What New Hampshire Democrats Really Believe

By Edward C. Mosca

May 1, 2005 -- In a recent speech to the New Hampshire College Republicans, Bruce Keough, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2002 and the putative frontrunner for the 2006 nomination, asserted that Democrats don’t like to explain what they really believe. This prompted a response of sorts from Democrat state senator Peter Burling. While Burling pointed out that he has "spent more than 20 years in public life explaining what I think is wrong with the course being set for us by the majority," he proved Keough’s point by continuing to criticize, but never actually explaining what Democrats would do differently.

If you are interested in knowing what Democrats really believe, there is a place you can go to find out. It is www.nh-democrats.org, which contains their state party platform. Here are some highlights.

Democrats "believe it is time to focus the public discussion on the notion of a right to health care and regard such a right as entitled to all the protections our Democracy and Constitutions provide." What a "right to health care" means is socialized health care. The government would decide, or have a much greater say about, what kind of health care you get and when you get it. This would result in better health care for a few. But it would lower the quality of health care for most. And it would result in less medical innovation and invention, which in the long-run would hurt everyone.

Democrats also believe that "low-income working families should have access to the supports they need, including childcare, medical care, transportation assistance, and education and job training, to provide opportunities to get and keep good jobs and improve their wages and working conditions." Rather than eliminating poverty, however, this would create a permanent underclass dependant on the government. Why take a better job, or a second job, when that would result in the loss of free childcare, transportation, etcetera?

While Democrats believe in rights that are defined and controlled by government, they do not believe in upholding traditional rights. For example, they "call for public financing of candidates who qualify and who volunteer to accept specified limits on amounts they raise and spend." This would force people to pay for political speech that they don’t believe in, which is contrary to the First Amendment.

Democrats also do not believe in the freedom of the press. They "believe the media should be required to give such candidates free access to the airwaves, which are public goods."

Democrats also reject the traditional when it comes to marriage and families. "We affirm our historic commitment to fight discrimination in all its forms, including laws that deny loving persons of the same gender the right to form relationships that they choose or the right to establish families with the full rights, responsibilities and equal protection of our laws." No matter that same-sex marriages cannot provide children with a mother and a father. What’s more important to Democrats is that society must accept homosexual relationships as equivalent in all respects to heterosexual relationships.

Democrats "believe in the primacy of public education and oppose attempts to reduce the public commitment to all schools." In plain English, Democrats oppose charter schools and vouchers and believe that public schools should continue to operate as a quasi-monopoly. Which disproportionately hurts low-income families as they are least able to afford private schools, and shows that Democrats believe in government programs more than they believe in helping the poor.

Democrats believe that we should have an income tax on top of the property tax. "All sources of revenue should be considered in raising funds, provided that we reduce the burden of local property taxes throughout the State." But the empirical evidence indicates that any reduction in property taxes from adding an income tax would be temporary and there would be a greater overall tax burden in the future.

Democrats believe in a right to abortion and that "this right is unlawfully impinged upon when medical providers are constrained by government from offering medical services to women seeking to exercise their right to reproductive choice." In other words, a minor child should be able to get an abortion without her parents’ consent or knowledge.

One other thing that Democrats believe is that a majority of voters do not share their beliefs. Which is why, as Keough pointed out and as Burling’s response confirmed, they try to avoid explaining what they believe.

Mr. Mosca is an attorney practicing in New Hampshire. LINK

Posted May 2, 2005

Return to New Hampshire Commentary Homepage

New Hampshire Commentary
P.O. Box 706
Concord, NH 03302