A word to the unwise about the Democrat platform

A word to the wise about the Democrat 2008 platform – the wise already know it.

We all know the purpose of a party platform is to inspire party members but careful reading reveals the truth about what the party stands for and what can be expected if their candidate becomes president. The draft platform the Democrat Party’s platform committee produced now awaits approval at the Democrat National Convention. Although the platform is for party members, party leaders assume, and hope, nobody else reads it.

The platform draft is 54 pages so it is a fair assumption no one will read it critically. Because of its length it is no simple task to scrutinize the platform. A great deal of the text is devoted to bashing President Bush and the Republicans but that is to be expected; the Republican platform will probably do the same thing. However it is possible to cut through the chaff and reveal salient points of this socialist document and learn the Democrat party plans for our future.

There is plenty of money to be given away By Democrats to secure allegiance of voters. Here is a sampling right out of the Democrat play book:

"We will devote $50 billion to jumpstarting the economy, helping economic growth, and preventing another 1 million jobs from being lost. This will include assistance to states and localities."

"We will increase funding to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the National Cancer Institutes."

"…we will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation, and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit …"

"We will make quality, affordable early childhood care and education available to every American child from the day he or she is born."

"…if you commit your life to teaching, America will commit to paying for your college education."

"We will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans."

"We will expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and will ensure savings incentives are fair to all workers by matching half of the initial $1000 of savings for families that need help."

"…we will create a $2 billion Global Education Fund that will bring the world together in eliminating the global education deficit with the goal of supporting a free, quality basic education for every child in the world."

"We will expand AmeriCorps; double the size of the Peace Corps …"

"We support art in schools and increased public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities."

"Our Children's First Agenda, including increases in Head Start and Early Head Start and investments in high-quality Pre-K …"

All the foregoing is in addition to the Global Poverty Act introduced by Senator Barack Obama which will provide $845 billion to solve poverty in the world; an amount that is equivalent to over $2,000 for every man woman and child in the United States.

Naturally Democrats would not be Democrats without expanding government so there are new government agencies which they would create according to the Democrat platform:

"…we’ll create an energy focused youth job program …"

"We will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund … we will expand the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships …"

"We will start a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank …"

"We will establish a Chief Technology Officer for the nation …"

"We will create a national network of public-private business incubators and technical support."

"We will implement a market-based cap and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary to avoid catastrophic change and we will set interim targets along the way to ensure that we meet our goal. We will invest in advanced energy technologies …"

"(WE will)…create millions of new, good, "Green Collar" American jobs."

"(We will)…create a new White House office on Urban Policy and fully funding the Community Development Block Grant."

"…we will create a Social Investment Fund Network that invests in ideas that work, tests their impact and expands the most successful programs."

"We will create an office to coordinate government and non-profit efforts."

"We will create a new White House Office on Urban Policy and fully funding (sic) the Community Development Block Grant."

"We will create a White House advisor on Indian Affairs; and we will host an annual summit with Indian leaders."

Democrats will do more damage than spending a lot of money and creating new government agencies. If Obama becomes president and has a Democrat congress to support him, here are some of things we can expect to drive us down the road to socialism.

"Social Security … We will not privatize it."

"We will … fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act." [Which deprives workers of a secret ballot.]

"…we support overturning the NLRB’s and NMB’s many harmful decisions that undermine the collective bargaining rights of millions of workers."

"We will continue to vigorously oppose ‘Right-to-Work" Laws’ and ‘paycheck protection’ efforts whenever they are proposed."

"We will stop the abuse of privatization of government jobs."

"Our Department of Labor will restore and expand overtime rights for millions of Americans."

"Our Occupational Safety and Health Administration will adopt and enforce comprehensive safety standards"

"We will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to reach millions more workers than are currently covered, and will enable workers to take leave to care for an elderly parent, address domestic violence and sexual assault, or attend a parent-teacher conference."

"We will provide all our children a world-class education, from early childhood through college."

"We are committed to getting at least 25% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025."

"We’ll invest in advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol which will provide American-grown fuel and help free us from the tyranny of oil."

"We will make it a top priority to reduce oil consumption by at least 35%, or 10 million barrels per day, by 2030. This will more than offset the equivalent of oil we are expected to import from OPEC nations in 2030."

And here is a special platform promise that is especially ridiculous in view of the current ongoing drop in oil and gasoline prices – "To lower the price of gasoline, we will crack down on speculators who are driving up prices beyond the natural market rate. We will direct the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to vigorously investigate and prosecute market manipulation in oil futures." Will Democrats "blame" speculators for the drop in oil prices too?

