1972 Democratic Party Platform
(25,653 words, 92 pages)
New Directions: '72-'76
Skepticism and cynicism are widespread in America. The people are skeptical of platforms filled with political platitudes ‹ of promises made by opportunistic politicians.
The people are cynical about the idea that a rosy future is just around the corner.
And is it any wonder that the people are skeptical and cynical of the whole political process?
Our traditions. our history, our Constitution, our laws, all say that America belongs to its people.
But the people no longer believe it.
They feel that the government is run for the privileged few rather than for the many ‹ and they are right.
No political party, no President, no government can by itself restore a lost sense of faith. No Administration can provide solutions to all our problems. What we can do is to recognize the doubts of Americans, to speak to those doubts, and to act to begin turning those doubts into hopes.
As Democrats, we know that we share responsibility for that loss of confidence. But we also know, as Democrats, that at decisive moments of choice in our past, our party has offered leadership that has tapped the best within our country.
Our party ‹ standing by its ideals of domestic progress and enlightened internationalism ‹ has served America well. We have nominated or elected men of the high calibre of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman. Adlai E. Stevenson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson ‹ and in the last election Hubert Humphrey and Edmund S. Muskie. In that proud tradition we are now prepared to move forward.
We know that our nation cannot tolerate any longer a government that shows no regard for the people's basic needs and no respect for our right to the truth from those who lead us.
What do the people want?
They want three things:
They want an opportunity to achieve their aspirations and their dreams for themselves and their children.
We believe in the rights of citizens to achieve to the limit of their talents and energies. We are determined to remove barriers that limit citizens because they are black, brown, young or women, because they never had the chance to gain an education; because there was no possibility of being anything but what they were.
We believe in hard work as a fair measure of our own willingness to achieve. We are determined that millions should not stand idle while work demands to be done. We are determined that the dole should not become a permanent way of life for any. And we are determined that government no longer tax the product of hard work more rigorously than it taxes inherited wealth, or money that is gained simply by having money in the first place.
We believe that the law must apply equally to all, and that it must be an instrument of justice. We are determined that the citizen must be protected in his home and on his streets. We are determined also that the ordinary citizen should not be imprisoned for a crime before we know whether he is guilty or not while those with the right friends and the right connections can break the law without ever facing the consequences of their actions.
We believe that war is a waste of human life. We are determined to end forthwith a war which has cost 50,000 American lives, $150 billion of our resources, that has divided us from each other, drained our national will and inflicted incalculable damage to countless people. We will end that war by a simple plan that need not be kept secret: The immediate total withdrawal of all Americans from Southeast Asia.
We believe in the right of an individual to speak, think, read, write, worship, and live free of official intrusion. We are determined that our government must no longer tap the phones of law-abiding citizens nor spy on those who have broken no law. We are determined that never again shall government seek to censor the newspapers and television. We are determined that the government shall no longer mock the supreme law of the land, while it stands helpless in the face of crime which makes our neighborhoods and communities less and less safe.
Perhaps most fundamentally, we believe that government is the servant, not the master, of the people. We are determined that government should not mean a force so huge, so impersonal that the complaint of an ordinary citizen goes unheard.
That is not the kind of government America was created to build. Our ancestors did not fight a revolution and sacrifice their lives against tyrants from abroad to leave us a government that does not know how to listen to its own people.
The Democratic Party is proud of its past; hut we are honest enough to admit that we are part of the past and share in its mistakes. We want in 1972 to begin the long and difficult task of reviewing existing programs, revising them to make them work and finding new techniques to serve the public need. We want to speak for, and with, the citizens of our country. Our pledge is to be truthful to the people and to ourselves, to tell you when we succeed, but also when we fail or when we are not sure. In 1976, when this nation celebrates its 200th anniversary, we want to tell you simply that we have done our best to give the government to those who formed it ‹ the people of America.
Every election is a choice: In 1972, Americans must whether they want their country back again.
II. Jobs, Prices and Taxes
"I went to school here and I had some training for truck driver school and I go to different places and put in applications for truck driving but they say, 'We can't hire you without the experience.' Now, I don't have the experience. I can't get the experience without the job first. I have four kids, you know, and I'm on unemployment. And when my employment runs out, I'll probably be on relief, like a lot of other people. But, being that I have so many kids, relief is just not going to be enough money. I'm looking for maybe the next year or too, if I don't get a job they'll probably find me down at the county jail, because I have to do something." ‹ Robert Coleman, Pittsburgh Hearing, June 2, 1972
The Nixon Administration has deliberately driven people out of work in a heartless and ineffective effort to deal with inflation. Ending the Nixon policy of creating unemployment is the first task of the Democratic Party.
The current Nixon game plan includes a control structure which keeps workers wages down while executive salaries soar, discourages productivity and distributes income away from those who need it and has produced no significant dent in inflation, as prices for food, clothes, rent and basic necessities soar.
These losses were unnecessary. They are the price of a Republican Administration which has no consistent economic philosophy, no adequate regard for the human costs of its economic decisions and no vision of what a full employment economy could mean for all Americans.
Jobs, Income and Dignity. Full employment ‹ a guaranteed job for all ‹ is the primary economic objective of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is committed to a job for every American who seeks work. Only through full employment can we reduce the burden on working people. We are determined to make economic security a matter of right. This means a job with decent pay and good working conditions for everyone willing and able to work and an adequate income for those unable to stork. It means abolition of the present welfare system.
To assure jobs and economic security far all, the next Democratic Administration should support:
The last is not least, but it is last for good reason. The present welfare system has failed because it has been required to make up for too many other failures. Millions of Americans are forced into public assistance because public policy too often creates no other choice.
The heart of a program of economic security based on earned income must be creating jobs and training people to fill them. Millions of jobs ‹ real jobs, not make-work ‹ need to be provided. Public service employment must be greatly expanded in order to make the government the employer of last resort and guarantee a job for all. Large sections of our cities resemble bombed-out Europe alter World War II. Children in Appalachia cannot go to school when the dirt road is a sea of mud. Homes, schools and clinics, roads and mass transit systems need to be built.
Cleaning up our air and water will take skills and people in large numbers. In the school, the police department, the welfare agency or the recreation program, there are new careers to be developed to help ensure that social services reach the people for whom they are intended.
It may cost more, at least initially, to create decent jobs than to perpetuate the hand-out system of present welfare. But the return ‹ in new public facilities and services, in the dignity of bringing a paycheck home and in the taxes that will come back in ‹ far outweigh the cost of the investment.
The next Democratic Administration must end the present welfare system and replace it with an income security program which places cash assistance in an appropriate context with all of the measures outlined above, adding up to an earned income approach to ensure each family an income substantially more than the poverty level ensuring standards of decency and health, as officially defined in the area. Federal income assistance will supplement the income of working poor people and assure an adequate income for those unable to work. With full employment and simpler, fair administration, total costs will go down, and with federal financing the burden on local and state budgets will be eased. The program will protect current benefit goals during the transitional period.
The system of income protection which replaces welfare must be a part of the full employment policy which assures every American a job at a fair wage under conditions which make use of his ability and provide an opportunity for advancement.
HR 1, and its various amendments, is not humane and does not meet the social and economic objectives that we believe in, and it should be defeated. It perpetuates the coercion of forced work requirements.
Economic Management. Every American family knows how its grocery bill has gone up under Nixon. Every American family has felt the bite of higher and higher prices for food and housing and clothing. The Administration attempts to stop price rises have been dismal failures ‹ for which the working people have paid in lost jobs, missed raises and higher prices.
This nation achieved its economic greatness under a system of free enterprise, coupled with human effort and ingenuity, and thus it must remain. This will be the attitude and objective of the Party.
There must be an end to inflation and the ever-increasing cost of living. This is of vital concern to the laborer, the housewife, the farmer and the small businessman, as well as the millions of Americans dependent upon their weekly or monthly income for sustenance. It wrecks the retirement plans and lives of our elderly who must survive on pensions or savings gauged by the standards of another day.
Through greater efficiency in the operation of the machinery of government, so badly plagued with duplication, overlapping and excesses in programs, we will ensure that bureaucracy will cease to exist solely for bureaucracy's own sake. The institutions and functions of government will be judged by their efficiency of operation and their contribution to the lives and welfare of our citizens.
A first priority of a Democratic Administration must he eliminating the unfair, bureaucratic Nixon wage and price controls.
When price rises threaten to or do get out of control ‹ as they are now ‹ strong, fair action must he taken to protect family income and savings. The theme of that action should he swift, tough measures to break the wage-price spiral and restore the economy. In that kind of economic emergency America's working people will support a truly fair stabilization program which affects profits, investment earnings, executive salaries and prices, as well as wages. The Nixon controls do not meet that standard. They have forced the American worker, who suffers most from inflation, to pay the price of trying to end it.
