Unity Platform

For an American future that is

prosperous, powerful, good, kind, generous, and responsible

In these pivotal times, the Clark County Democrats stand for a practical and unifying path forward. Thus, our Unity Platform respects Democrats and non-Democrats alike. It builds people up with opportunity, kindness, and togetherness. We love Clark County, and we respect all who live here. We also believe in America, and that is why we seek unity over partisanship. We are confident that together we can build an American future that is prosperous, powerful, good, kind, generous toward all people, and responsible.

There is nothing that Americans can’t accomplish when we put our minds to it. For that reason:

1. We believe Clark County is for all of us and America is for all of us.
2. We believe good government is about balance, working together, and cultivating healthy unity among all Americans.
3. We stand for authentic democracy in our republic, including accepting the will of the people after elections and supporting the constitution.
4. We support strengthening rural communities and protecting their rural character.
5. We support good jobs, affordable homes, low energy costs, and a healthy environment, while preserving local farms and open spaces.
6. We stand for human rights and women’s rights, and we believe America is better and stronger because of the diverse races, belief systems, and gender identities who live together in our vibrant and beautiful nation.
7. We support our thriving small businesses, fast growing and innovative large businesses, and we stand for workers’ rights to earn a living wage. We believe that Clark County can find a balanced business approach that is fair to all.
8. We advocate for an orderly, lawful, and welcoming immigration system that recognizes the nation’s origins, and creates a more effective path to citizenship. We reject the notion that immigrants threaten American values, and instead affirm that immigrants enrich and fortify the very essence of America.
9. We stand up for every woman’s personal freedom to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including all forms of birth control, IVF, and safe and legal abortion.
10. We believe in healthy communities, which is why we support affordable and accessible quality healthcare without preexisting condition qualifications for all Americans.
11. We believe that climate change is real, happening now, and must be addressed as an emergency. Our children have a right to inherit a clean, uncontaminated world.
12. We believe that education is a critical public good that supports democracy and that it is our collective responsibility to ensure that every child receives a world-class education to prepare them for the 21st century. Ensuring educational options at all ages, including apprenticeship, trade school, internships, university, or other career pathways enables participation in civil society and empowers us all to lead meaningful lives, no matter who we are or where we come from.
13. We believe in responsible and lawful gun-ownership, and we support reasonable safety measures to prevent gun violence and stop our children from being killed.
14.  We support America’s role as a leader in the global community of nations, and we seek consistent leadership that upholds principles of human rights, the rule of law and authentic democracy worldwide.
15.  We envision an America where unity, kindness, and prosperity prevail, as the American people unite for a future that is not only powerful and practical, but also civil, kind, and respectful toward all.

 

Call to Action

The Clark County Democrats seek your support through the following actions.

1. Vote for Democrats, for a unifying and balanced approach to help all Americans succeed and thrive.
2. To help this approach grow, we ask all other interested organizations to endorse this Unity Platform and organize with us so we can pass legislation that reflects it.
3. We ask elected officials to take action to enact the Unity Platform and achieve the following milestones

 

Milestones to Enact the Unity Platform

1. Build the I-5 Bridge and bring federal money and jobs to every part of Clark County through construction, high-speed internet, roads, bridges, technology, and other infrastructure projects. Basic infrastructure is good for the economy and provides jobs.
2. Support local government officials in working with our federal delegation to secure funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS semiconductor law, and green jobs from the Inflation Reduction Act. These laws are creating millions of jobs across the nation, and both rural and urban Clark County should get their fair share.
3. Provide affordable energy and affordable homes for Clark County’s people. Support our Public Utility District, expand programs that reduce people’s energy costs, and hold the county accountable for developing affordable homes through transparently reporting whether we are closing the affordable housing gap each year.
4. Create “American Pride Jobs” in rural areas by modeling the 1930s New Deal programs. An American Pride Jobs Program would provide good wages for work on public projects and funding for job training, college attendance, or apprenticeships in high-demand fields. Ensuring our workforce is equipped with high-demand skills is smart for our economy, locally and globally.
5. Prepare today for predictable economic disruptions that can be caused by recessions, pandemics, climate change, modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, or other unpredictable events. Maintain an “on hold” list of American Pride Jobs in every part of the state that can be made available during economic downturns, so that people who are laid off can quickly go to work and preserve their income, marketability, self-worth, pride, and dignity.
6. Protect human rights, including women’s rights, environmental protection, affordable housing, and the rights of underrepresented groups.
7. Enact Medicare for All Who Choose It. Maintain Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and create Medicare for All Who Choose it, allowing regular Americans to buy into Medicare with a sliding scale premium, as an optional alternative to buying private sector health insurance.
8. Rebuild the middle class. Focus economic strategies on creating living wage jobs with benefits for regular Americans, instead of a more generalized goal of “growth,” which too often creates concentrated wealth at the top instead of good jobs.
9. Reform corporate law. Incentivize public corporations to consider environmental impact, human rights, worker rights, and consumer rights as priorities. Today, most public corporations have one priority: profit (also called shareholder return). They can be sued by their stockholders if they consider anything else as a co-equal priority. This must change.
10. Reduce gun deaths while upholding the right to bear arms. Prior to a gun purchase, require a gun safety course, a gun license like a driver’s license, a background check including mental health and domestic violence history, two references signing on behalf of your character and safety, and a check-in with recent domestic partners since they are the most frequent victims of gun violence; and increase the penalties for selling weapons on the black market. No policy is perfect, and we recognize this causes inconvenience and delay for lawful gun purchasers. However, the need for improvement is manifestly clear, and we believe this approach balances the right to bear arms with reasonable efforts to stop weapons from falling into the wrong hands, to save thousands of lives.
11. Reduce and adapt to climate change. Create economic incentives to reduce air pollution and prepare our communities for the coming impacts of global climate change. Support Washington’s Climate Commitment Act and oppose ballot initiative 2117, which seeks to overturn it. This initiative is funded by a Republican mega-donor and hedge-fund manager whose goal is to allow corporate pollution with no consequences. All of us—Democrats and non-Democrats alike—must work together to prioritize a clean environment and address global climate change. Vote no on I-2117.
12. Support immigrants in our communities. We believe that a sensible, humane, and responsible approach to immigration strengthens the United States. Immigrants are essential to our society and our economy. They grow our food, care for our loved ones, serve in our armed forces, and provide critical health care services. Immigrants join our families, enrich our culture and make America stronger. Not only do immigrants support us—immigrants are us. Our families and our communities, our congregations and our schools, our businesses large and small have been built and sustained through immigration. That’s why we are committed to building a 21st century immigration system that reflects our values, supports citizenship for Dreamers, repairs past harms, heals our communities, rebuilds our economy, and renews our global leadership.
13. Reform campaigns. Pass federal legislation establishing that corporations are not people and may not contribute more to any political campaign than a typical American household of median income. This will return our government to “we, the people” and give regular Americans equal footing with the wealthy campaign contributors who currently hold disproportionate power over lawmakers and lawmaking.
14. De-rigging the tax system. We recognize that the tax system is rigged for the benefit of the very rich and we insist that it be fixed. Regardless of political affiliation, all billionaires, multi-millionaires, and large corporations should pay their fair share.
15. Modernize foreign policy. Formalize a trading alliance of modern democracies, open to growth as more nations modernize, to consistently promote human rights, the rule of law, and genuine democracy inside its member-nations and across the world. This is an effective way to proactively promote stability, peace, and prosperity for all in our ever-more interconnected world.
16. Recognize the inalienable rights of all people to basic dignity, food, shelter, healthcare, education, and living wage jobs; and work toward a modern and humane society that respects these rights for all.