"We will make quality, affordable early childhood care and education available to every American child from the day he or she is born." "Our Presidential Early Learning Council will coordinate these efforts."

Democrats want to control even more what students are taught to make sure they get the proper politically correct information and are not troubled by contrary truth.

"We need to adapt curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the 21st century; reform the schools of education that produce most of our teachers."

Democrats want to perpetuate the idea that English is not our country’s national language. They even want to ‘vitalize’ the "American Indian Language."

"We also support transitional bilingual education and will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by supporting and funding English Language Learner classes. We support teaching students second languages, as well as contributing through education to the revitalization of American Indian languages."

"We will lift the current Administration's ban on using federal funding for embryonic stem cells–"

"We will ensure every American has access to high speed broadband and we will take on special interests in order to unleash the power of the wireless spectrum."

"For families making more than $250,000, we’ll ask them to give back a portion of their income."

"We will end tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas."

"We will … generate revenue by charging polluters for the greenhouse gases they [businesses] are releasing." (Are there any businesses that don’t "release" greenhouse gases?)

Probably the most unrealistic and dangerous policy statement in the Democrat platform concerns our national security. Incredibly despite numerous and increasing acts of violence by Muslims on behalf of Islam, and increasing evidence to the contrary, Democrats continue to expect we can get Muslims to play nice by being nice to them. Here is what will be the Democrat foreign policy.

"We will pursue policies to expand our understanding of the circumstances and beliefs that underpin extremism, so that we can effectively address them."

And even worse:

"The vast majority of Muslims believe in a future of peace, tolerance, development, and democratization. A small minority embrace a rigid and violent intolerance of personal liberty and the world at large. To empower forces of moderation, America must live up to our values, respect civil liberties, reject torture, and lead by example. We will make every effort to export hope and opportunity–access to education, secure food and water supplies, and health care, trade, capital and investment."

It seems Democrats are unaware that even 10% of the world wide Muslim population of 1.5 billion is 150 million potential jihadists and murderers. It seems Democrats have great confidence in Obama’s ability to talk them out of beheading non Muslims.

This expectation about Obama does not end with his powers of persuasion as is seen in this extract from the Democrat platform:

"Barack Obama will depoliticize intelligence by appointing a Director of National Intelligence with a fixed term, create a bipartisan Consultative Group of congressional leaders on national security, and establish a National Declassification Center to ensure openness."

Democrats would like us to believe:

"We will urgently seek to reduce dramatically the risks from three potentially catastrophic threats: nuclear weapons, biological attacks and cyber warfare."

"America will seek a world with no nuclear weapons and take concrete actions to move in this direction. America will be safer in a world that is reducing reliance on nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminates all of them. We will make the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide a central element of U.S. nuclear weapons policy." – "We will negotiate a verifiable global ban on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons."

"We will not develop new nuclear weapons, and will work to create a bipartisan consensus to support ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which will strengthen the NPT and aid international monitoring of nuclear activities."

How is this for taking out the wet noodle to chastise Iran for developing nuclear weapons and to protect Israel from Iranian fanatics?

"We will present Iran with a clear choice: if you abandon your nuclear weapons program, support for terror, and threats to Israel you will receive meaningful incentives; so long as you refuse, the United States and the international community will further ratchet up the pressure, with stronger unilateral sanctions; stronger multilateral sanctions inside and outside the U.N. Security Council, and sustained action to isolate the Iranian regime." Do you see anything about the military taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities?

"We will build the capacity of U.S. civilian agencies to deploy personnel and area experts where they are needed, so that we no longer have to ask our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to perform non-military functions." – Is this a reference to the National Police Force Obama referred to in his Denver speech?

"We support the repeal of "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" and the implementation of policies to allow qualified men and women to serve openly regardless of sexual orientation."

Democrats affirm their support of the ineffective, corrupt and biased United Nations despite acknowledging deficiencies. Their answer for addressing UN incompetence is greater US commitment to the UN and enlarging the Security Council to add more anti-American countries.

"We believe that the United Nations is indispensable .... The U.N. Secretariat's management practices remain inadequate. Peacekeeping operations are overextended. The new U.N. Human Rights Council remains biased and ineffective. Yet none of these problems will be solved unless America rededicates itself to the organization and its mission. We support reforming key global institutions —such as the U.N. Security Council and the G- 8—so they will be more reflective of 21st century realities."

Democrats don’t ignore illegal immigration in their platform but, unfortunately, they mirror McCain’s approach which includes amnesty so passage of something like what Democrats want is likely.

