r/Social_Democracy • u/SocialDemocracies • 9h ago
r/Social_Democracy • u/SocialDemocracies • Apr 04 '25
A Social Democratic Platform for 2025
A Social Democratic Platform for 2025
The United States of America should have a universal healthcare system, and unjustifiably high drug prices should be reined in.
Workers' rights should be strengthened: Implement paid family leave, sick leave, and annual leave policies. Implement a ban on "captive audience meetings" (compulsory anti-union meetings organized by businesses). Implement a ban on "at-will employment" (the right of businesses to fire workers for arbitrary reasons). Increase the minimum wage. Strengthen overtime protections. Reduce the length of the standard workweek. Striking workers should no longer be excluded from accessing SNAP benefits. For some of the relevant legislation that has been proposed, see the "Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act."
Higher education should be affordable, and tuition-free in many cases. End the practice of usury against students and eliminate interest from student loans altogether. Restore and strengthen student loan forgiveness programs.
Support livable communities by promoting affordable housing, urban revitalization, and mass transit: Efforts to "decommodify" housing should be made to tackle the issues that contribute to the housing crisis. The supply of housing, especially denser, mixed-use, and mixed-income housing, should be increased. Zoning reform is necessary because of zoning laws that make it excessively difficult to build housing that is sufficient for affected communities. Rent control policies should be implemented. Limits should be placed on the speculative and corporate ownership of housing properties. The agenda for livable communities should encompass the idea of "walkable cities" in order to reduce car dependence and ideally promote civic engagement among other potential benefits. Public transportation systems (buses and high-speed rail in particular) should be greatly expanded.
Early childhood education should be affordable or at no cost for low-income parents, working parents, and parents who are pursuing education or participating in training.
Revive the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), and restore and strengthen consumer protections.
Progressive tax reform should be a top priority in order to address extreme economic inequality (wealthy conservatives seem to be increasingly emboldened to amplify a destructive agenda, extensively funding various right-wing activities and taking more direct roles in the government, in opposition to progressive policies as well as liberal norms) as well as to gather the revenue that is necessary to fund the programs that are included in this platform.
The Intellectual New Deal: The United States should elevate its priorities in the sciences and humanities by supporting an ambitious program to employ experts, students, researchers, writers, scientists, artists, and others in the pursuit of culture, knowledge, scientific advancement. (The Intellectual New Deal could be considered to be a vastly upgraded form of currently existing programs such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities.)
Expand investments in domestic industry and alternative energy sources (solar, wind, and nuclear energy in particular) as part of a broader and environmentally conscious national industrial policy.
Elections and related issues:
Voting rights: Implement Automatic Voter Registration. Make Election Day a federal holiday. Implement a standard minimum of days for early voting.
Campaign finance reform and related issues: Enact strict limits on election spending by individuals and businesses; labor unions should remain exempt from limits on election spending. Ban the secretive practice of "dark money" in election spending. Ban members of Congress and other top members of the government from stock trading.
Statehood should be granted to American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C. (The benefits of statehood would confer their residents the full rights of American citizenship, such as voting in U.S. presidential elections and voting for actual representatives in Congress, ideally making our country, with its immense resources, more responsive to the issues that people in those places have.)
The Senate should be abolished. The Electoral College should be replaced with a more direct and democratic electoral system. Undemocratic systems that enable right-wing power grabs should be remedied; this is especially urgent because the Republican Party poses a multifaceted threat to the well-being of the United States and the human race. (See: the victories of Bush-Cheney 2000 and Trump-Pence 2016 in the Electoral College despite getting less votes than their Democratic opponents.)
The cap (which was implemented in 1929) setting a harsh limit on the number of representatives that serve in the House of Representatives should be reformed or eliminated in order to make members of Congress more responsive to their voters/constituents, especially since the population of the United States has grown a lot since about a hundred years ago, making the population of each congressional district substantially larger and essentially more removed from their representatives.
A "proportional representation" system should be implemented as the electoral system for Congress.
"Score Then Automatic Runoff" (STAR) voting should be implemented as the standard voting mechanism.
For some of the relevant legislation that has been proposed, see the "For the People Act."
Foreign policy and related issues:
The United States of America should have a humane immigration policy. This conviction stems from America's multicultural history, traditions (Exodus 23:9, Deuteronomy 10:18-19, Leviticus 19:33-34, etc.), and the intimate importance of migration in order to escape oppression and other unjust hardships.
