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Bruin Democrats
Platform
(Updated Winter, 2007)
Separation of Church and State
As Bruin Democrats, we support the separation of Church and
State. We believe that freedom of religion is a necessity.
Arguments based strictly on religious texts should be kept out
of public political debates, including arguments over a person's
reproductive rights and the right to die. We oppose the teaching
of Creationism, "intelligent design," and abstinence-only sex
education in our public schools, as well as the posting of the
Ten Commandments on state property.
Poverty
Because the gap between the wealthy and the poor has widened
over the past few years, it is our duty to help those who cannot
help themselves. The Democrats seek to help these people get
back on their feet when it is needed. An increase in the minimum
wage would certainly help our cause. To take that further, an
increase of minimum wage in congruence with inflation would help
as well. So, instead of having this debate every other year, the
wages increase when they are needed. This inherently raises the
standard of living for those at or below the poverty line who
depend on minimum wage. We must also promote a fair tax
distribution. This does not mean that we tax the rich
unnecessarily; rather it means that we promote taxation which
fairly taxes all people (above a certain amount of wealth),
instead of giving tax breaks to the richest Americans and
relying of the "trickle down" fantasy that has constantly failed
us time and time again. ∙ We also need to promote social and
outreach programs to people who need it. This would be extended
to drug abusers, mental patients, pregnant teens, and so on. We
must analyze our current programs as well. But, before all of
this, we have to strive to educate people about these problems
before they happen. Clearly, because we cannot teach everyone
these lessons, we must rely on the programs mentioned earlier to
help them with their problems when they arise. ∙ Also, we must
seek to reform the health care system. We must seek to
eventually provide all people basic coverage. But, in the
meantime, we must make progress towards this goal. A plan to
provide basic healthcare to all minors certainly seems feasible,
logical and attainable within the coming years.
Women’s Rights
The Bruin Democrats support women's rights to equality in civil
rights. This includes a right to equal representation in the
work force, both in equal wages and equal representation in
numbers. We support maternal leave, for both the pregnancy term
and the nursing period, with job security. We support welfare
recognizing single mother's needs and providing them the proper
resources for their children. We support both financial and
political support for organizations fighting against violence
against women. Finally, we support a woman's right to choose,
without the government putting any unfair restrictions on that
right, including parental notification stipulations.
Science
Stem Cells: The Bruin Democrats support the continued advancement of medical
knowledge through stem cell research. Stem cell research is
supported by a majority of Congress and the American people but
has faced strong opposition from the President. The federal
funding of stem cell research is likely to be beneficial to our
economy as it could reduce health care costs, create jobs, and
open the gateway to new technologies. Additionally we advocate
the opening of new lines of stem cells for both public and
private research. The lines currently available for research are
very limited and of poor quality. Many usable cells are being
wastefully discarded or kept in storage, while they could be
used ethically for important scientific purposes. We owe it to
our citizens to pursue stem cell research and its life-saving
potential. Space Exploration: The Bruin Democrats believe
in the need for mankind to explore the Final Frontier but to do
so in a smart and effective way. NASA deserves more than just adequate funding and should not be looked upon as an
antiquated program. To fully understand our world, it is
imperative that we fully understand the universe around us, and
thus it becomes necessary for continued support for our space
program. Sustainability: We live in a world of finite resources
and we must think of the future today for a better tomorrow.
Global warming, caused by pollution and other environmental
damage, is not a myth, but rather a scientific fact and we must
do everything possible to curb it. We support the Kyoto
Protocol, the Environmental Protection Act, and researching
alternative fuels, all of which will reduce emissions of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse (global warming causing) gases.
Further more, we support tax rebates for hybrid cars. The issue
of alternative energy promises to free us from the death grip of
foreign oil and the issue of finite resources. Alternative
energy shows the promise of being clean, renewable, and
American-made. We strongly support the research and development
of alternative fuels.
LGBT Rights
As Bruin Democrats, we believe in full rights to marriage to
ensure same-sex couples receive all the legal rights of
heterosexual couples. We feel discrimination and harassment in
housing, the workplace, schools, and elsewhere is intolerable
and should be illegal. All LGBT peoples should be able to serve
openly in the military. In addition, singling out gay men and
keeping them from being able to donate blood is no longer
practical or needed for public health, and only perpetuates
negative stereotypes about the gay community.
Healthcare (Universal Healthcare)
The Bruin Democrats takes a strong affirmative position on
Universal Healthcare. As Democrats, we feel that it is our
government's most basic and important duty to keep its populace
alive and healthy. As it stands now, not everyone who needs
health insurance has it; we feel this is unacceptable. Given
the rising drug costs and lack of coverage by private health
care agencies for those who need it most we think that general
healthcare should be available for all American taxpayers and
basic healthcare should be available for non-taxpayers who need
it. In order to introduce it in a way that would go over best
with the American citizens, we propose to start by offering it
to any and all minors residing in the country and eventually
expand it.
Click here to see our Platform from the
2005-2006 School Year
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