In addition to stabilizing the economy we propose:
Toward Economic Justice. The Democratic Party deplores the increasing concentration of economic power in fewer and fewer hands. Five percent of the American people control 90 percent of our productive national wealth. Less than one percent of all manufacturers have 88 percent of the profits. Less than two percent of the population now owns approximately 80 percent of the nation's personally-held corporate stock. 90 percent of the personally-held corporate bonds and nearly 100 percent of the personally-held municipal bonds. The rest of the population ‹ including all working men and women ‹ pay too much for essential products and services because of national policy and market distortions.
The Democratic Administration should pledge itself to combat factors which tend to concentrate wealth and stimulate higher prices.
To this end, the federal government should:
Tax Reform. The last ten years hare seen a massive shift in the tax burden from the rich to the working people of America. This is due to cuts in federal income taxes simultaneous with big increases in taxes which bear heavily on lower incomes ‹ state and local sales and property taxes and the payroll tax. These federal tax system is also still grossly unfair and over-complicated. The wealthy and corporations get special tax favors; some require major reform of the nation's tax structure ‹ to achieve a more equitable distribution of income and to raise the funds needs by government. The American people neither should nor will accept anything less from the next Administration.
The Nixon Administration, which fought serious reform in 1969, has no program, only promises, for tax reform. Its clumsy administrative favoring of the well-off has meant quick action on corporate tax giveaways like accelerated depreciation, while over-withholding from workers' paychecks goes on and on while the Administration tries to decide what to do.
In recent years, the federal tax system has moved precipitously in the wrong direction. Corporate taxes have dropped from 30 percent of federal revenues in 1954 to 16 percent in 1973, but payroll taxes for Social Security ‹ regressive because the burden falls more heavily on the worker than on the wealthy have gone from 10 percent to 29 percent over the same period. If legislation now pending in Congress passes, payroll taxes will have increased over 500 percent between 1960 and 1977 ‹ from $144 to $755 ‹ for the average wage earner. Most people earning under $10,000 now pay more in regressive payroll tax than in income tax.
Now the Nixon Administration ‹ which gave corporation the largest tax cut in American history ‹ is considering a hidden national sales tax (Value Added tax) which would further shift the burden to the average wage earner and raise prices of virtually everything ordinary people buy. It is cruel and unnecessary to pretend to relieve one bad tax, the property tax, by a new tax which is just as bad. We oppose this price-raising unfair tax in any form.
Federal Income Tax. The Democratic Party believes that all unfair corporate and individual tax preferences should be removed The tax law is clogged with complicated provisions and special interests, such as percentage oil depletion and other favors for the oil industry, special rates and rules for capital gains, fast depreciation unrelated to useful life, easy-to-abuse "expense-account" deductions and the ineffective minimum tax. These hidden expenditures in the federal budget are nothing more than billions of "tax welfare" aid for the wealthy, the privileged and the corporations.
We, therefore, endorse as a minimum step the Mills-Mansfield Tax Policy Review Act of 1972, which would repeal virtual all tax preferences in the existing law over the period 1974 - 1976, as a means of compelling a systematic review of their value to the nation. We acknowledge that the original reasons for some of these tax preferences may remain valid, but believe that none should escape close scrutiny and full public exposure. The most unjustified one of the tax loopholes should, however, be closed immediately, without waiting for a review of the whole system.
After the implementation of the minimum provisions of the Mills-Mansfield Act, the Democratic Party, to combat the economically-depressing effect of a regressive income tax scheme, proposes further revision of the tax law to ensure economy equality of opportunity to ordinary Americans.
We hold that the federal tax structure should reflect following principles:
Social Security Tax. The Democratic Party commits itself to make the Social Security tax progressive by raising substantially the ceiling on earned income. To permit needed increases in Social Security benefits, we will use general revenues as necessary to supplement payroll tax receipts. In this way, we will support continued movement toward general revenue financing for social security.
Property Tax. Greater fairness in taxation at the federal level will have little meaning for the vast majority of American households if the burden of inequitable local taxation is not reduced. To reduce the local property tax for all American families, we support equalization of school spending and substantial increases in the federal share of education costs and general revenue sharing.
New terms of federal financial assistance to states and localities should be made contingent upon property tax reforms, including equal treatment and full publication of assessment ratios.
Tax policy should not provide incentives that encourage over-investment in developed countries by American business, and mechanisms should be instituted to limit undesirable capital exports that exploit labor abroad and damage the American worker at home.
Labor-Management Relations. Free private collective bargaining between management and independent labor unions has been, and must remain, the cornerstone of our free enterprise system. America achieved its greatness through the combined energy and efforts of the working men and women of this country. Retention of its greatness rests in their hands. Through their great trade union organizations, these men and women have exerted tremendous influence on the economic and social life of the nation and have attained a standard of living known to no other nation. The concern of the Party is that the gains which labor struggled so long to obtain not be lost to them, whether through inaction or subservience to illogical Republican domestic policies.
We pledge continued support for our system of free collective bargaining and denounce any attempt to substitute compulsory arbitration for it. We, therefore, oppose the Nixon Administration's effort to impose arbitration in transportation disputes through its last-offer-selection bill.
The National Labor Relations Act should be updated to ensure:
The Railway Labor Act should be updated to ensure:
New legislation is needed to ensure:
Labor Standards. American workers are entitled to job safety at a living wage. Most of the basic protections needed have been recognized in legislation already enacted by Congress.
The Fair Labor Standards Act should be updated, however, to:
The Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act should be updated to provide adequate protection for injured workers and federal standards for workmen's compensation should be set by Congress.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 should be extended to be fully effective, and to cover professional, executive and administrative workers.
Maternity benefits should be made available to all working women. Temporary disability benefits should cover pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage and recovery.
Occupational Health and Safety. Each year over 14,000 American workers are killed on their jobs, and nine million injured. Unknown millions more are exposed to long-term danger and disease from exposure to dangerous substances. Federal and state laws are supposed to protect workers; but these laws are not being enforced. This Administration has hired only a handful of inspectors and proposes to turn enforcement over to the same state bureaucracies that have proven inadequate in the past. Where violations are detected, only token penalties have been assessed.
We pledge to fully and rigorously enforce the laws which protect the safety and health of workers on their jobs and to extend those laws to all jobs, regardless of number of employees. This must include standards that truly protect against all health hazards, adequate federal enforcement machinery backed up by rigorous penalties and an opportunity for workers themselves to participate in the laws' enforcement by sharing responsibility for plant inspection.
We endorse federal research and development of effective approaches to combat the dehumanizing and debilitating effects of monotonous work.
Farm Labor. The Sixties and Seventies have seen the struggle for unionization by the poorest of the poor in our country ‹ America's migrant farm workers.
Under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers have accomplished in the non-violent tradition what was thought impossible only a short time ago. Through hard work and much sacrifice, they are the one group that is successfully organizing farm workers.
Their movement has caught the imagination of millions of Americans who have not eaten grapes so that agribusiness employers will recognize their workers as equals and sit down with them in meaningful collective bargaining.
We now call upon all friends and supporters of this movement to refrain from buying or eating non-union lettuce.
Furthermore, we support the farm workers' movement and the use of boycotts as a non-violent and potent weapon for gaining collective bargaining recognition and contracts for agricultural workers. We oppose the Nixon Administration's effort to enjoin the use of the boycott.
We also affirm the right of farm workers to organize free of repressive anti-labor legislation, both state and federal.
III. Rights, Power and Social Justice
"We're just asking, and we don't ask for much. Just to give us the opportunity to live as human beings as other people have lived." ‹ Dorothy Bolden, Atlanta Hearing, June 9, 1972
"All your platform has to say is that the rights, opportunities and political power of citizenship will be extended to the lowest level, to neighborhoods and individuals. If your party can live up to that simple pledge, my faith will be restored." ‹ Bobby Westbrooks, St. Louis Hearing, June 17, 1972
"We therefore urge the Democratic Party to adopt the principle that America has a responsibility to offer every American family the best in health care, whenever they need it, regardless of income or any other factor. We must devise a system which will assure that ... every American receives comprehensive health services from the day he is born until the day he dies, with an emphasis on preventive care to keep him healthy .... " ‹ Senator Edward M. Kennedy, St. Louis Hearing, June 17, 1972
The Democratic Party commits itself to be responsive to the millions of hard working, lower- and middle-income Americans who are traditionally courted by politicians at election time, get bilked at tax-paying time, and are too often forgotten the balance of the time.