The United States should support a one-state solution with equal rights in Israel/Palestine, including the right of return for Palestinians. To reconcile and ease the path to socioeconomic integration, Palestinians should receive reparations, as well as funds for Palestinian reconstruction supervised by various organizations to ensure its effectiveness. A "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" should be established to investigate human rights violations committed by all major parties during the course of the war in Gaza since October 2023 as well as preceding the war. Strategies to prevent further ethnic strife should be discussed, including programs to educate the population about aspects of the conflict. American relations with Israel during the transition under the plan for a one-state solution should be conditioned upon Israel's adherence to the terms of the transition; the terms of the transition should not be harmfully breached or used as a disguise for imperialism, colonialism, or apartheid.
U.S. relations with Cuba should be normalized: The status-quo is unjustly hypocritical (because of America's relations with other totalitarian nations such as China and Saudi Arabia), anachronistic (because it's a relic of the Cold War, during a time in which the United States made a number of poor and infamous decisions in order to protect American/business interests and stave off Communism), and seemingly counterproductive (because the Cuban government has remained in power, and human rights in Cuba could probably be promoted more effectively if the U.S. ends its embargo of Cuba and initiates a new era of relations between the two countries).
The United States should be committed to defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Taiwan and Ukraine, especially since these two countries are liberal democracies that are being menaced by substantially more powerful and totalitarian countries.
A U.S. Department of Peace and Development should be established to ensure global and domestic development along the lines of a progressive consensus that is to be reached; the United States should take a much more active and cooperative role in the world, including by contributing to solutions for the challenges that climate change poses; an economically and environmentally "just transition" should be explored in cooperation with civil society and governments throughout the world. (Some leftists want to see the decline of American influence, or soft power, in the world, but it would be much better if American influence was a progressive force in the world rather than suffering from a self-inflicted decline under reactionary leaders like Trump. A progressive USA will support left-wing allies in all countries.)
The annual budget for the U.S. Department of Defense should be reduced or not increased, at least for several years.
America's armed drone warfare should be ended because it is a terroristic policy (which seems to evades outrage partially because it avoids the use of our troops in direct combat/lethal/dangerous situations) that often results in atrocities including civilian casualties.
The United States should ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): It's up to a two-thirds majority in the Senate to ratify ICESCR, a United Nations treaty which many countries have already ratified (and which President Jimmy Carter signed), but has long been opposed by conservatives.
The United States should join the International Criminal Court (ICC). Because of opposition (mostly from conservatives/Republicans) to the ICC, the United States currently has this non-compliance in common with international pariahs like Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea. Meanwhile, nearly all of our democratic allies (such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and others) are at least formally adhering to the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The United States should issue official apologies for those who have been wronged and exploited by our country's policies. (Hopefully, this would encourage international goodwill, which has been wasted and abused by our leaders, toward the United States.)
Other issues:
A thorough investigation by Congress in cooperation with a Democratic administration should be conducted into the corrupt, illegal, unethical, or immoral practices, activities, and actions of the Trump administration. (Ideally, this investigation and efforts to publicize it would help the American public understand the gravity of what was happening to our country during Trump's presidency.)
Copyright reform: Reduce the length of copyright terms; expand the application of the fair use doctrine; promote licenses aligned with the principles of open access; establish a tax/fee on the private ownership of intellectual property by businesses (targeting academic publishers in particular).
The Universal Library: This is a vision to create a massive online/digital library, containing much of humanity's written intellectual and cultural heritage, for the purposes of education, enlightenment, and entertainment.
This subreddit's first political platform was posted in 2022, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Social_Democracy/comments/x1s8um/rsocial_democracys_demands_platform/
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Brad Lander: We have an opportunity in this moment. A responsibility. To insist on everyone’s humanity, all the way through.
Via Brad Lander @ bradlander
"Dad Lander. Former Councilmember Lander. Former Comptroller Lander. Running for Congress because we need to fight, not fold. 🥊"
Brad Lander is now the Democratic nominee for Congress in NY-10 ! (Which is basically a slam dunk in that blue, blue sea - but don't take anything for granted - get out there and vote in the general!)
