Democratic Party of Wisconsin 2021 Platform
Adopted by DPW Virtual Convention on June 6, 2021
2544 words
(NOTE: this document differs from the original only in that is reformatted for readability to eliminate line numbers and to highlight key phrases of each paragraph, and to correct the word count.)
Preamble
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin strives to build an open, just, and strong society where all people have equal rights and equal opportunities to live meaningful, secure lives. We work actively for open, honest, and responsive government accountable to the needs and will of the people.
Justice, Human Concerns, and Democracy
One of the primary duties of government is to ensure that everyone can lead dignified, healthy, and fulfilling lives. We value love, commitment, stability, and the nurturing of all family members. We believe we are all equal regardless of race, color, class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, occupation, national origin, disabilities, appearance, and political beliefs. We support marriage equality for all couples. We will work to ensure that basic civil liberties are forever preserved.
It is vital [that] government respect, support, and protect freedom of expression. We hold sacrosanct our civil liberties, including but not limited to freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the presumption of innocence, the principle of habeas corpus, and due process under law. Nothing less than humane treatment of our fellow human beings is acceptable.
We are the party of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are a diverse people, and we celebrate our differences. Those differences are a source of our strength. Everyone must have an equal opportunity to succeed, an equal voice in government, and fair and equal treatment under the law. We respect the religious liberties of all people and welcome everyone. It is vital that the right to choose beliefs and philosophies remain intact. We must observe the separation between government and religion.
We believe that Black lives matter.
Marginalized groups often face formidable challenges, including oppression, voter suppression, and other discriminatory practices. They also suffer inadequate access to nutritious food, healthcare, education, employment, and housing. We shall work to eliminate these forms of discrimination.
We shall pursue legislation and cultural changes that end racial and ethnic profiling, respecting the Indigenous Nations’ sovereignty and ensuring equality among all genders. We shall work for qualified representation at all levels of government that reflects the diversity of our nation.
Empowering people in all civic affairs strengthens our nation. Government must be an open institution that people trust, is compliant with open meeting and public record laws, is elected through transparent, publicly funded state and national elections. We support a fair, non‐partisan redistricting process and oversight of elections.
Every citizen is guaranteed the right to vote and equal access thereto. We support same‐day registration, multiple avenues of registration, early voting, vote by mail, automatic voter registration, and making election days official holidays. We oppose voter ID requirements. We have the right and duty to inspect and count all votes and to have a voter‐verifiable paper ballot that guarantees accurate vote counting. The Presidential election should be determined by popular vote.
Our goal is a government and an electoral process free of the corrupting influence of money. We support limiting out‐of‐state campaign contributions and oppose unlimited political spending. The U.S. Constitution must be amended to make clear that corporations are not people and that money is not speech. Wisconsin must rescind its call for an open‐ended Constitutional Convention.
Access to accurate information and a diversity of viewpoints are essential to empowerment. The broadcast spectrum belongs to all citizens. We will work to ensure diverse local ownership of media outlets. We support public broadcasting and community‐owned media outlets. We support free and equal access to news media for all candidates for public office.
We advocate for comprehensive immigration reform legislation providing a reasonable legal path to residency and citizenship. The legislation must include a fair opportunity for current undocumented residents to achieve legal status.
It is important to care for all generations. We need affordable, quality, licensed daycare centers and government support to pay for childcare. We need health education and disease prevention and mental health programs addressing substance abuse, sexual health, and firearm safety.
It is essential that we expand Social Security programs for the elderly, disabled, and eligible dependents. We oppose privatizing Social Security as it threatens the financial security of all recipients and the stability of our economy. We must enhance programs for the aging and disabled, including subsidized long‐term in‐home or nursing home care.
Access to affordable, quality healthcare is a right. 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 healthcare programs on local, state and national levels, including BadgerCare, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Affordable Care Act.
Personal moral, religious, and medical decisions should be left up to the competent individual. We believe in freedom of reproductive choice, family planning, and the individual’s right to choose death with dignity including physician‐assisted end‐of‐life. Everyone has the right to obtain properly and legally prescribed medications from any licensed pharmacy on a timely basis. Funding for stem‐cell research should be supported on its scientific merits.