This is an era of great change. The world is fast moving into a future for which the past has not prepared us well; a future where to survive, to find answers to the problems which threaten us as a people. we must create qualitatively new solutions. We can no longer rely on old systems of thought, the results of which were partially successful programs that were heralded as important social reforms in the past. It is time now to rethink and reorder the institutions of this country so that everyone ‹ women, blacks, Spanish-speaking, Puerto Ricans, Indians, the young and the old ‹ can participate in the decision-making process inherent in the democratic heritage to which we aspire. We must restructure the social, political and economic relationships throughout the entire society in order to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth and power.
The Democratic Party in 1972 is committed to resuming the march toward equality; to enforcing the laws supporting court decisions and enacting new legal rights as necessary, to assuring every American true opportunity, to bringing about a more equal distribution of power, income and wealth and equal and uniform enforcement in all states and territories of civil rights statutes and acts.
In the 1970's, this commitment requires the fulfillment ‹ through laws and policies, through appropriations and directives, through leadership and exhortation ‹ of a wide variety of rights:
Free Expression and Privacy. The new Democratic Administration should bring an end to the pattern of political persecution and investigation, the use of high office as a pulpit for unfair attack and intimidation and the blatant efforts to control the poor and to keep them from acquiring additional economic security or political power.
The epidemic of wiretapping and electronic surveillance engaged in by the Nixon Administration and the use of grand juries for purposes of political intimidation must be ended. The rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution, as these concepts have traditionally been understood, must be restored.
We strongly object to secret computer data banks on individuals. Citizens should have access to their own files that are maintained by private commercial firms and the right to insert corrective material. Except in limited cases, the same should apply to government files. Collection and maintenance by federal agencies of dossiers on law-abiding citizens, because of their political views and statements, must be stopped, and files which never should have been opened should be destroyed. We firmly reject the idea of a National Computer Data Bank.
The Nixon policy of intimidation of the media and Administration efforts to use government power to block access to media by dissenters must end, if free speech is to be preserved. A Democratic Administration must be an open one, with the fullest possible disclosure of information, with an end to abuses of security classifications and executive privilege, and with a regular top-level press conferences.
The Right To Be Different. The new Democratic Administration can help lead America to celebrate the magnificence of the diversity within its population, the racial, national, linguistic and religious groups which have contributed so much to the vitality and richness of our national life. As thinks are, official policy too often forces people into a mold of artificial homogeneity.
Recognition and support of the cultural identity and pride of black people are generations overdue. The American Indians, the Spanish-speaking, the Asian Americans ‹ the cultural and linguistic heritage of these groups is too often ignored in schools and communities. So, too, are the backgrounds, traditions and contributions of white national, ethnic, religious and regional communities ignored. All official discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, language, political belief, religion, region or national origin must end. No American should be subject to discrimination in employment or restriction in business because of ethnic background or religious practice. Americans should be free to make their own choice of lifestyles and private habits without being subject to discrimination or prosecution. We believe official policy can encourage diversity while continuing to place full emphasis on equal opportunity and integration.
We urge full funding of the Ethnic Studies bill to provide funds for development of curriculum to preserve America's ethnic mosaic.
Rights of Children. One measure of a nation's greatness is the care it manifests for all of its children. The Nixon Administration has demonstrated a callous attitude toward children repeatedly through veto and administrative decisions. We, therefore, call for a reordering of priorities at all levels of American society so that children, our most precious resource, and families come first.
To that end, we call for:
Rights of Women. Women historically have been denied a full voice in the evolution of the political and social institutions of this country and are therefore allied with all underrepresented groups in a common desire to form a more humane and compassionate society. The Democratic Party pledges the following:
Rights of Youth. In order to ensure, maintain and secure the proper role and functions of youth in American government, politics and society, the Democratic Party will endeavor to:
Rights of Poor People. Poor people, like all Americans should be represented at all levels of the Democratic Party in reasonable proportion to their numbers in the general population. Affirmative action must be taken to ensure their representation at every level. The Democratic Party guidelines guaranteeing proportional representation to "previously discriminated against groups" (enumerated as 'women, young people and minorities') must be extended to specifically include poor people.
Rights of American Indians. We support rights of American Indians to full rights of citizenship. The federal government should commit all necessary funds to improve the lives of Indians, with no division between reservation and non-reservation Indians. We strongly oppose the policy of termination, and we urge the government to provide unequivocal advocacy for the protection of the remaining Indian land and water resources. All land rights due American Indians, and Americans of Spanish and Mexican descent, on the basis of treaties with the federal government will be protected by the federal government.
American Indians should be given the right to receive bilingual medical services from hospitals and physicians of their choice.
Rights of the Physically Disabled. The physically disabled have the right to pursue meaningful employment and education, outside a hospital environment, free from unnecessary discriminations living in adequate housing, with access to public mass transportation and regular medical care. Equal opportunity employment practices should he used by the government in considering their application for federal jobs and equal access to education from pre-school to the college level guaranteed. The physically disabled, like all disadvantaged peoples, should he represented in any group making decisions affecting their lives.
Rights of the Mentally Retarded. The mentally retarded must he given employment and educational opportunities that promote their dignity as individuals and ensure their civil rights. Educational and treatment facilities must guarantee that these rights always will he recognized and protected. In addition. to assure these citizens a more meaningful life, emphasis must he placed on programs of treatment that respect their right to life in a non-institutional environment.
Rights of the Elderly. Growing old in America for too many means neglect, sickness, despair and, all too often, poverty. We have tailed to discharge the basic obligation of a civilized people ‹ to respect and assure the security of our senior citizens. The Democratic Party pledges, as a final step to economic security for all, to end poverty ‹ as measured by official standards ‹ among the retired, the blind and the disabled. Our general program of economic and social justice will benefit the elderly directly. In addition, a Democratic Administration should:
The Democratic Party pledges itself to adopt rules to give those over 60 years old representation on all Party committees and agencies as nearly as possible in proportion to their percentage in the total population.
Rights of Veterans. It is time that the nation did far more to recognize the service of our 18 million living veterans and to serve them in return. The veterans of Vietnam must get special attention, for no end of the war is truly honorable which does not provide these men the opportunities to meet their needs.
The Democratic Party is committed to extending and improving the benefits available to American veterans and society, to ending the neglect shown by the Nixon Administration to these problems and to the human needs of our ex-servicemen.
Medical Care. The federal government must guarantee quality medical care to ex-servicemen, and to all disabled veterans, expanding and improving Veterans Administration facilities and manpower and preserve the independence and integrity of the VA hospital program. Staff-patient ratios in these hospitals should he made comparable to ratios in community hospitals. Meanwhile, there should be an increase in the VA's ability to deliver out-patient care and home health services, wherever possible treating veterans as part of a family unit.
We support future integration of health care for veterans into the national health care insurance program, with no reduction in scale or quality of existing veterans care and with recognition of the special health needs of veterans.
The VA separate personnel system should be expanded to take in all types of health personnel, and especially physician's assistants; and VA hospitals should be used to develop state medical schools and area health education centers.
The VA should also assume responsibility for the care of wives and children of veterans who are either permanently disabled or who have died from service-connected causes. Distinction should no longer be made between veterans who have seen "wartime," as opposed to "peacetime," service.
Education. Educational benefits should be provided for Vietnam-era veterans under the GI Bill at levels comparable to those of the original Bill after World War II, supplemented by special veteran's education loans. The VA should greatly expand improve programs for poor or educationally disadvantaged veterans. In addition, there should be a program under which servicemen and women can receive high school, college or job training while on active duty. GI Bill trainees should be used more extensively to reach out to other veterans who would otherwise miss these educational opportunities.
Drug Addiction. The Veterans Administration should provide either directly or through community facilities a comprehensive, individually tailored treatment and rehabilitation program for all drug- and alcohol-addicted veterans, on a voluntary and confidential basis, and regardless of the nature of their discharge or the way in which they acquired their condition.
Unemployment. There should be an increase in unemployment compensation provided to veterans, and much greater emphasis on the Veterans Employment Service of the Department of Labor, expanding its activities in every state. There should be a greatly enlarged effort by the federal government to employ Vietnam-era veterans and other veterans with service-connected disabilities. In addition, veterans' preferences in hiring should be written into every federal contract or subcontract and for public service employment.
Rights of Servicemen and Servicewomen. Military discipline must be maintained, but unjustifiable restriction on the Constitutional rights of members of the armed service must cease.
Rights of Consumers. Consumers need to be assured of a renewed commitment to basic rights and freedoms. They must have the mechanisms available to allow self-protection against the abuses that the Kennedy and Johnson programs we designed to eliminate. We propose a new consumer program:
In the Executive Branch. The executive branch must use its power to expand consumer information and protection:
In the Legislative Branch. We support legislation which will expand the ability of consumers to defend themselves:
In the Judicial Branch. The courts should become an effective forum to hear well-founded consumer grievances.