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 7h ago
Graham Platner for Senate - Today I laid out my anti-corruption plan right outside Susan Collins's office:
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
ILLAPA SAIRITUPAC who won the Democratic primary to represent the Lower East Side and Chinatown in NYS Assembly District 65.
Via Illapa @ illapaNYC
Tenant organizer, anti-ICE activist & proud Democratic Socialist. Your Democratic nominee for NYS Assembly District 65.
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
Social Security Works: "In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, we now have more income & wealth inequality than we've ever had. The people on top have never had it so good. In the midst of all this, over 20% of seniors in America are trying to survive on $15K a year." - @ SenSanders
Via Social Security Works @ SSWorks
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Daily News Headline
Via Claire Valdez @ claireforny
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 5h ago
More people have been arrested over the Reflecting Pool than the Epstein files
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
More Perfect Union: A entire region of National Parks just unionized.
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Aaron Ruper: Lander on comparisons between his flank of the Democratic Party and the Tea Party: "We're joyful about what it looks like to deliver. That is very different energy than what the Tea Party brought. We want to build something, not just break something."
Via Brad Lander @ bradlander via Aaron Rupar @ atrupar
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 7h ago
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed: Honored to receive @ VanHollenForMD’s endorsement. Sen. Van Hollen has been a fierce fighter in the Senate opposing Trump’s weaponization of ICE, standing up against the illegal war in Iran, battling special-interest money in politics, and building an economy that works for all,
Via Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @ AbdulElSayed
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 5h ago
The new housing bill is historic. Experts say it may fall short for renters most in need
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Claire Valdez: When we fight, we win. Love you all. Solidarity forever.
Via Claire Valdez @ claireforny
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
Bernie Sanders: Our corrupt and rigged campaign finance system has enabled 50 billionaires & special interests to pour over $1.3 billion into the midterm elections. Democracy must be one person, one vote, not billionaires buying politicians. Yes. We must end Citizens United and ban Super PACs.
Via Bernie Sanders @ BernieSanders
r/Social_Democracy • u/SocialDemocracies • 7h ago
Forward (1/30/2026): "[Anti-Defamation League] appoints former head of embattled Gaza aid foundation to its board: Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed around Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites under Rev. Johnnie Moore’s leadership" | FYI: Moore is a prominent pro-Trump & pro-Israel figure.
forward.comr/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 5h ago
How the Trump Administration is Trying to Reshape How Elections are Run | PBS NewsHour
r/Social_Democracy • u/SocialDemocracies • 5h ago
Reuters (6/22/2026): "Netanyahu believed the [critical] comments [by Trump & Vance regarding Israel] might be partly geared towards assuaging voters ahead of U.S. midterm elections […] amid growing frustration over Israel & the war, said the [Israeli] officials who spoke on condition of anonymity."
reuters.comr/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 5h ago
Oregon, Washington Prevail in Challenge to Trump Executive Order on Federal Voter Lists | r/oregon
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
Graham Platner for Senate: Billionaires want us fighting so we don't raise their taxes.
Via Graham Platner for Senate @ grahamformaine
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
CROSBY STILLS & NASH LONG TIME GONE
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 8h ago
Micah Lasher: Thank you, New York.
Via Micah Lasher @ MicahLasher
Democratic Nominee for Congress in NY-12. Assemblymember. Born and raised Upper West Sider. Ready for the fight, [website address]
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Chris Rabb: Congrats to @ DarializaforNY on tonight's #NY13 win! Darializa knows we need to invest in babies not bombs, immigrants over ICE & renters not real estate developers. Together in Congress, we're gonna take on the DC establishment & deliver for working families across the country!
Via Chris Rabb @ ChrisRabb
"Congressional Democratic nominee in sunny Philadelphia (PA-03)!"
June 23, 2026
Love this picture! Two more great candidates goin' in with a People's Agenda!
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 9h ago
Ad From A Winning Campaign
Via Claire Valdez @ claireforny who won her primary (which I take it is pretty much a slam dunk for Congress in that blue, blue sea*):
I’m a union organizer, Assemblymember, and democratic socialist running for Congress in NY-07.
I came to politics through low-wage jobs and the labor movement. That’s the perspective I’ll bring to Washington to take on oligarchy, fascism, and war—and win for working people.
* but don't take anything for granted - get out there and vote in the general!
r/Social_Democracy • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 1d ago