# What political planks in your party's platform do you not subscribe to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 9, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454 "2009-07-09T14:33:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/1 "2009-07-09T14:33:28Z")
I always have and always will vote for the same party, straight ticket. I’m a Democrat. But… I have no problem with offshore oil wells, nor atomic power. I have no problem with the death penalty when it meets Supreme Court guidelines. I don’t believe in “faith based initiatives”, preferring separation of church and state. I’m not fond of trial lawyers and laws that require private citizens sue to control corporate wrongdoing, but would prefer to strengthen federal policing - keep such things criminal instead of civil. I’m not fond of journalist shield laws, don’t think their “private sources” need special protection, nor evidence on tape but not aired. Also, I change my mind every few months over the benefits of Nafta, immigration, and health care proposals, as does the party. I can live with that. How do you fit with your party’s “mainstream” tenets? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/2 "2009-07-09T15:15:20Z")
I’m a Democrat. - I want to see nuclear power expanded quickly. I hate that Democrats never take a strong “We need this” position. - I’m not against gun control but I think it’s a loser issue and should be dropped from party dogma - I tend to side pretty firmly with Israel - I think tort reform and limiting malpractice suits is an intelligent step towards lowering medical costs - I worry about every single government/military decision making it into the press 30 seconds later with “unnamed sources” saying we’ll start bombing Iran at midnight. - Merit pay for teachers is probably a pretty good idea. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/3 "2009-07-09T15:28:28Z")
I’m a Democrat. I wish the party would drop the continued hostility toward guns and gun owners. There are more than enough present gun laws that more aren’t really needed. We just need to enforce the ones that exist. And I can almost guarantee that Pennsylvania would go Democrat every single time if the party focused more on their affinity and partnership with labor than on the gun control issue. I advocate nuclear as a climate-clean energy source. > [@Jophiel](#): > > - I tend to side pretty firmly with Israel So do the Democrats, at least the politicians. You won’t find many representatives or senators of either party decrying Israel. Officially, the Democrats and the Republicans march in lockstep when it comes to that. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/4 "2009-07-09T15:37:05Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’m a Democrat. > > I wish the party would drop the continued hostility toward guns and gun owners. Where are you finding this continued hostility? After 2000, the Democratic Party pretty much decided the gun issue was a loser, and dropped it like a hot potato. There are surely some exceptions among individual Dems, and there may even be something about gun control in the party platform. But even the Virginia Tech mass shootings didn’t give rise to any serious push by Dems for increased gun control. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/5 "2009-07-09T15:37:51Z")
Democrat here in favor of: -Nuclear power, its the only real answer for the future. -Drilling every single drop of oil we have access too, complaining about harming our own environment while buying oil from other countries is pretty lame. -Forgetting about gun control, im not american so i totally don’t get the desire or need to ever own a gun but i don’t see the point in harping about such an obviously losing issue. -Strong military, someone has to have the most bombs and i want it to be us. -Lower taxes, less spending, smaller government. Sure the repubs don’t actually adhere to any of that but if they did i would agree with it. If it wasn’t for the racism, homophobia and ignorance i’d totally be a republican. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/6 "2009-07-09T15:42:57Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Where are you finding this continued hostility? After 2000, the Democratic Party pretty much decided the gun issue was a loser, and dropped it like a hot potato. There are surely some exceptions among individual Dems, and there may even be something about gun control in the party platform. But even the Virginia Tech mass shootings didn’t give rise to any serious push by Dems for increased gun control. “Hostility” may be too strong. There is some inertia, though. I think it would have been a much better tactic not to even mention the possibility of renewing the Assault Weapons Ban, but Holder had to throw that out there, even if it was half-hearted (it sounded to me like he was throwing the _promise_ of a bone to the die-hard gun control folks). Mentioning it just threw a rock into the hornet’s nest, as evinced by the hoarding of ammunition that’s been going on, along with the threads about it on here. I wish they’d just let it die instead of stringing the gun control advocates along by occasionally bringing it up. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/7 "2009-07-09T16:00:57Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > So do the Democrats, at least the politicians. You won’t find many representatives or senators of either party decrying Israel. True enough. I suppose I was thinking more of forum debates (not here where I don’t debate Israel) where the the Left-wingers fall into the “Israel is acting horribly and inhumanely” camp. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/8 "2009-07-09T16:09:02Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > True enough. I suppose I was thinking more of forum debates (not here where I don’t debate Israel) where the the Left-wingers fall into the “Israel is acting horribly and inhumanely” camp. I fall right into the middle. I don’t support either side, because both sides have done evil things. The situation, though, is untenable the way it stands. And, frankly, I’m not intelligent enough or politically savvy enough to figure out any way that it can be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone involved. It’s a horrible stalemate that will probably only end in violence and explosions. I just hope that those explosions won’t be nuclear. ---