The Quality and Quantity of Social Service. The new Democratic Administration can begin a fundamental re-examination of all federal domestic social programs and the patterns of service delivery they support. Simply advocating the expenditure of more funds is not enough, although funds are needed, for billions already have been poured into federal government programs like urban renewal, current welfare and aid to education, with meager results. The control, structure and effectiveness of every institution and government grant system must be fully examined and these institutions must be made accountable to those they are supposed to serve.
We will, therefore pursue the development of new rights at two kinds: Rights to the service itself and rights to participate in the delivery process.
Health Care, Good health is the least this society should promise its citizens. The state of health services in this country indicates the failure of government to respond to this fundamental need. Costs skyrocket while the availability of services for all but the rich steadily decline.
We endorse the principle that good health is a right of all Americans.
America has a responsibility to offer to every American family the best in health care wherever they need it, regardless of income or where they live or any other factor.
To achieve this goal the next Democratic Administration should:
Family Planning. Family planning services, including the education, comprehensive medical and social services necessary to permit individuals freely to determine and achieve the number and spacing of their children, should be available to all, regardless of sex, age, marital status, economic croup or ethnic origin, and should be administered in a non-coercive and nondiscriminatory manner.
Puerto Rico. The Democratic Party respects and supports the frequently-expressed desire of the people of Puerto Rico to freely associate in permanent union with the United States, as an autonomous commonwealth. We are committed to Puerto Rico's right to enjoy full self-determination and a relationship that can evolve in ways that will most benefit both parties.
To this end, we support equal treatment for Puerto Rico in the distribution of all federal grants-in-aid, amendment of federal laws that restrict aid to Puerto Rico; and we pledge no further restrictions in future laws. Only in this way can the people of Puerto Rico come to participate more fully in the many areas of social progress made possible by Democratic efforts, on behalf of all the people.
Finally, the Democratic Party pledges to end all Naval shelling and bombardment of the tiny, inhabited island of Culebra and its neighboring keys, no later than June 1, 1975. With this action, and others, we will demonstrate the concern of the Democratic Party to develop and maintain a productive relationship between the Commonwealth and the United States.
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Trust Territories of the Pacific. We pledge to include all of these areas in federal grant-in-aid programs on a full and equitable basis.
We praise the Democratic Congress for providing a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives from Guam and the Virgin Islands and urge that these elected delegates be accorded the full vote in the committees to which they are assigned.
We support the right of American Samoans to elect their Governor, and will consider methods by which American citizens residing in American territories can participate in Presidential elections.
IV. Cities, Communities, Counties and the Environment
"When the Democratic Platform is written and acted on in Miami, let it be a blueprint for the life and survival of our cities and our people. "‹ Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson, Mayors' Conference, New Orleans, June 19, 1972
Introduction. Always the vital center of our civilization, the American city since World War II has been suffering growing pains, caused partly by the change of the core city into a metropolitan city and partly by the movement of people from towns and rural areas into the cities.
The burgeoning of the suburbs ‹ thrust outward with too little concern for social. economic and environmental consequences ‹ has both broadened the city's limits and deepened human and neighborhood needs.
The Nixon Administration has failed to meet most of these needs. It has met the problem of urban decay with tired, decaying "solutions" that are unworthy of the name. It could act to revitalize our urban areas; instead, we see only rising crime, fear and flight, racial and economic polarization, loss of confidence and depletion of community resources.
This Administration has ignored the cities and suburbs, permitting taxes to rise and services to decline; housing to deteriorate faster than it can be replaced, and morale to suffer. It actually has impounded funds appropriated by a Democratic Congress to help cities in crisis.
The Administration has ignored the needs of city and suburban residents for public services, for property tax relief and for the planning and coordination that alone can assure that housing, jobs, schools and transportation are built and maintained in suitable locations and in needed numbers and quality.
Meanwhile, the Nixon Administration has forgotten smalltown America too, refusing to provide facilities that would make it an attractive alternative to city living.
This has become the American crisis of the 1970's. Today, our highest national priority is clear and precise: To deal effectively ‹ and now ‹ with the massive, complex and urgent needs of our cities, suburbs and towns.
The federal government cannot solve all the problems of these communities. Too often, federal bureaucracy has failed to deliver the services and keep the promises that are made. But only the federal government can be the catalyst to focus attention and resources on the needs of every neighborhood in America.
Under the Nixon Administration, piecemeal measures, poorly funded and haphazardly applied, have proved almost totally inadequate. Words have not halted the decline of neighborhoods. Words have not relieved the plight of tenants in poorly managed, shoddy housing. Our scarce urban dollars have been wasted, and even the Republican Secretary of Housing and Urban Development has admitted it.
The Democratic Party pledges to stop the rot in our cities, suburbs and towns. and stop it now. We pledge commitment, coordination. planning and funds:
The nation's urban areas must and can be habitable. They are not only centers of commerce and trade, but also repositories of history and culture, expressing the richness and variety of their region and of the larger society. They are worthy of the best America can otter. They are America.
Partnership Among Governments. The federal government must assist local communities to plan for their growth and development, to improve conditions and opportunities for all their citizens and to build the public facilities they need.
Effective planning must be done on a regional basis. New means of planning are needed that are practical and realistic, but that go beyond the limits of jurisdictional lines. If local government is to be responsive to citizen needs, public services and programs must efficiently be coordinated and evolved through comprehensive regional planning and decision-making. Government activities should take account of the future as well as the present.
In aiding the reform of state and local government, federal authority must insist that local decisions take into account the views and needs of all citizens, white and black, haves and have-nots, young and old, Spanish and other non-English-speaking, urban, suburban and rural.
Americans ask more and more of their local government but the regressive property tax structure makes it impossible for cities and counties to deliver. The Democratic Party is: committed to ensure that state and local governments have the funds and the capacity to achieve community service and development goals ‹ goals that are nationally recognized. To this end:
Urban Growth Policy. The Nixon Administrations has neither developed an effective urban growth policy designed to meet critical problems, nor concerned itself with the needed recreation of the quality of life in our cities, large and small. Instead, it has severely over-administered and underfunded existing federal aid programs. Through word and deed, the Administration has widened the gulf between city and suburb, between core and fringe, between haves and have-nots.
The nation's urban growth policies are seen most clearly in the legitimate complaints of suburban householders over rising taxes and of center-city families over houses that are falling apart and services that are often non-existent. And it is here, in the center city, that the failure of Nixon Administration policies is most clear to all who live there.
The Democratic Party pledges:
The Cities. Many of the worst problems in America are centered in our cities. Countless problems contribute to their plight: decay in housing, the drain of welfare, crime and violence, racism, failing schools. joblessness and poor mass transit, lack of planning for land use and services.
The Democratic Party pledges itself to change the disastrous policies of the Nixon Administration toward the cities and to reverse the steady process of decay and dissolution. We will renew the battle begun under the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations to improve the quality of life in our cities. In addition to pledging the resources critically needed, we commit ourselves to these actions:
Housing and Community Development. The 1949 Housing Act pledged "a decent home and suitable living environment for every American family." Twenty-three years later, this goal is still far away. Under this Administration, there simply has been no progress in meeting our housing needs, despite the Democratic Housing Act at 1963. We must build 2.6 million homes a year, including two-thirds of a million units of federally subsidized low- and middle-income housing. These targets are not being met. And the lack of housing is particularly critical for people with low and middle incomes.
Under Republican leadership, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has become the biggest slumlord in the country. Some unsophisticated home buyers have purchased homes with FHA mortgage insurance or subsidies. These consumers, relying on FHA appraisals to protect them, often haze been exploited by real estate speculators and dishonest builders. Unable to repair or maintain these houses, the buyers often have no choice but to abandon them. As a result, the FHA will acquire a quarter million of these abandoned houses at a cost to the taxpayers of billions of dollars.
Under the Republican Administration, the emphasis has been on housing subsidies for the people who build and sell houses rather than for those people who need and live in them. In many cases, the only decent shelter provided is a tax shelter.
To correct this inequity the Democratic Party pledges:
The next Administration must build and conserve housing that not only meets the basic need for shelter, but also provides a wider choice of quality housing and living environments. To meet this challenger the Democratic Party commits itself to a housing approach that:
New Towns. New towns meet the direct housing and community needs of only a small part of our population. To do more, new towns must be developed in concert with massive efforts to revitalize central cities and enhance the quality of life in still growing suburban areas.
