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State party platforms a study in contrasts

The Massachusetts Democratic Party will hold its issues convention in a couple of weeks, and now’s a good opportunity to compare its platform with the platform currently endorsed by state Republicans.

Not surprisingly, they’re starkly different documents.

Democrats stress government-based solutions to a range of problems, while the Republican platform takes a different course, emphasizing individual responsibility and initiative and more local control of issues.

Democrats openly endorse reproductive choice and equal rights for gays and lesbians, but the Republican platform is silent on these issues.

The state GOP has a separate section dedicated to accountability in state government, but the Democrats have no similar section. This is easy to explain, since Democrats control all the levers of state government, including the Legislature and all the constitutional offices, such as governor, auditor and secretary of state.

They aren’t too keen on making changes to a system they run.

But, with little influence in state government, Massachusetts Republicans are relegated to citing “reform” measures in their platform they know they can’t get through the Legislature. These include term limits for legislators and a study to see if a part-time Legislature is appropriate, certainly issues the majority Democratic Party has no interest in pursuing.

Some of the GOP proposals make sense, however, such as requirements for posting more legislative business online in advance of consideration and a single website detailing all state appropriations.

State Democrats have taken heed and have made some progress on both these issues, but there’s still work to be done.

Most issues are informed and guided by the values legislators bring with them to the State House, and people can honestly disagree about the respective approaches the parties embrace.

That’s what elections are about. The voters settle those differences.

But there’s one area where the parties completely disagree and where science trumps values, and that’s on climate change. No rational person who has ever thought twice about the issue can deny climate change is happening and it’s caused by human activity.

The Republicans would beg to disagree. The platform says “there is no scientific consensus on the issue of man-made global climate change.”

What utter poppycock!

Scientists cite climate change

A recent study by Queensland University in Australia found 97 percent of scientists worldwide agree that global climate change is real.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and virtually every other federal scientific agency and national environmental advocacy group asserts the climate is changing and it is caused by human activities, especially CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum products.

The state Democratic platform agrees and advocates quickly stabilizing atmospheric CO2 based on the recommendations of a United Nations convention on climate change, currently set at a maximum of 350 parts per million.

The need to stabilize and then reduce CO2 emissions is as clear as the melting Arctic ice, rising oceans and unusually powerful storms and floods that have been wreaking havoc all over the world, all thoroughly documented by scientists.

It’s certainly acceptable for Republicans to advocate positions on the economy, state government and many other issues based on their values.

If they believe smaller government is better, local solutions to business and economic development are the way to go or state government needs to be more transparent, that’s fine, and the voters will decide which party is right.

But to deny climate change and lie about the scientific community’s assessment of the problem is unconscionable and should make every voter think twice about casting a ballot for any Republican who endorses the state GOP platform.

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Posted by on June 27, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Beacon Hill Spotlight,Columns,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
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