Education, jobs and economic opportunity for all;
Accessible and affordable health care for everyone in Hawaii and our nation;
A recognition that diversity strengthens our state and our nation;
Security for all citizens;
A reversal of the erosion of civil liberties in our country;
A rebuilding of our reputation in the world as a cooperative and just country;

AGRICULTURE

From the time Native Hawaiians set foot on these islands. Agriculture has sustained countless generations and profoundly shaped local culture and traditions. The future of agriculture in our state must be preserved and strengthened. The land designated for agricultural use must be maintained for the health and economic well-being of Hawaii's people and the self-sufficiency of our state.

Accordingly, we believe:

Any decisions about encroaching on water needed for current and future cultivation should be based on sound, credible economic and scientific information;
U.S. dollars earmarked for agriculture subsidies should go to sustainable family farms and not to agribusinesses;
The land use policies that were developed under Democratic leadership support the economic health of a key industry in our state and must be maintained.

We support:

Programs that provide an economic stimulus for survival, protection, and improvement of rural communities, including development of affordable high-speed internet access and rural transportation services;
Funding for agricultural commodity programs to assure long-term, economic viability of agriculture, availability of high quality food, and economic security of Hawai'i's people;
Conservation and environmental programs and economic incentives that help conserve agricultural land and natural resources such as soil, water, forests, and wildlife habitat;
Management of ocean resources and fisheries to prevent dangerous depletion;
Substantial funding for the University of Hawai'i School of Tropical Agriculture for research in sustainable, non-toxic farming techniques;

We recognize:

The need for new and sustainable development in rural areas and encourage various community-based approaches aimed at obtaining resources for such development.;
The role of farmers as 'stewards of the land'.

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY

If those empowered to make decisions regarding our natural resources disregard sound environmental practices, Hawai'i stands to lose the abundance of natural gifts we enjoy. We support practices that will create and maintain a sustainable high quality of life.

We support:

Conservation and development of clean, efficient, renewable, and natural sources of power;
Elimination of tax breaks to nonrenewable-energy companies, except for pollution control equipment;
Strong measures that reduce greenhouse gases;
Federal government restoration and cleanup of all contaminated lands and water, public or private, especially those degraded by military use;
Long-term policies that give priority to the preservation of biodiversity, protection of ecosystems and watersheds, and restoration of Hawaii's native birds other endangered species;
Efforts to reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides, and other persistent toxic chemicals;
Increasing governmental support for organic farming and preservation of agricultural land;
Programs to reduce sewage disposal and polluted urban and agricultural run-off into waterways and aquifers;
Efforts to reduce waste and to promote the reuse and recycling of materials;
Strengthening Hawai'i's land use laws and supporting neighborhood and community planners in their efforts to protect our quality of life;
Utilizing biomass conversion to process agricultural products and byproducts into renewable energy, including biodiesel and ethanol.

We oppose:

Exemption of military bases from environmental regulation.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICAL REFORM

We believe:

Taxes are the price of civilization; but we want our taxes to be levied fairly and spent frugally;
All regulatory agencies should be fully funded.

We support:

Immediate restoration of voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences;
Public financing of all election campaigns.
Laws requiring all broadcast license holders to provide adequate free airtime to political candidates as a condition of their FCC license;
Fair, voter-verifiable, fully transparent and auditable voting systems;
Enforcement of sunshine laws and transparency in sessions that discuss and make policy;
Aggressive congressional investigation of improper connections between government and industry;

We oppose:

Privatizing, outsourcing or off-shoring of governmental public services.

HEALTHCARE

We believe access to quality health care is a basic human right for all people, essential to national safety and well-being.

We support:

Creation of a universal, publicly funded, single-payer, not-for-profit, comprehensive health system preserving consumer choice;

Protection of a woman's right to private consultation and full access to information on all options regarding reproductive decisions;

Health Care Practitioners being allowed to perform reproductive procedures without fear of retaliation;

Parity of mental and physical health coverage;

Amending the Medicare prescription drug benefit to permit access to generic and other cost effective drugs;

Eliminating discrimination against low income patients in the delivery of equal health care;

A strong Patient Bill of Rights;

Improved long-term care of the consumer's choice (including home care and hospice), and ensuring living wages and training for caregivers;

Better regulation and inspection of institutional and residential health care systems;

Increased funding for prevention programs (such as nutritional education, prenatal care, reproductive health education, and suicide prevention) and disease research and control (including stem cell research);

Dedicating tobacco settlement monies only to tobacco-related health care programs and tobacco use prevention;

Privacy protection of jointly-owned (patient/facility) medical and mental health records, prohibiting the sale or disclosure of personal medical or pharmaceutical records;

A reasonable medical malpractice rate structure, preserving a right to a jury trial and ensuring fair awards for preventable medical errors. Insurance company stockholders, rather than healthcare providers, will bear the burden of investment losses;

The legalization of marijuana for medical purposes;

Preservation of existing VA hospitals and clinics, and increased funding for the long-term care of veterans, because we have a moral obligation to care for our veterans.