The Democratic Party pledges:
Transportation. Urban problems cannot be separated from transportation problems. Whether tying communities together, connecting one community to another or linking our cities and towns to rural areas, good transportation is essential to the social and economic life of any community. It joins workers to jobs, makes commercial activity both possible and profitable and provides the means for expanding personal horizons and promoting community cultural life.
Today, however, the automobile is the principal form of transportation in urban areas. The private automobile has made a major contribution to economic growth and prosperity in this century. But now we must have better balanced transportation ‹ more of it public. Today, 15 times as much federal aid goes to highways as to mass transit; tomorrow this must change. At the same time, it is important to preserve and improve transportation in America's rural areas, to end the crisis in rural mobility.
The Democratic Party pledges:
Moreover, we will:
Environment, Technology and Resources. Every American has the right to live, work and play in a clean, safe and healthy environment. We have the obligation to ourselves and to our children. It is not enough simply to prevent further environmental deterioration and the despoilation of our natural endowment. Rather, we must improve the quality of the world in which we and they will live.
The Nixon Administration's record on the environment is one of big promises and small actions.
Inadequate enforcement, uncertain requirements, reduced funding and a lack of manpower have undercut the effort commended by a Democratic Administration to clean up the environment.
We must recognize the costs all Americans pay for the environmental destruction with which we all live: Poorer health, lessened recreational opportunities, higher maintenance costs, lower land productivity and diminished beauty in our surroundings. Only then can we proceed wisely, yet vigorously with a program of environmental protection which recognizes that, although environmental protection will not be cheap, it is worth a far greater price, in effort and money, than we have spent thus far.
Such a program must include adequate federal funding for waste management, recycling and disposal and for purification and conservation of air and water resources.
The next Administration must reconcile any conflicts among the goals of cleaner air and water, inexpensive power and industrial development and jobs in specific places. These difficulties do exist ‹ to deny them would be deceptive and irresponsible. At the same time, we know they can be resolved by an Administration with energy, intelligence and commitment ‹ qualities notably absent from the current Administration's handling of the problem.
We urge additional financial support to the United States Forest Service for planning and management consistent with the environmental ideal stated in this Platform.
Choosing the Right Methods of Environmental Protection. The problem we face is to choose the most efficient, effective and equitable techniques for solving each new environmental problem. We cannot afford to waste resources while doing the job, any more than we can afford to leave the job undone.
We also need to develop new public agencies that can act to abate pollution ‹ act on a scale commensurate with the size of the problem and the technology of pollution control.
Expanded federal funding is required to assist local governments with both the capital and operating expenses of water pollution control and solid waste management.
Jobs and the Environment. The United States should not be condemned to the choice between the development of resources and economic security or preservation of those resources.
A decent job for every American is a goal that need not, and must not, be sacrificed to our commitment to a clean environment. Far from slowing economic growth, spending for environmental protection can create new job opportunities for many Americans. Nevertheless, some older and less efficient plants might find themselves in a worse competitive position due to environmental protection requirements. Closely monitored adjustment assistance should be made available to those plants willing to modernize and institute environmental protection measures.
Science and Technology. For years, the United State was the world's undisputed leader in science and technology. Now that leadership is being challenged, in part because of the success of efforts in other countries, and in part because of the Nixon Administration's neglect of our basic human and material resources in this field.
As Democrats, we understand the enormous investment made by the nation in educating and training hundreds of thousands of highly skilled Americans in science and technology. Many of these people are now unemployed, as aerospace and defense programs are slowly cut back and as the Administration's economic policies deprive these Americans, as well as others, of their livelihood.
So far, however, the Nixon Administration has paid scant attention to these problems. By contrast, the Democratic Party seeks both to increase efforts by the federal government and to stimulate research in private industry.
In addition, the Democratic Party is committed to increasing the overall level of scientific research in the United States, which has been allowed to fall under the Nixon Administration. And we are eager to take management methods and techniques developed for the space and defense programs, as well as our technical resources, and apply them to the city, the environment, education, energy, transportation, health care and other urgent domestic needs. We propose also to work out a more effective relationship between government and industry in this area, to stimulate the latter to a greater research and development effort, thus helping buoy up the economy and create more jobs.
Finally, we will promote the search far new approaches in science and technology, so that the benefits of progress may be had without further endangering the environment ‹ indeed, so that the environment may be better preserved. We must create a systematic way to decide which new technologies will contribute to the nation's development, and which will cause more problems than they solve. We are committed to a role for government in helping to bring the growth of technology into a harmonious relationship with our lives.
Energy Resources. The earth's natural resources, once in abundant and seemingly unlimited supply, can no longer be taken for granted. In particular, the United States is facing major changes in the pattern of energy supply that will force us to reassess traditional policies. By 1980, we may well have to depend on imports from the Eastern Hemisphere for as much as 30 to 50 percent of our oil supplies. At the same time new forms of energy supply ‹ such as nuclear, solar or geothermal power ‹ lag far behind in research and development.
In view of these concerns, it is shocking that the Nixon Administration still steadfastly refuses to develop a national energy policy.
The Democratic Party would remedy that glaring oversight. To begin with, we should:
We must also require fun disclosure of the energy needs of consumer products and home heating to enable consumers to make informed decisions on their use of energy.
The Oceans. As with the supply of energy, no longer can we take for granted the precious resources we derive from the oceans. Here. too, we need comprehensive national and international policies to use and protect the vast potential contained in the sea. In particular we must:
Ninety percent of all salt water fish species live on our continental shelves, where plant life is plentiful. For this reason, we support monitoring and strict enforcement of all safety regulations on all off-shore drilling equipment and on environmentally-safe construction of all tankers transporting oil.
Public Lands. For generations, Americans have been concerned with preserving the natural treasures of our country: Our lakes and rivers, our forests and mountains. Enlightened Americans of the past decided that the federal government should take a major role in protecting these treasures, on behalf of everyone. Today, however, neglect on the part of the Nixon Administration is threatening this most valued heritage ‹ and that of our children. Never before in modern history have our public lands been so neglected and the responsible agencies so starved of funds.
The Democratic Party is concerned about preserving our public lands, and promoting policies of land management in keeping with the broad public interest. In particular, it is imperative to restore lost funds for land, park and forest management. It is imperative that decisions about the future use of our public lands be opened up to all the people for widespread public debate and discussion. Only through such an open process can we set ground rules that appropriately limit the influence of special interests and allow for cohesive guidelines for national landuse planning.
We are particularly aware of the potential conflicts among the use of land, rivers, lakes and the seashore for economic development, large-scale recreation and for preservation as unspoiled wilderness. We recognize that there are competing goals, and shall develop means for resolving these conflicts in a way that reflects the federal government's particular responsibilities as custodian for the public. We need more National Seashores and expansion of the National Park system. Major steps must be taken to follow up on Congressional commitment to scenic riverways. Recreation areas must be made available to people where they live. This includes the extension of our national wilderness preserves to include de facto wilderness areas and their preservation free of commercialization. In this way, we will help to preserve and improve the quality of life for millions of our people.
With regard to the development of the vast natural resources on our public lands, we pledge a renewed commitment to proceed in the interests of all our citizens.
V. Education
"The American people want overwhelmingly to give to our children and adults equitable educational opportunities of the highest possible quality, not predicated on race, not predicated on past social accomplishment or wealth, except in a compensatory way to those who have been deprived in the past." ‹Governor Jimmy Carter, Atlanta Hearing, June 9, 1972
Our schools are failing our children. Never, more than now, have we needed the schools to play their traditional role ‹ to create a sense of national unity and to reconcile ethnic, religious and racial conflicts. Yet the Nixon Administration ‹ by ignoring the plight of the nation's schools, by twice vetoing funds for education ‹ has contributed to this failure.
America in the 1970's requires something the world has never seen: Masses of educated people ‹ educated to feel and to act, as well as to think. The children who enter school next fall still will be in the labor force in the year 2030; we cannot even imagine what American society will be like then, let alone what specific jobs they may hold. For them, education must be done by teaching them how to learn, how to apply man's wisdom to new problems as they arise and how to recognize new problems as they arise. Education must prepare students not just to earn a living but to live a life ‹ a creative, humane and sensitive life.
School Finance. Achieving educational excellence requires adequate financial support. But today local property taxes ‹ which do not keep pace with inflation ‹ can no longer support educational needs. Continued reliance on this revenue source imposes needless hardship on the American family without supplying the means for good schools. At the same time, the Nixon recession has sapped the resources of state government, and the Administration's insensitivity to school children has meant inadequate federal expenditures in education.
The next Democratic Administration should:
Early Childhood Education. Our youngest children are most ignored by national policy and most harshly treated by the Nixon Administration. President Nixon's cruel, irresponsible veto of the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971 indicates dramatically the real values of the present Administration.