We must reimagine policing and criminal justice. Police brutality stains our nation’s soul and destroys lives. Our budgeting, training, rules, and systems of oversight for law enforcement must fight racism, build trust, and foster safety and justice for all.
Wisconsin has a high rate of imprisonment that not only is costly compared to neighboring states but also racially discriminatory, with no evidence it makes residents safer. We support reducing prison populations through increased use of probation, parole, and specialized courts to divert those suffering from substance addiction and mental health issues from prison to treatment.
We oppose the death penalty. It is inhumane and does not deter crime. We believe in equitable sentencing standards and increasing the authority of judges to modify sentences.
The ‘war on drugs’ is a colossal failure. We must discourage dangerous drug use without criminalizing the user and provide rehabilitative treatment to addicted persons. We encourage non‐penal sanctions for minor, first‐time drug violations. Marijuana should be legal, regulated, and taxed like tobacco and alcohol.
We support the Constitutional right to bear arms and their legitimate and ethical use for hunting, sport, and protection. We believe reasonable control measures must be enacted, including: a concealed carry ban, universal background checks, a ban on the sale or possession of military weapons and ammunition, a 48‐hour waiting period for all gun dealer sales, a red flag law with due process, and limiting the legal capacity of magazines.
Education, Labor, and Economics
We affirm the Wisconsin Idea. The UW System is a key driver of a strong Wisconsin economy and should be funded as an investment.
Quality public education for all is critical to a healthy democracy and economy. Public funding for private schools, including voucher programs, diverts resources from and adversely impacts public schools. We advocate for free K‐12 public education. Increased governmental funding is sential for all levels of public education.
America must support worker training, affordable tuition at state‐supported post‐secondary institutions, expanded access to grants and scholarships, and ample funding for research.
We must end the student debt crisis.
Students have the right to receive their education in a safe, respectful, and nurturing environment, free from harassment or discrimination. We support funding all elements of the curriculum, including the arts and physical education. Teacher and support staff compensation, including benefits, must keep pace with inflation.
Revenue caps on school districts and other local governments must be eliminated. State and federal governments must fully fund their mandates.
Public investment in the arts and humanities promotes healthy communities and healthy economies. We support increased local, state, and federal funding of arts and humanities.
Equitable and affordable access to public transportation and high‐speed internet must be provided in rural and urban areas.
A strong and secure state and nation depends on sound economic policy promoting and sustaining full, meaningful employment. Business, labor, and the public must work together to re‐establish American jobs on American soil. We support small business as a means of economic growth. We must resist outsourcing by eliminating tax breaks to employers who ship jobs overseas and creating incentives to bring jobs back to the U.S.
We support development and implementation of a strategic reindustrialization plan that identifies and supports domestic industrial capacity in key technologies.
The Federal Government should provide transitional jobs for all individuals who cannot find work and have no unemployment compensation.
Public and private workers have a right to at least $15 per hour, gender pay equity, safe and equitable workplaces, and secure benefits. Workers’ rights to organize, bargain collectively, and strike without fear of reprisal must be restored and strengthened. Election by card check reduces employer intimidation of employees’ choice of representation. Employees who benefit from union contracts should pay fair‐share dues. We support public employees’ rights to speedy mediation and binding arbitration of labor disputes. We support sectoral bargaining.
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 based on ability to pay. It is immoral to overtax those less able to pay while the wealthy are under‐taxed. The Federal Budget must reflect responsible spending and fair taxation. The State Legislature must tax corporations on par with the national average. Local jurisdictions must have authority to modernize their taxation systems.
Financial markets should be more effectively regulated to prevent fraud, excessive speculation, inappropriate compensation, predatory lending, and the need for taxpayer bailouts of mismanaged firms. We must put the needs of Main Street before the needs of Wall Street.
Mining authorizations should provide adequate tax revenue to support the affected communities in perpetuity.
American companies should be established here at home, follow our labor and environmental laws, and pay taxes for the good of the commons. We must protect our industries from competition by enforcing tariffs against nations that tolerate unfair worker conditions and environmental degradation.
