1. Protecting Americans’ Civil Rights
a. Committed to ending discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status
b. We will appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges who look like America, are committed to the rule of law, will uphold individual civil rights and civil liberties as essential components of a free and democratic society
c. committed to restoring the full power of the Voting Rights Act
d. enforce and strengthen the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
e. it’s time to root out domestic terrorism
2. Achieving Racial Justice and Equity
a. Our country’s history of racism has created lasting inequities in health, income, wealth, education, employment, etc for people of color
i. we will embed racial justice in every element of our governing agenda
ii. work to design policies that better address the needs of the most vulnerable communities
b. We can only build a more just and equitable future if we honestly reckon with our history and its legacy in the present
i. support removing the Confederate battle flag and statues of Confederate leaders from public properties
ii. invest in recovering, celebrating, and highlighting Black history as American history (Black history has often been intentionally suppressed or excluded from history books)
iii. Juneteenth (June 19th) should be recognized as a federal holiday
1. I love and agree with all of this. If you don’t know what Juneteenth is ( I didn’t until this year), check out this link. https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth
2. I absolutely believe that we need to join Black history and American history together into one. We are not teaching the full history of our country if we ignore Black history, or squish it all into the shortest month of the year.
3. I get that the Confederate flag and statues thing is a tough subject. I was against the idea until (get this) I actually started LISTENING to the people who are bothered by it, and WHY they feel it is such a problem. And now it makes sense. And honestly…should we really make a piece of fabric more important than the general feeling of safety and acceptance of our fellow human beings? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/06/pride-and-prejudice-the-americans-who-fly-the-confederate-flag
c. We believe Black lives matter!!
i. establish a national commission to examine the lasting economic effects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and racially discriminatory federal policies on income, wealth, education, health, and employment outcomes
ii. there can be no realization of the American dream without grappling with the lasting effects of slavery and facing up to the centuries-long campaign of violence, fear, and trauma wrought upon Black Americans
1. Yes. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. We have to talk about it and face up to it.
d. It is unacceptable that schools are more segregated today than they were in the late 1960’s
i. increase investments to guarantee all students can access high-qulaity public schools, no matter where they live
ii. https://www.vox.com/2018/3/5/17080218/school-segregation-getting-worse-data
iii. https://www.epi.org/publication/schools-are-still-segregated-and-black-children-are-paying-a-price/
e. restore the full powers of the Voting Rights Act
i. roll back discriminatory policies that have been put in place to prevent people of color from voting
ii. federal agencies should produce materials in languages commonly spoken in the US, voting materials should be easily accessible for citizens with limited English proficiency
3. Protecting Women’s Rights
a. ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
b. end pay inequality
c. pass the Paycheck Fairness Act
d. end sexual assault, domestic abuse, and other violence against women
e. repeal the Hyde Amendment and codify the right to reproductive freedom
f. require employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding workers
4. Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights
a. enact the Equality Act and at last outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in housing, public accommodations, access to credit, education, jury service, and federal programs
b. work to make sure LGBTQ+ people are not discriminated against when seeking to adopt or foster children
i. I think this is important. Studies show that kids who grow up with LGBTQ parents do JUST FINE. I would much rather put a child into a loving, caring, supportive home with LGBTQ parents than into a less caring situation with heterosexual parents.
c. guarantee transgender students’ access to facilities based on their gender identity
d. ban “conversion therapy” and expand mental health and suicide prevention services
i. This is the section where I was like…see if I were LGBTQ I would feel like the Democratic party cares about ME and the difficulties I face in life. This is a group that is used to being pushed to the side. To be so specifically discussed in a positive light in this platform is so validating, I’m sure.
5. Protecting Disability Rights
a. fully enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and the Help America Vote Act
b. Repair damage done by the Trump Administration
i. https://khn.org/news/trump-rollback-disability-rules-ada-health-care-hurdles/
ii. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gop-s-h-r-620-will-gut-americans-disabilities-act-ncna850261
c. support screening and more assistance for those on the Autism spectrum
d. increase SSI benefits, eliminate waiting periods for SSDI and eliminate the benefit cliff for SSDI benefits
e. increase federal funding to expand accessible transportation and accessible, integrated, and affordable housing
f. expand home care workforce to end state waiting lists for long-term services and supports
6. Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations
a. recognize and support the sovereignty of Tribal nations
b. reject Trump Administration’s efforts to remove land that was put into trust by Obama
c. fight for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
d. reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act
e. defend Indian Child Welfare Act
f. invest in Indian Education and increase resources for programs that promote cultural preservation and enable Native students to learn their Indigenous languages
g. support national curricula to teach Native American history and culture in schools
h. committed to combating hurtful and racist Native American stereotypes in mainstream American cultures, especially those associated with sports teams and educational institutions
i. I used to think this was stupid. Now I wholeheartedly agree.
i. better support Native American Veterans
j. hold an annual White House Tribal Nations Conference
k. support efforts for self-governance and self-determination of native Hawaiians
l. There was a whole lot more in this section so if this is of interest to you, I suggest you go read it, I was just running out of time and had to drastically summarize.