That legislation struck down by President Nixon remains the best program to bring support to family units threatened by economic and social pressure to eliminate educational handicaps which leave disadvantaged children unable to compete m school: to prevent early childhood disease before it results in adult disability; to interrupt the painful, destructive cycle of welfare dependence, and, most important, to allow all children happy lives as children and the opportunity to develop their full potential.
Equal Access to Quality Education. The Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education established the Constitutional principle that states may not discriminate between school children on the basis of their race and that separate but equal has no place in our public education system. Eighteen years later the provision of integration is not a reality.
We support the goal of desegregation as a means to achieve equal access to quality education for all our children. There are many ways to desegregate schools: School attendance lines may be redrawn; schools may be paired; larger physical facilities may be built to serve larger, more diverse enrollments; magnet schools or educational parks may be used. Transportation of students is another tool to accomplish desegregation. It may continue to be available according to Supreme Court decisions to eliminate legally imposed segregation and improve the quality of education for all children.
Bilingual Education. Ten percent of school children in the United States speak a language other than English in their homes and communities. The largest of the linguistic and cultural groups ‹ Spanish-speaking and American Indians ‹ are among the poorest people in the United States. Increasing evidence indicates an almost total failure of public education to educate these children.
The drop-out rates of Spanish-speaking and Indian children are the worst of any children in the country. The injury is compounded when such children are placed in special "compensatory" programs or programs for the "dumb" or the "retards" on the basis of tests and evaluations conducted in English.
The passage of the Bilingual Education Act of 1967 began a commitment by the nation to do something about the injustice committed against the bilingual child. But for 1972-73, Congress appropriated $35 million ‹ enough to serve only two percent the children who need help.
The next Democratic Administration should:
Career Education. Academic accomplishment is not the only way to financial success, job satisfaction or rewarding life in America. Many young Americans think that college is the only viable route when for some a vocational-technical career offers as much promise of a full life. Moreover, the country desperately needs skilled workers, technicians, men and women who understand and can handle the tools and equipment that mean growth and jobs. By 1975 the need for skilled craftsmen will increase 18 percent while the need for college-trained persons will remain stable.
Young people should be permitted to make a career choice consistent with their interests, aptitudes and aspirations. We must create an atmosphere where the dignity of work is respected, where diversity of talent and taste is encouraged and the continuing opportunity exists to keep pace with change and a saleable skill.
To aid this, the next Democratic Administration can:
Higher Education. We support universal access to opportunities to post-secondary education. The American education system has always been an important path toward social and economic advancement. Federal education policy should ensure that our colleges and universities continue as an open system. It must also stimulate the creative development and expansion of higher education to meet the new social, economic and environmental problems confronting society. To achieve the goals of equal opportunity in education, to meet the growing financial crisis in higher education and to stimulate reform of educational techniques, the next Democratic Administration should:
Arts and Humanities. Support for the arts and humanities is one of the benchmarks of a civilized society. Yet, the continued existence of many of America's great symphonies, theatres and museums, our film institutes, dance companies and other art forms, is now threatened by rising costs, and the public contribution, far less than in most advanced industrial societies, is a fraction of the need.
VI. Crime, Law and Justice
"I think we can reduce crime. Society has no more important challenge because crime is human conduct and more than any other activity of people it reflects the moral character of a nation." ‹ Ramsey Clark, Washington Hearing, June 23, 1972
We advocate and seek a society and a government in which there is an attitude of respect for the law and for those who seek its enforcement and an insistence on the part of our citizens that the judiciary be ever mindful of their primary duty and function of punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent. We will insist on prompt, fair and equal treatment for all persons before the bar of justice.
The problem of crime in America is real, immediate and fundamental; its costs to the nation are staggering; nearly three quarters of a million victims of violent crime in one year alone; more than 15,000 murders, billions of dollars of property loss.
The indirect, intangible costs are even more ominous. A frightened nation is not a free nation. Its citizens are prisoners suspicious of the people they meet, restricted in when they go out and when they return, threatened even in their own homes.
Unless government at all levels can restore a sense of confidence and security to its people, there is the ever-present danger that alarm will turn to panic, triggering short-cut remedies that jeopardize hard-won liberties.
When law enforcement breaks down, not only the victims of street violence suffer; the worker's health and safety is imperiled by unsafe, illegal conditions on the job; the society is defenseless against fraud and pollution; most tragically of all, parents and communities are ravaged by traffic in dangerous drugs.
The Nixon Administration campaigned on a pledge to reduce crime ‹ to strengthen the "peace forces" against the "criminal forces." Despite claims to the contrary, that pledge has been broken:
To reverse this course, through equal enforcement of the law, and to rebuild justice the Democratic Party believes:
Preventing Crime. Effective law enforcement requires tough planning and action. This Administration has given us nothing but tough words. Together with unequal law enforcement by police, prosecutors and judges, the result is a "turnstile" system of injustice, where most of those who commit crime are not arrested, most of those arrested are not prosecuted, and many of those prosecuted are not convicted. Under this Administration, the conviction rate for federal prosecutions has declined to one-half its former level. Tens of thousands of offenders simply never appear in court and are heard from again only when the commit another crime. This system does not deter crime. It invites it. It will be changed only when all levels of government act to return firmness and fairness to every part of the criminal justice system.
So that Americans can again live without fear of each other the Democratic Party believes:
Narcotic Drugs. Drug addiction and alcoholism are health problems. Drugs prey on children, destroy lives and communities, force crimes to satisfy addicts, corrupt police and government and finance the expansion of organized crime. A massive national effort, equal to the scale and complexity of the problem, is essential.
The next Democratic Administration should support:
Organized and Professional Crime. We are determined to exert the maximum power and authority of the federal government to protect the many victims who cannot help themselves against great criminal combinations.
Rehabilitation of Offenders. Few institutions in America are as uniformly condemned and as consistently ignored as in our existing prison system. Many prisons that are supposed to rehabilitate and separate, in fact train their inmates for nothing but brutality and a life of further crime. Only when public understanding recognizes that our existing "corrections" system contributes to escalating crime, will we get the massive effort necessary for fundamental restructuring.
Therefore, the Democratic Party commits itself to:
The Quality of Justice. Justice is not merely effective law enforcement ‹ though that is an essential part of it. Justice rather, expresses the moral character of a nation and its commitment to the rule of law, to equality of all people before the law.
The Democratic Parts believes that nothing must abridge the faith of the American citizens in their system of law and justice.
We believe that the quality of justice will be enhanced by:
VII. Farming and Rural Life
"A blight hangs over the land caused by misguided farm policies." ‹ Tony Dechant, Sioux City, June 16, 1972
For many decades, American agriculture has been the envy of the world; and American farmers and American ranchers have made possible a level of nutrition and abundance for our people that is unrivaled in history, while feeding millions of people abroad.
The basis far this success ‹ and its promise for the future ‹ lies with the family-type farm. It can and must be preserved, in the best interests at all Americans and the nation's welfare.
Today, as dwindling income forces thousands of family farmers into bankruptcy each year, the family-type farm is threatened with extinction. American farming is passing to corporate control.
These trends will benefit few of our people, while hurting many. The dominance of American food production by the large corporation would destroy individual enterprise and links that millions of our people have with the land; and it would lead to higher prices and higher food costs for everyone.
Major efforts must be made to present this disaster for the fabric at rural life, for the American farmer, rancher, farm worker and for the consumer and other rural people throughout our nation:
The Democratic Party understands these urgent needs; the Nixon Administration does not and has failed the American farmer. Its record today is consistent with the Republican record of the past: Low prices, farm surpluses that depress the market in callous disregard for the people in rural America.
The Democratic Party will reverse these disastrous policies and begin to recreate a rural society of widespread family farming, individual opportunity and private and cooperative enterprises, where honest work will bring a decent income.
In place of these negative and harmful policies, the Democratic Party pledges itself to take positive and decisive action:
Exporting Our Abundance. For many years, farm exports have made a major contribution to our balances of trade and payments. But this benefit for the entire nation must not be purchased with depressed prices for the producer.
The Democratic Party will ensure that:
Strengthening the Family Farm. These policies and actions will not be enough on their own to strengthen the family farm. The Democratic Party also recognizes that farmers and ranchers must be able to gain economic strength in the marketplace by organizing and bargaining collectively for the sale of their products. And they need to be free of unfair competition from monopoly and other restrictive corporate practices. We therefore pledge:
Guaranteeing Farm People a Voice. None of these policies can begin to work unless farmers, ranchers, farm workers and other rural people have full rights of participation in our democratic institutions of government. The Democratic Party is committed to seeing that family-type farmers and ranchers will be heard and that they will have ample opportunity to help shape policies attesting agriculture and rural America. To this end:
Revitalizing Rural America. Sound rural development must start with improved farm income, which also promotes the prosperity of the small businesses that serve all rural people. But there must be other efforts, as well, to ensure equity for farm and rural people in the American economy. The Democratic Party pledges:
The prime goal of land grant colleges and research should be to help family farms and rural people.
