To the Editor:
Regarding a recent letter writer to this paper (What Do Democrats Stand For? June 30). Answer: The Democratic Party produced a platform of their positions at the end of their last convention, unlike the GOP, which produced no platform, only urging, “vote for our guy.” To enlighten this reader, here are some positions that Democrats stand for:
As Democrats, the most important thing we believe in is democracy – that every citizen has a right to vote and should be encouraged to vote, and that every effort should be made to make voting accessible and easy.
Democrats believe in gender equality, equal pay for equal work, and for a minimum wage that is a living wage. Health care should be accessible and affordable for all citizens, and a college education or technical training should be available and affordable to anyone who qualifies. For this, Democrats are called Marxists by people who wouldn’t know a Marxist if they tripped on one.
America will never be a socialist country, and the days of untaxed, unregulated robber baron capitalism are over. The Constitution requires our allegiance to no one economic system, only to solutions that promote the general welfare.
Social Security and Medicare work, and they were called socialist when they were introduced. I doubt you could find too many seniors who would give them up today. Government of the people and by the people should be operated for the people.
Democrats hold that America is a nation of diverse cultures and religions and that this principle of ‘E Pluribus Unum,” makes us richer and stronger and ultimately a model for global peace, or what Lincoln termed “the last best hope of Mankind.”
Democrats believe that people’s sexual or reproductive lives are personal, not open to political debate, and certainly not any business of the government.
If you believe that sex should only happen between a married man and woman, you should understand that is a religious belief, which you are free to practice and preach, but you can’t expect the government to enforce those beliefs on others who don’t share them. The same is true for abortion, but that’s a more complicated discussion.
Democrats don’t want to take away the right to bear arms, only that gun ownership be well regulated. Outside strict military use, assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition are the tools of criminals. Reasonable regulation should help get guns off the streets.
It is a national shame that we’re experiencing a bloody massacre a month. Nowhere in the world does this happen on such a scale.
It’s time to get civilized, don’t you think?