HUMAN RIGHTS & CIVIL RIGHTS

We believe:

That the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings are the foundations of freedom, justice, and peace in the world;

Food, shelter, medical care, education and jobs are basic human rights;

Each person has a right to live free from fear of personal injury;

The Patriot Act was created out of an irrational reaction to the terrorist acts of 2001, and therefore, the Act should be evaluated to remove components we believe to be unconstitutional and affect civil liberties, including, but not limited to:

free speech zones ;
indefinite detention;
no fly list;
enemy combatants status;
denial of access to counsel;
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

We insist that the Geneva Conventions be applied to all detainees, foreign or domestic, no matter where they are held.

We support:

The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1990;
Affirmative action; we believe those who suffer the burdens of discrimination must be afforded legal means and economic opportunities to overcome such injustice;
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the rights of senior citizens and individuals with disabilities to direct their own lives in housing, education and all other life choices;
The separation of church and state, including a ban on organized prayer in publicly funded schools;
A woman's right to choose as protected by Roe vs. Wade and the Hawai'i State law legalizing abortion;
The right to confidentiality of medical records and genetic information.

We affirm:

The right of women to sovereignty over their own bodies and support family planning and women's reproductive rights, regardless of age or ability to pay;
That the state should not interfere with couples who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities, and commitment of civil marriage, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The right to employment, housing, public accommodation, military service, insurance, licensing, or education without discrimination based on race, religion, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, size, political affiliation, or national origin.

We believe:

The inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings are the foundations of freedom, justice, and peace in the world, for all protected classes, including but not limited to race, religion, gender, disability, natural origins, sexual orientation, gender identity or experience and any other non-merit issue.

NATIVE HAWAIIANS & INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

We concur and affirm, as did the United States Congress and Administration in October 1993 in Public Law 103-150, that January 17, 1893, marked the "illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i" that resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of he Native Hawaiian people and further; commends the United States Congress for its apology "to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i on January 17, 1893, with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States, and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination."

We acknowledge that:

Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans in 1778, the Native Hawaiian people lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistent social system based on communal land tenure with a sophisticated language, culture and religion.

In 1810 a unified monarchial government of the Hawaiian Islands was established by Kamehameha I.

After contact with Western peoples, a vast majority of the Native Hawaiian population, the indigenous people of Hawai'i, the "host culture" of Hawai'i, feel victim to western disease for which they had no immunity resulting in catastrophic numbers of Native Hawaiians dying.

Native Hawaiians suffered spiritual degradation and cultural attack and social and economic manipulation at the hands of the dominant culture lead by business, economic and political power brokers that infested despair, disenfranchisement, disparity, and poverty among Native Hawaiians bringing the once literate, scientific, self-governing, world recognized and respected Native Hawaiian people to a near demise (as recounted similarly as the American way in the treatment of other Native people of America ---- American Indian and the Alaska natives)

Along with the historic injustice to Native Hawaiian people, the exploitation and abuse of natural and environmental resources of the Hawaiian ecology was despoiled beyond repair and native and traditional practices of environmental stewardship and land and resource management were suppressed in favor of "capitalism without conscience.

The impact on the Native Hawaiian people has continued to this day, demonstrated in numerous concrete and statistical ways.

The recognition of the historical problem has not yet led to a universally acceptable solution.

We support:

The commitment by the United States "to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, in order to provide a proper foundation for reconciliation between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people; and, urges the President of the United States to also acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and to support reconciliation efforts between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people."
The consistent implementation of State Constitutional mandates by state and local government relating to Native Hawaiians;
Efforts to find ways to ensure reconciliation with Native Hawaiian people to correct past historic wrongs.
Passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (S 147) and the process for Native Hawaiian self-determination, consistent with federal policy for native self-determination extended to other indigenous peoples of the United States, in respectful hope that this will set circumstances right.
The process determined by Native Hawaiians for the reorganization of the Native Hawaiian Government and the negotiations that will occur between the Native Hawaiian Government , the United States and the State of Hawai'i as described in the implementation of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act.

LABOR & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Economic justice for working families is essential for the realization of a democratic society.