VIII. Foreign Policy
"The Administration is continuing a war ‹ continuing the killing of Americans and Vietnamese ‹ when our national security is not at stake.
"It is our duty as the opposition party to point out the Administration's errors and to offer a responsible alternate"‹ W. Averell Harriman, New York Hearing, June 22, 1972
Strength in defense and wisdom in foreign affairs are essential to prosperity and tranquility. In the modern world, there can be no isolationism in reality or policy. But the measure of our nation's rank in the world must be our success in achieving a just and peaceful society at home.
For the Nixon Administration, foreign policy results have fallen short of the attention and the slogans.
The next Democratic Administration should:
Vietnam. Nothing better describes the need for a new American foreign policy than the fact that now, as for the past seven years, it begins with the war in Vietnam.
The task now is still to end the war, not to decide who is to blame for it. The Democratic Party must share the responsibility for this tragic war. But, elected with a secret plan to end this war, Nixon's plan is still secret, and we ‹ and the Vietnamese ‹ have had four more years of fighting and death.
It is true that our involvement on the ground has been reduced. Troops are coming home. But the war has been extended in Laos and Cambodia; the bombing of North Vietnam has been expanded to levels of destruction undreamed of four years ago; North Vietnam has been blockaded; the number of refugees increases each day, and the Secretary of Defense warns us of still further escalation.
All this has accomplished nothing except to prolong the war.
T he hollowness of "Vietnamization" ‹ a delusive slogan seeming to offer cheap victory ‹ has been exposed by the recent offensive. The Saigon Government, despite massive U.S. support is still not viable. It is militarily ineffective, politically corrupt and economically near collapse. Yet it is for this regime that Americans still die, and American prisoners still rot in Indo-China camps.
The plight of these American prisoners justly arouses the concern of all Americans. We must insist that any resolute war include the return of all prisoners held by North Vietnam and other adversary forces and the fullest possible accounting for the missing. With increasing lack of credibility, the Nixon Administration has sought to use the prisoners of war as an excuse for its policies. It has refused to make the simple, definite and final end to U.S. participation in the war, in conjunction with return of all U.S. prisoners.
The majority of the Democratic Senators have called for full U.S. withdrawal by October 1, 1972. We support that position. If the war is not ended before the next Democratic Administration takes office, we pledge, as the first order of business, an immediate and complete withdrawal of all U.S. farces in Indo-China. All U.S. military action in Southeast Asia will cease. After the end of U.S. direct combat participation, military aid to the Saigon Government, and elsewhere in Indo-China, will be terminated.
The U.S. will no longer seek to determine the political future of the nations of Indo-China. The issue is not whether we will depose the present South Vietnamese Government, rather when we will cease insisting that it must be the core of any political settlement. We will do what we can to foster an agreement on an acceptable political solution ‹ but we recognize that there are sharp limits to our ability to influence this process, and to the importance of the outcome to our interest.
Disengagement from this terrible war will not be a "defeat" for America. It will not imply any weakness in America's will or ability to protect its vital interests from attack. On the contrary disengagement will enable us to heal domestic diversions and to end the distortion of our international priorities which the war has caused.
A Democratic Administration will act to ease the hard transitions which will come with an end to this war. We pledge to offer to the people of Vietnam humanitarian assistance to help them repair the ravages of 30 years of war to the economy and to the people of that devastated land.
To our own people, we pledge a true effort to extend the hand of reconciliation and assistance to those most affected by the war.
T those who have served in this war, we pledge a full G.I. Bill of Rights, with benefits sufficient to pay for an education of the veteran's choice, job training programs and the guarantee of employment and the best medical care this country can provide, including a full program of rehabilitation for those who hare returned addicted to dangerous drugs. To those who for reasons of conscience refused to serve in this war and were prosecuted or sought refuge abroad, we state our firm intention to declare an amnesty, on an appropriate basis, when the fighting has ceased and our troops and prisoners of war have returned.
Military Policy. We propose a program of national defense which is both prudent and responsible, which will retain the confidence of our allies and which will be a deterrent to potential aggressors.
Military strength remains an essential element of a responsible international policy. America must have the strength required for effective deterrence.
But military defense cannot be treated in isolation from other vital national concerns. Spending for military purposes is greater by far than federal spending for education, housing, environmental protection, unemployment insurance or welfare. Unneeded dollars for the military at once add to the tax burden and pre-empt funds from programs of direct and immediate benefit to our people. Moreover, too much that is now spent on defense not only adds nothing to our strength but makes us less secure by stimulating other countries to respond.
Under the Nixon stewardship of our defense policy, lack of sound management controls over defense projects threatens to price us out of an adequate defense. The reaction of the Defense Department to exposure of cost overruns has been to strike back at the critics instead of acting to stop the waste.
Needless projects continue and grow, despite evidence of waste, military ineffectiveness and even affirmative danger to real security. The "development" budget starts pressure for larger procurement budgets in a few years. Morale and military effectiveness deteriorate as drugs, desertion and racial hatreds plague the armed forces, especially in Vietnam.
The Democratic Party pledges itself to maintain adequate military forces for deterrence and effective support of our international position. But we will also insist on the firm control of specific costs and projects that are essential to ensure that each defense dollar makes a real contribution to national security. Specifically, a Democratic Administration should:
By these reforms and this new approach to budgeting coupled with a prompt end to U.S. involvement in the war in Indo-China, the military budget can be reduced substantially with no weakening of our national security. Indeed a leaner, better-run system will mean added strength, efficiency and morale for our military forces.
Workers and industries now dependent on defense spending should not be made to pay the price of altering our priorities. Therefore, we pledge reconversion policies and government resources to assure jobs and new industrial opportunities for all those adversely affected by curtailed defense spending.
Draft. We urge abolition of the draft.
Disarmament and Arms Control. The Democratic Party stands for keeping America strong; we reject the concept of unilateral reductions below levels needed for adequate military defense. But effective international arms control and disarmament do not threaten American security; they enhance it.
The last Democratic Administration took the lead in pressing for U.S.-Soviet agreement on strategic arms limitation. The recent SALT agreement is an important and useful first step.
The SALT agreement should be quickly ratified and taken as a starting point for new agreements. It must not be used as an excuse for new "bargaining chip" military programs or the next round of the arms race.
The next Democratic Administration should:
U.S. and the World Community. A new foreign policy must be adequate for a rapidly changing world. We welcome the opportunity this brings for improved relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But we value even more America's relations with our friends and allies in the Hemisphere, in Western Europe, Japan and other industrialized countries, Israel and the Middle East, and in the developing nations of Asia and Africa. With them, our relations must be conducted on a basis of mutual trust and consultation, seeking to strengthen our ties and to resolve differences on a basis of mutual advantage. Throughout the world, the focus of our policy should be a commitment to peace, self-determination, development, liberty and international cooperation, without distortion in favor of military points of view.
Europe. Europe's increasing economic and political strength and the growing cooperation and self-confidence of its people have made the Atlantic Alliance a partnership of equals. If we face the challenge of this new relationship, our historic partnership can endure.
The next Democratic Administration should:
We welcome every improvement in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and every step taken toward reaching vital agreements on trade and other subjects. However, in our pursuit of improved relations, America cannot afford to be blind to the continued existence of serious differences between us. In particular. the United States should, by diplomatic contacts, seek to mobilize world opinion to express concern at the denial to the oppressed peoples of Eastern Europe and the minorities of the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Jews, of the right to practice their religion and culture and to leave their respective countries.
Middle East. The United States must be unequivocally committed to support of Israel's right to exist within secure and defensible boundaries. Progress toward a negotiated political settlement in the Middle East will permit Israel and her Arab neighbors to live at peace with each other, and to turn their energies to internal development. It will also free the world from the threat of the explosion of Mid-East tensions into world war. In working toward a settlement, our continuing pledge to the security and freedom of Israel must be both clear and consistent.
The next Democratic Administration should:
Africa. The central feature of African politics today is the struggle against racism and colonialism in Southern Africa. There should be no mistake about which side we are on. We stand for full political, civil and economic rights for black and other non-white peoples in Southern Africa. We are against white-minority rule. We should not underwrite a return to the interventionism of the past. But we can end United States complicity with such governments.
The focus of America's concern with Africa must be on economic and social development. Economic aid to Africa, without political conditions, should be expanded, and African states assured an adequate share of the aid dollar. Military aid and aid given for military purposes should he sharply reduced.
