2020 Democratic Party Platform
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2020 Democratic Party Platform The platform was considered by the 2020 Platform Committee at its meeting on July 27, 2020, and was approved by the Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4 PREAMBLE 5 PROTECTING AMERICANS AND RECOVERING FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 8 BUILDING A STRONGER, FAIRER ECONOMY 13 Protecting Workers and Families and Creating Millions of Jobs Across America 14 Raising Wages and Promoting Workers’ Rights 14 Enacting Robust Work-Family Policies 16 Investing in the Engines of Job Creation 16 Building A Fair System of International Trade for Our Workers 20 Putting Homeownership in Reach and Guaranteeing Safe Housing for Every American 20 Leveling the Economic Playing Field 22 Reforming the Tax Code to Benefit Working Families 22 Curbing Wall Street Abuses 23 Ending Poverty 23 Protecting Consumer Rights and Privacy 25 Tackling Runaway Corporate Concentration 25 Guaranteeing a Secure and Dignified Retirement 25 ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE 26 Securing Universal Health Care Through a Public Option 28 Bringing Down Drug Prices and Taking on the Pharmaceutical Industry 29 Reducing Health Care Costs and Improving Health Care Quality 29 Expanding Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment 30 Expanding Long-Term Care Services and Supports 30 Eliminate Racial, Gender, and Geographic Health Inequities 31 Protecting Native American Health 32 Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice 32 Protecting and Promoting Maternal Health 33 Protecting LGBTQ+ Health 33 Strengthening and Supporting the Health Care Workforce 33 Investing in Health Science and Research 34 PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND BUILDING TRUST BY REFORMING OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 35 HEALING THE SOUL OF AMERICA 39 Protecting Americans’ Civil Rights 39 1 Achieving Racial Justice and Equity 39 Protecting Women’s Rights 42 Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights 42 Protecting Disability Rights 43 Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations 44 Ending Violence Against Women 47 Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence 47 Supporting Faith and Service 48 Supporting Press Freedom 48 Supporting the Arts and Culture 49 COMBATING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PURSUING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE 49 RESTORING AND STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY 55 Protecting and Enforcing Voting Rights 55 Reforming the Broken Campaign Finance System 57 Building an Effective, Transparent Federal Government 57 Making Washington, D.C. the 51st State 58 Guaranteeing Self-Determination for Puerto Rico 59 Supporting the U.S. Territories 59 Strengthening the U.S. Postal Service 60 CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM 61 PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION IN EVERY ZIP CODE 64 Guaranteeing Universal Early Childhood Education 65 Supporting High-Quality K-12 Schools Across America 66 Making Higher Education Affordable and Accessible 69 Providing Borrowers Relief from Crushing Student Debt 70 RENEWING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP 72 Revitalizing American Diplomacy 73 Rebuilding America’s Tool of First Resort 73 Reinventing Alliances 74 International Institutions 74 Foreign Assistance and Development 75 Transforming Our Armed Forces for the 21st century 75 Ending Forever Wars 75 Securing our Competitive Edge 76 Defense Spending 77 Keeping Faith with Our Veterans and Military Families 77 Civil-Military Relations 78 Mobilizing the World to Address Transnational Challenges 78 Global Health and Pandemics 78 Climate Change 79 2 Technology 80 Nonproliferation 81 Terrorism 81 Democracy and Human Rights 82 Advancing American Interests 85 Global Economy and Trade 85 Africa 86 Americas 87 Asia-Pacific 87 Europe 89 Middle East 90 3 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Democratic National Committee wishes to acknowledge that we gather together to state our values on lands that have been stewarded through many centuries by the ancestors and descendants of Tribal Nations who have been here since time immemorial. We honor the communities native to this continent, and recognize that our country was built on Indigenous homelands. We pay our respects to the millions of Indigenous people throughout history who have protected our lands, waters, and animals. We respectfully acknowledge that we present this Platform at our 2020 Democratic National Convention on the lands of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Forest County Potawatomi Community, the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Menominee Nation, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, the Sokaogon Chippewa Community, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians. 4 PREAMBLE America is an idea—one that has endured and evolved through war and depression, prevailed over fascism and communism, and radiated hope to far distant corners of the earth. Americans believe that diversity is our greatest strength. That protest is among the highest forms of patriotism. That our fates and fortunes are bound to rise and fall together. That even when we fall short of our highest ideals, we never stop trying to build a more perfect union. When the American people go to the polls this fall, we will be choosing more than a candidate. Character is on the ballot in this election. The character of our President, yes, but more than that: the character of our democracy, our society, and our leadership in the world. The challenges before us—the worst public health crisis in a century, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the worst period of global upheaval in a generation, the urgent global crisis posed by climate change, the intolerable racial injustice that still stains the fabric of our nation—will test America’s character like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare deep-seated problems in our society—the fragility of our economy and social safety net, the risks posed by growing inequality, the impacts of racial and economic disparities on health and well-being, and the profound consequences of deepening polarization and political paralysis. The bill has come due on the Trump Administration’s hollowing out of our public institutions: the sidelining of experts, the rejection of science, the underinvestment in research, and the gross corruption and abuses of power. President Trump’s dereliction of duty has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, the loss of tens of millions of American jobs, and lasting harm to our children’s education and future. And it has revealed, at tragic economic and human cost, the emptiness of the Republican Party’s “America First” foreign policy. Under President Trump, America stands alone. Friends and foes alike neither admire nor fear President Trump’s leadership—they dismiss and ridicule it. The Republican Party under President Trump has made America small—when we are a people called to do the greatest things. Democrats will fight to repair the soul of this nation. To unite and to heal our country. To turn this crisis into a crucible, from which we will forge a stronger, brighter, and more equitable future. We must right the wrongs in our democracy, redress the systemic injustices that have long plagued our society, throw open the doors of opportunity for all Americans, and reinvent our institutions at home and our leadership abroad. We do not simply aspire to return our country to where we were four years ago. We know we must be bolder and more ambitious. We must once again stop another Republican recession from becoming a second Great Depression. President Trump and the Republican Party have rigged the economy in favor of the 5 wealthiest few and the biggest corporations, and left working families and small businesses out in the cold. Democrats will forge a new social and economic contract with the American people—a contract that creates millions of new jobs and promotes shared prosperity, closes racial gaps in income and wealth, guarantees the right to join or form a union, raises wages and ensures equal pay for women and paid family leave for all, and safeguards a secure and dignified retirement. We must guarantee health care not as a privilege for some, but as a right for every single American. For a century, Democrats have fought to secure universal health care. In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump and the Republican Party are trying to tear health care away from millions of people who depend on it for survival. Democrats will not allow that to happen. We will not rest until every American can access quality health care and affordable prescription drugs. We must steel and strengthen our democracy, not distort and debase it. Democrats believe there is nothing to fear from the voices and votes of the American people. We will restore the full power of the Voting Rights Act and stamp out voter suppression in all its forms. We will curb the corrupting influence of money in politics and protect the integrity of our elections from all enemies, foreign and domestic. We will never accept political gridlock as our fate. We will never tire in our fight to deliver results and create opportunity for all Americans. And we will end the war on government that has politicized our institutions, denigrated public service, and left the American people on their own instead of working to make them whole. We must heal our nation’s deepest wounds, not fan the flames of hate. Democrats will root out structural and systemic racism in our economy and our society, and reform our criminal justice system from top to bottom, because we believe Black lives matter. We will ensure that our nation continues to prize diversity and compassion, and welcomes those who yearn to participate in our great democratic experiment by creating a humane, 21st century immigration system that benefits all Americans. We will give hate no safe harbor.