We support:

Fair Taxation

Progressive tax system at both the federal and state level;
Incentives, including targeted tax credits, to businesses that provide family wage jobs with adequate healthcare and pension benefits, and special programs such as on-site daycare;
A fair system of paying for growth with impact fees; we oppose the cost-shifting of these expenses onto the general public.

Fair Pay

A minimum wage that is a living wage;
Equal pay for equal work;
Maintenance of state and federal prevailing wage laws;
Protection of overtime pay.

Fair Economic and Trade Policies

only multilateral trade agreements which are conditioned on environmental standards, human rights and workers rights, and which support democratic transparent processes;
economic policies conducive to the growth of small business and a strong independent farm system;
strict enforcement of all contracting laws, holding violators responsible for payment of all taxes and penalties.

Worker Rights

The rights of workers to a safe and healthy workplace, free from harassment;
The rights of all workers to organize and use mediation, arbitration, and the right to strike without fear of reprisal or replacement;
A workers' Bill of Rights that includes rights of assembly, association and free speech, due process, freedom from discrimination, and democracy within unions;
The right of new bargaining units to request mandatory arbitration on the first contract;
The repeal of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act, which has tilted labor law in favor of employers;
The automatic recognition of a union, based on signatures of a majority of those represented (card-check);
Full funding for enforcement of employment standards, child labor laws, and worker safety laws;
Protection of whistleblowers, (including Federal employees);
Responsible and responsive bidder language in all public-financed works that includes contractor responsibilities on fair wages, health insurance, retirement and training;

Social Security

A separate and dedicated Social Security Trust Fund;
Maintenance of disabled and dependent survivor Social Security benefits.

Support for Economically Disadvantaged

Welfare reform that will reduce poverty, not just the welfare rolls;
Funding childcare for citizens transitioning off welfare;
Public assistance safeguarding the vulnerable poor who cannot reasonably provide for themselves;
Increased affordable and low-income housing, with emphasis on home ownership;
Unemployment and retraining benefits for workers laid off or locked out by their employers;

We oppose:

Efforts to eliminate restrictions on the working hours of teenagers;
U.S. corporations going offshore in order to evade U.S. laws and taxes;
The privatization or out-sourcing of public services;
Profiteering, misuse of private data and predatory lending by financial institutions;
Right-to-work laws; Weakening of the Davis-Bacon Act or Little Davis-Bacon Act
Use of permanent replacement workers during strikes;
Supplanting public employees with low-wage, low benefit contract employees or prison labor;
Privatization of Social Security.

TRANSPORTATION

We support:

Making investments in public infrastructure that broaden both rural and urban transportation choices and reduce dependence on the automobile;

Making the island of Oahu pedestrian and bicycle friendly;

Improved facilities for non-motorized movement of people such as pedestrian paths, bicyclists, and people in wheelchairs;

Public involvement at all levels in developing transportation plans and systems;

Multiple funding sources, including fuel taxes, excise taxes and other fees, which are as

progressive as possible, as appropriate for funding essential transportation projects;

Elimination of all tax subsidies which benefit motor vehicles not meeting gas mileage

guidelines or that are not being used for their original intent;

Tax credits given to those vehicles that exceed gas mileage guidelines or use alternative fuels;

Safer intersections for vehicles and pedestrians through better design, improved traffic control measures, and where warranted, revision of existing practices for traffic control devices to permit longer phasing to pedestrian signals to enable safer crossing of high volume roadways;

The use of alternative fuels, electric and hybrid vehicles through targeted tax incentives;

We oppose:

HOT lanes, which promote the continued consumption of fossil fuels, require all tax payers to fund construction of toll roads for which they will then have to pay again to use, and create a two-tiered system in which everyone pays for roadways that will primarily be used by the most affluent individuals.

THE ROLE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Political parties educate and mobilize voters so that a governing majority may emerge and the governing party's values and a governing philosophy will guide policy making.

The Democratic Party of Hawai'i, as stated in its platform, has a public mission to perform, and a long and honorable tradition of fairness and justice to uphold.

Elected officials of the Democratic Party are to the party as living branches are to a tree, extending the core values and the philosophy of the party to provide protection and sustenance to the people of Hawai'i.

Sincere, spirited and open discussion about politics and policy is the soul of the Democratic Party. The quality of the democracy we create depends on the quality of this discussion and the implementation of action consistent with party values and philosophy.

The Democratic Party must not be merely a ceremonial organization nor solely a campaign organization but a champion for righteous action, leading with courage in a spirit of fairness and justice, with honor for all, particularly the people of the host culture of Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians.

Members of the Democratic Party will use our votes, voices, and collective effort to ensure the principles of American democracy are protected and our diverse people and cultures and the unique beauty of our islands are indeed preserved in righteousness.

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