"We need comprehensive immigration reform, not just piecemeal efforts. For the millions living here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must require them to come out of the shadows and get right with the law. We support a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, pay taxes, learn English [eventually, maybe], and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. They are our neighbors, and we can help them become full tax paying, law-abiding, productive members of society."

Incredibly Democrats still want to give money to "victims of Katrina", the hurricane of some years ago. How many natural disasters have occurred since Katrina where those affected dealt with the problems themselves without huge government assistance?

"We will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina and restore the region economically. We will create jobs and training opportunities for returning and displaced workers and contracting opportunities for local businesses to help create stronger, safer, and more equitable communities. We will increase funding for affordable housing and home ownership opportunities for returning families, workers, and residents moving out of unsafe trailers. We will reinvest in infrastructure in New Orleans: we will construct levees that work, fight crime by rebuilding local police departments and courthouses, invest and hospitals and rebuild the public school system. [Haven’t we "invested" quite a bit already – will this go on forever?]

Of course bogus global warming caused by us is not neglected by Democrats.

"We will implement a market-based cap and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary to avoid catastrophic change and we will set interim targets along the way to ensure that we meet our goal." "The U.S. must be a leader in combating climate change around the world…"

There is something for their gun control base.

"We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation, but we know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact and enforce common-sense laws and improvements, like closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system and reinstating the assault weapons ban, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals." [Democrats apparently believe by passing new gun laws criminals will not be able to get whatever firearms they want.]

"We will make the United States a signatory to the U.N. Convention on 2 the Rights of Persons with Disabilities—the first human rights treaty approved by the U.N. in the 21st century." [This will be an enormous intrusion on citizen rights at the state and federal level and without recourse at the voting booth. Democrats favor diminishing our constitutional right by signing onto treaties which take precedence over ALL federal and state laws.]

"We reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment." [The amendment already rejected by the states.]

"We will pass the [NATIONAL] Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, because hate crimes desecrate sacred spaces and belittle all good people." [And make crimes against some victims more "undesirable" and penalized greater than the same acts committed on members of unprotected classes – thus overriding state laws.]

"We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us."

"We support affirmative action, including in federal contracting and higher education…"

"We will revisit the Patriot Act and overturn unconstitutional executive decisions issued during the past eight years. We will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine duly enacted law. And we will ensure that law-abiding Americans of any origin, including Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans, do not become the scapegoats of national security fears."

"We will not ship away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, or detain without trial or charge prisoners who can and 30 should be brought to justice for their crimes, or maintain a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law. We will respect the time-honored principle of habeas corpus, to challenge the terms of their detention that was recently reaffirmed by our Supreme Court. We will close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the location of so many of the worst constitutional abuses in recent years." [Really, constitutional violation of non citizen terrorists?]

The Supreme Court will swing way to the left under an Obama presidency. Though couched in broad freedom-loving terms, there is no doubt what Democrats have in mind.

"For our Judiciary, we will select and confirm judges who are men and women of unquestionable talent and character, who firmly respect the rule of law, and who listen to and are respectful of different points of view and who represent the diversity of America. We support the appointment of judges who respect our system of checks and balances and the separation of power among the Executive Branch, Congress, and the Judiciary and who understand that the Constitution protects not only the powerful, but also the disadvantaged and the powerless. [Code words for ignore the constitution and "do what’s right."]

"We will call for a national standard for voting that includes voter-verified paper ballots." [Why paper ballots if other voting is safe and secure?]

Here we go folks; Democrats say "let’s make sure our voting base of illegal immigrants and duplicate voters are not prevented from voting for us."

"We oppose laws that require identification in order to vote or register to vote, which create discriminatory barriers to the right to vote and disenfranchise many eligible voters; we oppose tactics which purge eligible voters from voter rolls."

"We support the efforts for self-determination and sovereignty of Native Hawaiians." [This way Democrats can disenfranchise non native Hawaiians who might still vote Republican and also create a group of people with superior rights within the United States, because that somehow is good for us (Democrats), though unfair to everyone else.]

"American Indian and Alaska Native tribes have always been sovereign, self-governing communities, and we affirm their inherent right to self-government as well as the unique government-to-government relationship they share with the United States." [Separate "sovereign Nations within the United States" – does this make any sense to anyone?]

Well there you have it - if you actually took time to read this whole thing. Those who got this far have quite a bit of information to combat the Democrat spin machine and their house organs in the press and on TV news broadcasts - good luck, and thanks to those who read all of this blog.