Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

DAN BILLINGS: Democrats’ platform puts them ‘far to the left of most Mainers’

Party platforms have not been headline news in decades, but that changed recently when the usually moderate Maine Republican Party adopted a conservative platform influenced by the tea party movement.

click image to enlarge

Select images available for purchase in the
Maine Today Photo Store

In the days following the convention, the Maine GOP platform generated lots of comment across the country, with many media stories considering whether the platform was evidence of the Republican Party moving to farther right and what impact the new platform could have on Republican candidates in the fall.

I was a delegate to the Maine GOP convention and voted against the revised platform. I disagree with a number of the platform’s planks and am concerned that some of its more extreme provisions may be used against Republican candidates. But any fleeting doubt that I might have about my party was quickly eliminated by reading the proposed Maine Democratic Party platform.

Maine Democrats meet for their convention this weekend in Lewiston.

The platform that the delegates will consider is a collection of left-wing proclamations and promises to the special interests that make up the Democrat coalition.

While the Democrats have worked hard to portray Maine Republicans as out of the mainstream due to the new platform, the Democrats’ own platform puts their party far to the left of most Mainers, and even to the left of President Barack Obama.

Maine Democrats’ orientation is established early in the platform when they endorse a government that will ensure “jobs for all who can work; a livable wage; affordable housing, food, fuel, health care, and other essential commodities for all; and support for those suffering hardship.”

There is no explanation of how the government could ensure such things and, if it could, what it would cost.

Most troubling is the Democrats’ view that it is the government’s role to ensure all the essentials of life, with no mention of the role of businesses, charities and individuals in providing such essentials.

The Democrats’ debt to public employees is made clear in the platform. The party states its opposition to “reducing the Social Security benefits earned by workers who have also earned a benefit from public retirement plans.”

Again, there is no mention to the cost of this gift to public employees or what impact this would have on the looming insolvency of the Social Security system. The Democrats’ payoffs to public employees are scattered throughout the platform, including a blanket opposition to contracting out public services and an endorsement of higher pay for teachers.

The platform calls for changing the relationship that every Maine employer has with its employees by ending employment at will. The platform endorses giving every employee a due process right before the employee can be dismissed from a job — a fundamental shift in employment practices that will greatly increase costs and subject employers to endless litigation.

The platform also endorses guaranteeing employees sick time, a costly proposal which was recently rejected by the Legislature.

Maine Democrats also endorse a single-payer health-care system, which was rejected by the president and Democrats in Congress.

The platform takes positions that are contrary to the views expressed by Maine voters in recent referendums:

 • Gay marriage, despite the fact that Mainers voted against it last year.

• Extending term limits, even though Maine voters have endorsed term limits every time the issue has been on the ballot.

• Assisted suicide, which has been rejected by Maine voters.

• “Fair and equitable compensation for legislators,” which is liberal-speak for increasing salaries for politicians. (I wonder how many Democratic legislators will include increasing their own pay on their campaign brochures?)

• Public funding of campaigns “at all levels,” again with no mention of cost.

• Animal rights; abortion rights (not once, but twice); and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

I could go on, but space is limited. In short, the Maine Democratic Party platform is a far-left document that could have been crafted by one of the European socialist parties. The next time you hear a Democrat talk about the GOP being out of the mainstream, remember the platform that Maine Democrats will endorse this weekend.

Dan Billings is a Republican activist and commentator. He practices law in Waterville. He can be reached at dib9@aol.com.