DeKalb Democrats
OUR COUNTY PLATFORM
Preamble:
As Americans cope during a very fraught election season, they are faced with two stark and distinctive
choices.
1. American Constitutional norms, honoring the rule of law and the will of the majority.
2. Overturning two and a half centuries of precedent and installing an entirely new set of proposals that reflect the will of only a radical fringe of the political spectrum.
Democrats at all levels of government represent the first choice.
We understand that the majority of citizens expect women to have freedom to exercise personal medical choices.
A majority of Americans call for reasonable laws to protect everyone from gun violence.
Medicare and Social Security are not entitlements; they are insurance programs that
working Americans pay for throughout their working lives. Democrats must be assured that
these programs will be funded and benefits available to all who qualify.
Democrats want good jobs with good pay that strong labor legislation provides.
We value the public good, especially the role that public education plays in providing it.
We value the role of expertise and nonpartisanship in our governmental agencies and
personnel, including in our judicial system.
We understand that climate change is real and requires solutions to mitigate the damage
that is accruing to our planet and its inhabitants.
We understand that good government requires reasonable regulations of business and
finance to protect the people.
We do not discriminate based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or country of
origin.
Project 2025
Republicans are promoting the opposite of what Democrats believe, and have plans to overturn our
freedoms, our protections, and our “pursuit of happiness.” Their antidemocratic agenda is articulated in an extensive document entitled Project 2025. If Republicans win enough seats in Congress, the Senate and the Presidency itself, they will enact the most restrictive, unrepresentative policies in our nation’s history.
This Platform cannot address the totality of the Project 2025 wishlist, but is an attempt to highlight a few of the most concerning areas that may have already reached us at the state and local levels.
Platform: Economic Security
In the 21st century economy, Georgia cannot afford to overlook the contribution that every citizen can make. To achieve that, we must rely on a full, educated and stable work force receiving living wages so that all may participate in the economy to make it grow.
A vital economy also relies on a robust tax system where all pay their fair share. So-called trickle-down economics has been demonstrated not to work for all citizens, so we must create a system where workers participate fully in the benefits. Poverty
must not be tolerated.
With the goal of a fair, safe, equitable and thriving workplace, DeKalb Democrats: ● Support legislation that will attract jobs to the state that provide salaries, benefits and working conditions that improve workers’ quality of life. ● Affirm workers’ rights to collective bargaining and the ability to form unions. ● Advocate raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, with incremental raises indexed to inflation. ● Support lifelong learning and retraining as an economic necessity. ● Condemn discrimination against any persons in the workplace or striving to enter it. To ensure that the economy works for all citizens, DeKalb Democrats: ● Believe that public interests take precedence over private interests. ● Believe that taxes are necessary to sustain a robust and vibrant society, as well as infrastructure that provides the essentials of life in the 21st century. ● Support raising taxes on the wealthiest among us so that they pay taxes commensurate with the benefit they receive from participating in this economy. ● Acknowledge that protecting the environment plays an essential role in any economic plan. ● Demand that where the system falls short, a robust safety net be provided for all citizens.
Platform: Healthcare
Healthcare in Georgia is in crisis. According to some rankings, it is last in the nation; in others, it is somewhere in the lowest third. Instead of trying to ameliorate this situation, legislators have made healthcare even more inaccessible by banning reproductive freedom and consistently refuse to expand Medicaid to thousands.
DeKalb Democrats believe that all Georgians have a right to affordable healthcare for any medical need. To that end, DeKalb Democrats: ● Demand that Georgia’s healthcare system work in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act by expanding Medicaid to accept the federal dollars that are available. ● Demand that complete, unrestricted reproductive freedom become the law. Where that is currently not available, we demand that policies allow for protection of pregnant women from being refused life-saving procedures, especially following miscarriages and fetal nonviability. ● Support Georgia’s focus on mental healthcare and future policies that will expand it. ● Advocate for expanded mental health services for adolescents and teens in crisis. ● Deplore the recent closure of many of the state’s medical facilities. ● Affirm creation of policies that will attract the best healthcare workers to the state. ● Support drug rehabilitation facilities to address the drug addiction crisis. ● Endorse vaccination programs that are free and readily available to all.
Platform: Education
Project 2025 would eliminate the Department of Education and divert public dollars to private institutions. It promotes efforts to limit what children can learn and the books they can read.