7. Ending Violence Against Women
a. reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women act
b. expand services for survivors of violence against women
c. enforce and provide tools and resources for schools to implement Title IX
d. increase resources to eliminate the national backlog of untested rape kits
8. Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence
a. support evidence-based programs that prevent gun deaths from occurring
i. make mental health care more accessible and support suicide reduction initiatives
1. 60% of gun deaths in America are suicides. https://gunsandamerica.org/story/19/10/01/the-majority-of-u-s-gun-deaths-are-suicides-but-a-new-poll-suggests-few-americans-know-it/
ii. fund interventions to reduce homicides and gun violence in neighborhoods
b. enact universal background checks
i. We already have background checks that everyone has to go through in order to buy a gun. The thing here is that this could mean that anyone who is going to use the gun has to also go through a background check. For example, my husband has bought his gun, and he went through a background check, but I didn’t, so in order to use his guns, I would have to go through one too. I don’t think this is necessarily a good thing, but it could go too far. Like…do you need a background check for every gun you use? Would that mean that if my husband and his cousins go shooting, they can’t use each other’s’ guns because they have only had background checks for their own guns? I’m not sure.
c. end online sales of guns and ammo
i. How does this stop anything? Again, this is a feel-good measure. If you buy a gun online, you still have to go through a Federal Firearms Licensed person to get the gun. He has to run the background check before you can get the gun. So people aren’t just buying guns on Amazon and having them shipped to their house. I’m not sure why we need to stop ammo from being purchased online either. It doesn’t really do anything. Maybe the facial recognition?
d. close loopholes that allow stalkers, abusive partners, and some individuals convicted of assault or battery to buy and possess firearms
i. This is a good thing, and hopefully this is something that happens.
e. fund the federal background check system
f. close the “Charleston loophole” and prevent those who have been convicted of hate crimes from possessing firearms.
i. Charleston loophole gives 3 days for a background check to go through. If it doesn’t come through (gets backlogged) the person can still go get their gun. So they want to extend this so there is more time.
g. ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines
i. “Assault weapon” does not have a very clear definition. It just refers to how the gun LOOKS, not what it can DO. There are guns that do the exact same thing, but because one looks scarier, it’s an “assault weapon” and people want to ban it. This is really stupid. https://www.nssf.org/msr/ As far as high capacity magazines go, anyone who is good with a gun can change their magazine in an incredibly short amount of time. It doesn’t make a very big difference.
h. incentivize states to enact licensing requirements for owning firearms
i. So this would make it so that you have to go through a class and get a license to own a gun. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, because we do this for cars, why shouldn’t we do it for guns? The thing that scares people is that this would create a registry of gun owners, and people don’t want the government to know who has guns.
i. allow courts to temporarily remove guns from the possession of those who are a danger to themselves or others
i. These are what are called “red flag” laws. This sounds good in theory, but what are the criteria? Can I call the police and say “My neighbor looks scary” and his gun will be taken away? If this happens it needs to be very specific to protect those who are not actually a danger to themselves or others.
j. pass legislation requiring that guns be safely stored in homes
i. This seems like one of those feel-good measures to me, because…who is going around checking to make sure I’m keeping my guns locked up according to the law? It seems more like one of those things that won’t actually prevent anything, it will just mean that when something bad happens, the person responsible will face harsher punishment if it’s discovered they weren’t storing the gun properly. Which I don’t feel like actually fixes anything.
k. gun companies should be held responsible for their products, we should repeal the law that shields gun manufacturers from civil lability
i. I really, really dislike this one. It is not a gun manufacturer’s fault that someone used their product to kill someone. Do we hold car manufacturers responsible when someone uses their car to run someone over?
ii. I have said this before, and I’ll say it again, I really believe that if we are going to get ANYWHERE in the gun safety debate, the regulations and ideas of how to make things safer MUST come from the second amendment activists and the people who know the most about guns. Mostly what I’ve seen is a bunch of shoulder shrugging, saying “We know gun deaths are a problem, but….second amendment, so….there’s nothing we can do.” No, there’s a solution, there IS something we can do, but we can’t sit here and let people who actually don’t know anything about guns to keep making annoying laws that don’t actually prevent gun deaths. There has to be some give and take.
9. Supporting Faith and Service
a. Religious freedom is a core American value and a core value of the Democratic Party
i. Democrats will protect the rights of each American for the free exercise of his or her own religion
ii. advocate for religious freedom throughout the world
iii. celebrate America’s history of religious pluralism and tolerance
b. reject broad religious exemptions to allow businesses, medical providers, social service agencies, and others to discriminate
c. confront white nationalist terrorism and combat hate crimes perpetrated against religious minorities
d. it is time to examine, confront and dismantle the government programs, policies and practices that have unfairly targeted American Muslims as security threats
i. Please don’t tell me that Democrats don’t care about religious freedom. I heard something good in a podcast recently and that was “Which is more important? Protecting people from discrimination or protecting the right to discriminate?” And I think that’s what we have here. Democrats are more concerned with protecting people from being discriminated against than they are with protecting your right to discriminate. You don’t have to agree with it, but there it is. And for the record, I do think it’s wrong to be like “Oh, my business won’t serve you because my religious beliefs go against your lifestyle.” I also was just thinking about this the other night…there is a difference between being persecuted for your beliefs and being told that your beliefs are not the only ones that are important. Religious persecution looks like a Jewish Community Center being burned down by an arsonist. Religious persecution looks like Muslims being ostracized from their communities. We’re used to Christianity being the dominant religion. Our national holidays, school musical programs, and even lots of curriculums are based in Christianity. And I’m not saying that’s BAD, I’m just saying, it’s not persecution when someone speaks up and says “Hey, Christianity isn’t the only religion in this country, can we get some representation and diversity here?”
10. Supporting Press Freedom
a. reject Trump’s denigration of the free and independent press, which has endangered reporters’ lives, helped fuel conspiracy theories, and depended district between Americans and their government
i. https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/freedom-press/donald-trump-thinks-freedom-press-disgusting
ii. https://pen.org/press-clip/trumps-attacks-on-the-press-are-illegal-were-suing/
b. will appoint an independent media professional to head the US Agency for Global Media
11. Supporting the Arts and Culture
a. continue policies and programs that promote the creative arts
b. support public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and for art and music education in public schools
i. I mean…I’m all on board for this. I can wax poetic on what a great injustice I feel it is that music and art programs are being removed from public schools.
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