America’s wealth should be measured not only by GDP and the Market but also by broad measures of well‐being that incorporate factors like health, education, literacy, employment and wages, and environmental quality.
Agriculture and Environment
We must preserve responsible family farming by creating market systems that assure a fair return to both farmers and processors. True cooperatives and family‐farm subsidies are essential to the economic viability and quality of life in rural areas. We support value‐added agriculture which includes farming endeavors outside traditional forms of agriculture. Regulations controlling environmental pollution from agriculture, especially CAFOs, should be strengthened.
We support farming systems that are humane to animals, preserve our soil, water and forest resources, and produce wholesome, safe food for consumers. We support agricultural sustainability through growth in “buy fresh buy local” practices which ensure markets for local farmers and save fuel by eliminating costly transport. We also support truth in labeling of conventional, organic, and genetically modified food.
We oppose seed producer patent enforcement that bars seed harvesting by farmers.
Climate change poses an existential threat to life on Earth. We support aggressive action to decarbonize our economy by the year 2035 to meet the global heating goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Historically marginalized communities, such as low income, indigenous communities, and communities of color face the worst consequences of climate change. Our leaders must pay heed to the scientific evidence of climate change while understanding we are facing a climate crisis with many inequities that cannot be ignored.
We support responsible environmental regulations affecting open space, wilderness areas, soil conservation, forest management, industry, and toxic and hazardous waste disposal and cleanup. We must maintain the integrity of our vast surface and subsurface fresh water supply, especially the Great Lakes and the Lake Wisconsin aquifer. We support retaining and expanding publicly owned recreational lands and wilderness. We oppose the transportation of shale and tar sands oil through Wisconsin.
We must develop clean, renewable,and sustainable energy sources without relaxing regulation of nuclear energy; encourage the use of fuel‐efficient and alternate‐fuel vehicles; reduce urban sprawl on prime agricultural land; improve and expand local, regional, and national mass transportation systems; and increase recycling and waste management while maintaining biodiversity.
We must prioritize public health, environmental protection, and the land and water treaty rights of native communities in the planning and implementation of all mining projects, including frac sand extraction. We support public, local control of municipal water and sewage systems. To ensure the protection of our state’s valuable natural resources, we support re‐establishment of a Public Intervenor’s Office and an independent Department of Natural Resources.
Foreign Affairs
We stand for human rights, social and economic justice, the rule of law, and popularly adopted democratic government worldwide. Our leaders and policies must honor international law and honor and promote international agreements that provide groundwork for a just, prosperous, environmentally healthy, and peaceful world. Our United Nations dues must be fully paid.
We call on our government to be a cooperative and effective leader, a partner in the pursuit of global accords to improve the human condition and protect the environment. We encourage international efforts to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, discrimination, war, genocide, torture, genital mutilation, human slavery and trafficking, capital punishment, pollution, and climate change.
We oppose trade and immigration policies that undermine our economy, harm working people in our country and elsewhere, and harm the environment.
We oppose unfettered international arms trade, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, land mines, radioactive materials in conventional munitions, ballistic missile defense systems, cluster bombs, militarization of space, and American‐run or funded internment camps.
We support a military sufficiently strong to safeguard national security. We must provide for the health and well‐being of members of the military during and after their service. We support efforts to eliminate the use of National Guard troops in undeclared wars.
Our military budget is disproportionately large compared to other nations. It should be reduced. We should curtail the influence of the “Military Industrial Complex.” Greater emphasis should be placed on economic development and diplomacy to achieve global security.
War is always a last resort. We must address grievances that foster terrorism, not fight wars that perpetuate them. We must abide by the Geneva Conventions.
We oppose preemptive war, including the use of drone strikes, without verified direct threat to our country.
We support refugees. We support the rights of people to seek a better life in America. Those rights extend to those fleeing the effects of climate change.
We support restoring America’s commitment to the global community.
Conclusion
The membership of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has crafted and adopted this platform. Our state and country will become stronger and better by following the principles herein. We expect all candidates supported by the Democratic Party to support this platform and to work to implement it.