DeKalb Democrats renounce all efforts to undermine public education and the welfare of our children. In the cause of robust public education for all, DeKalb Democrats: ● Demand that public education be fully funded to provide state of the art facilities, personnel, curricula, and enrichment programs. Those dollars must not be diverted from the public education system. ● Affirm full academic freedom for teachers to teach and students to learn. ● Support levels of pay that will attract and retain highly qualified educators, whose expertise is respected and considered in decision making. ● Believe that class size should not exceed best practices. ● Support establishing wraparound services for all students whose families need assistance. ● Advocate reinstating the technical track diploma at our public high schools. ● Allow Georgians who comprise the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to pay in- state tuition to attend public colleges, universities, and technical schools. ● Support greater funding for higher education to reduce the financial indebtedness our students are currently accumulating. This includes expanding access to the HOPE Scholarship program. ● Oppose implicit or explicit endorsement of religion through the public education system. ● Reject all forms of censorship. ● Support schools offering psychological support to all students regardless of the nature of their needs. ● Support equity in allocating funding to districts whose tax bases cannot adequately support the needs of their schools. ● Oppose public funding being diverted to private schools in the form of vouchers. Where it already exists, demand accountability and transparency requirements for all voucher programs. ● Demand that parental “Bills of Rights” not supersede the expertise of education professionals.
Platform: Natural Resources
Climate change is a global emergency. The DeKalb Democrats are committed to curbing the effects of climate change, protecting America's natural resources, and ensuring the quality of our air, water, and land for current and future generations.
We believe it is necessary to do whatever is possible to slash carbon pollution. ● We support investment in energy-efficient homes, vehicles and appliances. ● We support national efforts to strengthen energy security by bringing clean energy manufacturing to Georgia, thereby also creating many well-paying jobs. ● We support a mandate that the Georgia EPD stop allowing the dumping of toxic coal ash in unlined pits submerged in groundwater until federal regulations, and specifically the Coal Ash Rule of 2015, are enforced. 5 ● We urge the protection of Georgia’s public lands and waters, which reflect the diversity of our country, and encourage Georgians and all Americans to engage in the great outdoors. This includes protecting landscapes, marinescapes, and cultural sites that tell the full story of America. ● We believe we have the right to be represented by Public Service Commissioners who are not beholden to the energy industry.
Platform: Public Safety
Democrats believe all our citizens have the right to safety and security; the effort to protect this right is one of the main responsibilities of state and local governments.
In support of this Public Safety Platform, Dekalb Democrats: ● Believe all our citizens have the right to live free of police brutality, and advocate for impartiality in law enforcement through the fair and restrained use of police authority, especially in overpoliced and underserved Black and Latino communities. ● Advocate for comprehensive gun safety legislation. This includes, at a minimum, banning military-grade weapons from our streets, repealing open carry, requiring robust background checks for all weapons purchases, and mandating safe gun storage. ● Believe the presence of firearms in Georgia schools is unwarranted, and the position of paying teachers to carry guns is indefensible. The possession of firearms by individuals other than trained law enforcement personnel and resource officers within Georgia schools and in school zones threatens the safety of students, has the potential of increasing violent encounters, and increases the likelihood of accidental, fatal school shootings.
Platform: Civil Rights
Civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, the right to gainful employment, the right to housing, the right to use public facilities, and freedom of religion.
DeKalb Democrats seek the end of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
As DeKalb County has done, the DeKalb Democrats support the right of individual communities to make decisions about Confederate monuments and other historic markers that honor and glorify the Confederacy. ● DeKalb Democrats support enforcement of Georgia’s comprehensive hate crime legislation to ensure that all individuals are protected from crimes committed against a person on the basis of their race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
Platform: Representation
The principle of one person/one vote underlies representation. Election districts for federal, state, and local offices, redrawn every 10 years, must be created to advance those ends. Redistricting must adhere to these rules:
Districts must be of equal population to comply with the US Constitution.
Districts must comply with the Voting Rights Act to ensure that minorities have an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous so that all parts of the district are connected to each other. In addition:
We believe that when voters cast a ballot, their votes should matter in choosing representatives at all levels of government who are responsive, reflective, and accountable to the constituencies they represent. ● We believe that one political party should never control the process of redistricting. ● We urge the establishment of an independent redistricting commission. ● We urge the use of clear redistricting criteria that reflect best practices, including compact districts that retain the integrity of communities of interest. ● We insist on transparency and adequate opportunities for public input in the redistricting process.
Platform: Election Integrity
Hand-marked paper ballots and precinct-based optical scan machines are considered the most secure by election IT experts. Georgians vote on the same Dominion system that has been at the center of national scrutiny and efforts to undermine following the election of 2020. This system prints voters’ selections on lists (called scanning ballots) with QR codes that claim to be consistent with the readable
portions.