Asia. Japan. Our relations with Japan have been severely strained by a series of "Nixon shocks." We must restore our friendship with Japan, the leading industrial nation of Asia and a growing world power. There are genuine issues between us and Japan in the economic area, but accommodation of trade problems will be greatly eased by an end to the Nixon Administration's calculated insensitivity to Japan and her interests, marked by repeated failures to afford advance warnings, much less consultation over sudden shifts in U.S. diplomatic and economic policy that affect Japan.
India, Pakistan and Bangla Desh. A Democratic Administration should work to restore the damage done to America's friendship with India as a result of the Administration's folly in "tilting" in favor of Pakistan and against Bangla Desh. The alienation by the Nixon Administration of India, the world's largest democracy, and the continued suspension of economic aid to India have seriously damaged the status of the United States in Asia. We pledge generous support for the essential work of reconstruction and reconciliation in Bangla Desh. At the same time, we will maintain friendship and developmental assistance to the "new" Pakistan which has emerged from these sad events.
China. The beginning of a new U.S.-China relationship is welcome and important. However, so far, little of substance has changed, and the exaggerated secrecy and rhetoric of the Nixon Administration have produced unnecessary complications in our relationship with our allies and friends in Asia and with the U.S.S.R.
What is needed now is serious negotiation on trade, travel exchanges and progress on more basic issues. The U.S. should take the steps necessary to establish regular diplomatic relations with China.
Other Asian Countries. The future of Asia will be determined by its people, not by the United States. We should support accommodation and cooperation among all Asian countries and continue to assist in economic development.
Canada. A Democratic Administration should restore close U.S.-Canadian cooperation and communication, respecting Canada's nationhood and pride. In settling economic issues, we should not compromise our interests, but seek mutually advantageous and equitable solutions. In areas such as environmental protection and social policies, the Americans and Canadians share common problems and we must act together.
Latin America. The Good Neighbor policy of Franklin Roosevelt and the Alliance for Progress of John Kennedy set still-living goals ‹ insulation from external political conflicts, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, and support for political liberty, social justice and economic progress. The Nixon Administration has lost sight of these goals, and the result is hostility and suspicion of the U.S. unmatched in generations.
The next Democratic Administration should:
The United Nations. The U.N. cannot solve all the great political problems of our time, but in an increasingly interdependent world, a world body is essential and its potential must be increasingly relied upon.
The next Democratic Administration should:
International Economic Policy. In a prosperous economy, foreign trade has benefits for virtually everyone. For the consumer, it means lower prices and a wider choice of goods. For the worker and the businessman, it means new jobs and new markets. For nations it means greater efficiency and growth.
But in a weak economy ‹ with over five million men and women out of work ‹ foreign imports bring hardships to many Americans. The automobile or electrical worker, the electronics technician, the small businessman ‹ for them, and millions of others, foreign competition coinciding with a slack economy has spelled financial distress. Our national commitment to liberal trade policies takes its toll when times are bad, but yields its benefits when the economy is fully employed.
The Democratic Party proposes no retreat from this commitment. Our international economic policy should have these goals: To expand jobs and business opportunities in this country and to establish two-way trade relations with other nations.
To do this, we support the following policies:
Developing Nations. Poverty at home or abroad is part of a common problem. Great and growing income gaps among nations are no more tenable than such gaps among groups in our own country. We should remain committed to U.S. support for economic and social development of countries in need. Old ways of providing aid must be revised ‹ to reduce U.S. involvement in administration to encourage other nations to contribute jointly with us. But funding must be adequate to help poor countries achieve accelerated rates of growth.
Specifically, the next Democratic Administration should support:
The Methods and Structures of U.S. Foreign and Military Policy. The needed fundamental reordering of U.S. foreign and military policy calls for changes in the structure of decisionmaking, as well as in particular policies. This means:
IX. The People and the Government
"Our people are disspirited because there seems to be no way by which they can call to office a government which will cut the ties to the past, meet the challenge of leadership and begin a new era of bold action.
"Bold action by innovative government ‹ responsive to the people's needs and desires ‹ is essential to the achievement of our national hopes." ‹ Leonard Woodcock, New York Hearing, June 22, 1972
Representative democracy fails when citizens cannot know:
Today, it is imperative that the Democratic Party again take the lead in reforming those practices that limit the responsiveness of government and remove it from the control of the people.
Seniority. The seniority system is one of the principal reasons that party platforms ‹ and parties themselves ‹ have lost meaning and importance in our political life. Seniority has weakened Congress as an effective and responsive institution in a changing society. It has crippled effective Congressional leadership and made it impossible to present and enact a coherent legislative program. It has permitted the power of the Democratic majority to be misused and abused. It has stifled initiative and wasted the talents of many members by making length of service the only criterion for selection to the vital positions of Congressional power and leadership.
We, therefore, call on the Democratic Members of the Congress to use the powers inherent in their House and Senate caucuses to implement the policies and programs of the National Democratic Party. It is specifically not intended that Democratic members be directed how to vote on issues on the floor. But, in order that they be responsive to broad party policies and programs, we nonetheless call upon Members of Congress to:
Secrecy. Public business should be transacted publicly, except when national security might be jeopardized.
To combat secrecy in government, we call on the Democratic Members of Congress and state legislatures to:
We also call on the Democratic Members of the House of Representatives to take action through their caucuses to end the "closed rule," which is used to prevent amendments and votes on vital tax matters and other important issues, and we call on the Democratic Members of the Senate to liberalize the cloture rule, which is used to prevent votes in that body, so that after full and extensive debate majority rule can prevail.
Administrative Agencies. There is, among more and more citizens, a growing revolt against large, remote and impersonal governmental agencies that are not responsive to human needs. We pledge to build a representative process into the Executive Branch, so that individuals affected by agency programs can be involved in formulating, implementing and revising them. This requires a basic restructuring of procedures -- public hearings before guidelines and regulations are handed down, the processing of citizen complaints, the granting of citizen standing and the recovery of litigation fees for those who win suits against the government.
We recommend these specific changes in the rule-making and adjudication process of the federal government:
In addition, we must more effectively protect consumer rights before the government. The consumer must be made an integral part of any relationship between government and institutions (public or private) at every level of proceedings whether formal or informal.
A Democratic Administration would instruct all federal agencies to identify American Indians, Asian Americans and Spanish-speaking Americans in separate categories in all statistical data that note racial or ethnic heritage. Only in this way can these Americans be assured their rights under federal programs.
Finally, in appropriate geographical areas, agencies of the federal government should be equipped to conduct business in such a fashion that Spanish-speaking citizens should not be hampered by language difficulties.
Conflict of Interest. The public interest must not be sacrificed to personal gain. Therefore, we call for legislation requiring full disclosure of the financial interests of Members of Congress and their staffs and high officials of the Executive Branch and independent agencies. Disclosure should include business directorships held and associations with individuals or firms lobbying or doing business with the government.
Congress should forbid its members to engage in the practice of law or to retain association with a law firm while in office. Legislators serving on a committee whose jurisdiction includes matters in which they have a financial interest should divest themselves of the interest or resign from the committee.
Campaign Finance. A total overhaul of the present system of financing elections is a national necessity. Candidates should not be dependent on large contributions who seek preferential treatment. We call for Congressional action to provide for public financing of most election costs by 1974. We recommend a statutory ceiling on political gifts at a reasonable limit. Publicly opined communications facilities such as television, radio and the postal service should be made available, but on a limited basis, to candidates for federal office.
Regulation of Lobbyists. We also call upon Congress to enact rigorous lobbying disclosure legislation, to replace the present shockingly ineffective law. There should be full disclosure of all organized lobbying ‹ including names of lobbyists, identity of the source of funds, total receipts and expenditures, the nature of the lobbying operation and specific target issues or bills. Reports should be filed at least quarterly, with criminal penalties for late filing. Lobbying regulations should cover attempts to influence both legislative and Executive Branch decisions. The legislation should specifically cover lobbying appeals in subscription publications.
As a safeguard, we urge the availability of subpoena and cease-and-desist powers to enforce these conflict of interest, campaign financing and lobbying disclosure laws. We also affirm the citizens' right to seek enforcement through the courts, should public officials fail in enforcement.
Taking Part in the Political Process. The Presidential primary system today is an unacceptable patchwork. The Democratic Party supports federal laws that will embody the following principles:
We also call for full and uniform enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But further steps are needed to end all banners to participation in the political process:
These changes in themselves will not solve the problems of government for all time. As our society changes, so must the ways we use to make government more responsive to the people. Our challenge, today, as always, is to ensure that politics and institutions belong in spirit and in practice to all the people of our nation. In 1972, Americans are deciding that they want their country back again.