**Author:** ![TheFifthYear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@TheFifthYear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFifthYear)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/9 "2009-07-09T16:10:43Z")
I’m a dem. –Unions are usually worthless and harmful, and I hate when the party kowtows to them –I don’t care very much about most gun control (although I don’t own one, I don’t have any problem with those who do, and I think hunting is a fine sport). That said, I do think concealed carry should be illegal. –I think free trade is usually for the best, and hate protectionism –I think plaintiff’s personal injury/med mal lawyers are the worst people on earth (yes, I’m a lawyer, yes, I’ve done a few (small) PI cases for friends, but for the most part, it’s a total scam that has no relation to righting a wrong) –I think the status quo for teacher pay is broken and needs to be fixed. I don’t know what the right solution is, but dems seem to do whatever the teachers unions say, and that’s a recipe for disaster > [@](#): > > If it wasn’t for the racism, homophobia and ignorance i’d totally be a republican. Great line. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/10 "2009-07-09T16:57:53Z")
Dem here: Gun control is a waste of time. I think that we need to at least _consider_ nuclear power. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/11 "2009-07-09T17:21:55Z")
I’m a center-leaning Republican who’d like to see the party drop the DOMA nonsense and pay more attention to the environment. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/12 "2009-07-09T17:28:17Z")
Yet another Dem here. I don’t _think_ the national party is in favor of full marriage rights for gays, just civil unions, while I’m fully in favor. DOMA is an ugly blight on the country that’s frankly embarassing. If I’m wrong, though, feel free to fight my ignorance. (The repeal of DADT is in there, but I can’t seem to find gay marriage.) Fully in favor of widespread adoption of nuclear power Totally opposed to faith-based initiatives. Like **Never Say Dice** , I want strict separation. Single payer national healthcare- Although I suspect a lot of the progressive Dems support this, the official line is just reform and a public option. My hope is that current efforts will lead to a single-payer system. I’d like to see a stronger stance on corporate malfeasance. Some aggressive trust-busting is long past due, especially in agri-business. I think the party is too corporate-friendly to the detriment of the middle class on down. On abortion, I agree with the official position of availability regardless of of a woman’s ability to pay. The problem, though, is that too many Dems don’t want government funding the procedure, pretty much pricing it out for the poor. I go with the old slogan of, “Safe, legal, and rare,” with the addition of available for all. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/13 "2009-07-09T17:31:26Z")
Here are some links to help out. [Democratic Party platform for 2008](http://www.democrats.org/a/party/platform.html) [Republican Party platform for 2008](http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/) [Green Party platform for 2004](http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/) [Libertarian Party platform for 2008](http://www.lp.org/platform) ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/14 "2009-07-09T17:49:44Z")
I’m a conservative, registered Independent. I’m really tired of the divide over the abortion issue. Both sides are anti-abortion. The question is, how practical is it to stop all abortions? I wish both sides would just shut up with the rhetoric (mainly the Reps) and start trying to simply reduce the numbers, understanding they will never be zero. (I also wish the Dems would stop using “abstinence” as a stupid idea and come out and declare some late-term abortions as being both disgusting and immoral.) I’m also much more in the camp with the Dems on gay issues. While I’ve been called a bigot on these boards numerous times on this issue, I fully support equal benefits and privileges being extended to gay couples, save the word “marriage”. This is an old one, but I thought the Reps had it 100% wrong on the Elias Gonzalez issue. Also, if taxes have to be raised, I think the estate tax is the way to go. I think a person has a much stronger claim to what he earns than what he inherits. The problem here, though is one of practicality, as people will just find ways to give away their money before they die, which, it being their money, they have every right to do. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/15 "2009-07-09T17:54:02Z")
I’m a Democrat. -I have a problem with giving citizenship to those who’ve entered the country illegally regardless of the circumstances. - Yucca Mountain should take nuclear waste. No place on Earth is 100% geologically stable and to the hippies and Native Americans all I have to say is “tough shit, eminent domain” - The first massive government funded wind farm should be in Nantucket Sound, that’s just NIMBY hypocrisy at it’s most disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/16 "2009-07-09T18:12:42Z")
I am a Republican. - I am somewhat opposed to gay marriage but do not think it’s an issue worth being up there with economic liberty, abortion, low taxes, healthcare, and so on. I’d gladly trade DOMA for repealing _Roe_, for example. - I would like Republicans to acknowledge the existence of global warming and tackle it as a hard-headed cost-benefit issue, rather than denying that it exists (as is being done now) or religiously thinking we Must Not Meddle With Gaia (as some Dems do). - I would like the party to take a coherent stand on immigration (though frankly both parties fail at this). In particular it should clamp down on illegal immigration but open up immigration of skilled workers, which is currently very difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/17 "2009-07-09T18:44:59Z")