The Georgia legislature voted to remove the QR codes, but what will replace them remains a question. The system has been breached, and security remains a concern.
DeKalb Democrats believe that Georgians deserve the most accurate, transparent, accessible and secure election system available. ● QR codes should play no role in elections; only human readable print or marks should be used for counting. Scanning ballots should be replaced with full ballots consistent with the format of absentee voter ballots, allowing voters to authentically verify their ballots and see the names of all candidates and wording of initiatives, which is currently impossible. ● Post-election, mandatory manual risk-limiting audits according to protocols established by developers of the method must be performed for every election.. ● Ranked choice (also called instant runoff) voting should be considered an option for runoff elections. ● The State Election Board must establish mandatory cyber incident reporting rules in the Election Code. ● The State Election Board should be required to be equally represented by both parties, with the Secretary of State as a tiebreaker. ● “Fake electors” and anyone else conspiring to overthrow an election should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Platform: Housing
Georgia’s homeless population has grown by 4.5% since 2020, and young adults today have a much harder time buying a home than their parents did a generation ago. Georgia Democrats believe that housing is a human right.
By protecting tenants’ rights and reforming the state’s eviction laws, expanding the availability of emergency and transitional housing, and increasing affordable housing along with workforce housing, Georgia Democrats will address the full housing continuum and create a pathway to home ownership for all Georgians.
In alignment with this position, DeKalb Democrats: ● Applaud the passage of HB 404, a landmark tenant protections bill that provides standards for people living in rental homes. The bipartisan legislation requires that rental properties be “fit for human habitation,” caps security deposits at two months’ rent and requires that landlords give tenants written notice and a three-business day right to pay back rent due before a notice of eviction is filed (a “right to cure” period). ● Support rent control to keep rent increases at manageable levels and the implementation of tax breaks for landlords who are willing to rent units at affordable rates. ● Support the Georgia Dream Homeownership Program that provides affordable financing options, down payment and closing cost assistance, and homebuyer education for those who qualify.. ● Recognize that the availability of affordable housing is a significant problem in the metropolitan Atlanta area. DeKalb Democrats support efforts to develop vacant properties into affordable housing and to cap the property tax rate as home values rise. ● Advocate for legislation to limit the purchase of single family homes by large financial groups and hedge funds. This practice drives up home prices, limits availability, and does little to contribute to the social fabric of neighborhoods.
Platform: Voting Rights
Since 2013, when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and especially following the chaos of the 2020 election, legislative efforts have focused on raising doubt among voters that our elections can be trusted.
Unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud have led to laws that make voting less accessible and aim to discourage and prevent voting among targeted populations.
Many of these laws and policies have been codified in SB202 and SB 189; they are onerous and negatively affect voters and election workers.
DeKalb Democrats believe that all eligible, registered voters deserve to have confidence in their elections, with the goal of full voter engagement. ● Laws should be designed to facilitate a secure, accurate, safe and unburden some voting process at every stage for both voters and election workers. SB202 and SB189 must be repealed. ● Automatic voter registration should be opt-out rather than opt-in when eligible voters interact with government agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. ● Polling places should be convenient and plentiful. No eligible voter should have to travel more than 30 minutes to their polling location. ● Legal provisions to protect the voting rights of unhoused persons must be established. ● Previous limits to voter challenges should be restored to stop the abuse that has resulted. ● Voter purges must cease. Fair and transparent laws must be established for maintaining current and accurate voter rolls.
Platform: Integrity in Government
DeKalb Democrats believe that the most critical function of effective government is to serve the common good, predicated on transparency and respect for the rule of law. Hyper partisanship and dark money lead to corruption and serve only a minority of interests.
We believe that government must derive its power not from the special interests or major campaign contributors, but from the people.
In the service of the best government for all Georgians, DeKalb Democrats believe that all who serve should be held to the highest ethical standards. ● DeKalb Democrats insist on fairness, transparency and integrity in our government. ● We deplore the pervasive influence of money in governmental affairs, and call for effective limits on gifts and expenditures for lobbying elected officials, and all other means of undue influence. ● We support funding and staffing of ethics regulating agencies with protection for whistleblowers from political or personal retribution. ● We support open government and public access to public business. ● We expect anyone representing the people of Georgia who uses public office for private gain or in any other way violates the public trust to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Contributions to the DeKalb County Democratic Party are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.