I have been voting democratic for over a decade now due to the anti-scientific, nationalistic, and theocratic stance of the Republican party (who gave them the right to legislate their morality?) For the most part I don’t mind the platform of the democrats with a few exceptions: [ul] [li]No more gun control. Studies show that \>90% of all crimes involving firearms are performed with illegal guns. Legal gun owners are not really a problem.[/li][li]Nuclear power is a good thing. [/li][li]Would prefer to avoid more drilling in the US, but only because I would rather save these resources for our children’s petrochemical industry and become a world leader in alternative energy technologies. Let’s use other peoples resources while they are cheap and save our own and make sure that when we switch to non-hydrocarbon based energy sources we control the IP (IIRC, Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest researcher in solar energy technologies).[/li][li]I have no problem with clean coal or natural gas, but would prefer to move to sustainable technologies (see above).[/li][li]Taxes are a mess in this country. I would support a flat tax if we could eliminate sales and property taxes and get rid of most deductions. This would also require we tax capital gains as income, abolish corporate taxes, and disallow corporate write offs (company perks like cars should be taxed as income too, but inheritance should be given a pass). Meh. Definitely has problems. [/li]How about we abolish corporate, income, property, capital gains, and inheritance taxes and institute a national sales tax on everything except food and maybe medicine. Every time money changes hands, the government tacks on 8%? Anyway, I do think taxes should be as low as possible, which leads to the next point. [li]Government should be smaller and probably provides too many services that it has no business providing. Unfortunately, I am not sure where to cut this off. I don’t think that having citizens dying of exposure, starvation, or readily curable medical conditions should be tolerated. A basic level of existance should be provided for all of our citizenry.[/li][li]Education should always be provided, but it should also be earned. None of this NCLB crap. If a student of any age or background does well and wants to learn, we should (as a society) promote them and support them in any way possible. If a student does poorly academically, let’s push them toward vocational schools and if they do poorly there, kick them out. If someone who frittered their youth away wants a second chance in their 30s (hypothetically), let’s give it to them, but they have to earn it by working hard. If they can’t cut it, kick them out to make room for someone who can![/li][li]I have no problem with merit pay for teachers, but finding a metric to measure the merit has problems. (student performance, especially on standardized tests, has a lot of contributing factors and teacher ability is probably toward the bottom of the list).[/li][li]I am a big believer in the free market and believe there is, in the main, too much regulation (or maybe regulation in the wrong places). I do think it is good to have laws to limit monopolies, labor laws to protect workers, safety laws protect the public (and employees), laws to mandate the amount of capital/debt for financial and insurance companies, and environmental laws to protect the commons (air, water, climate etc…) from damage. But subsidies and other forms of price controls (including minimum wage) are bad.[/li][li]I believe immigration is a human right, but I don’t think we should give away citizenship easily. I do think that we should let people come to this country (if there are jobs, they _ **will** _ come) but give them workers visas, tax them to pay for any services they use (basically everything except social security), and send them home if they are not working.[/li][li]Yucca mountain should be used.[/li][li]Government should get out of the marriage business entirely. (Where in our constitution does it say it is the responibility of government to define the meaning of words? If you want to be married, be married. If one person’s definition is different than another person’s, why should the government arbitrate this? All people should be equal under the law, married, single, Christian, Islamic, black, white, straight, and gay. Why should our governement care if a person is married or not?)[/li][li]While I agree that our military should be strong and that we should take care of our soldiers and veterans, I do not like being a superpower. Let the world take care of and police itself; why are we spending our wealth doing this? Let’s keep our navy and air force strong, but close all the bases we have around the world. Let’s also beef up our intelligence and cyber forces.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/18 "2009-07-09T18:55:58Z")
I’m a Dem and buy into most of what is posted. A party with that platform would do well. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/19 "2009-07-09T18:57:11Z")
I don’t have any party affiliation but I voted Conservative in the last election. Going by their stated policy positions and well-established acts as the government for the last three years, I disagree with the following: - Increased spending - The endless parade of “Tough on crime” bills And uh… well, here’s the thing; they don’t really HAVE a platform. They haven’t even bothered to update their Web site since the last election. So I’m opposed to their lack of a platform. Regrettably, I feel the same way about their chief rivals. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454/20 "2009-07-09T19:24:55Z")
I’m an Independent. My party is always right so there is nothing that needs changing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-planks-in-your-partys-platform-do-you-not-subscribe-to/502454.md?page=2)