1988 Ad

Nation's Business, Sept, 1988

Democrats' Platform: A Blueprint For Restoring Rejected Policies The 1988 pltform adopted by the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta was widely described by the media as a generalized, bland statement lacking substance and specifics.

The commentators asserted that the document supported the Democratic strategy to shift toward the political center by moderating the party's anti-business image, supporting fiscal discipline and convincing voters that it was not pandering to special-interest groups.

But business people who read the Democratic platform will not find such reassurance. Through policy recommendations and overall tone, the statement signals continued support for more government spending and controls over the workings of the marketplace.

The document, supposedly lacking specifics, specifically endorses an indexed minimum wage, comparable worth, mandated leave, a major federal role in financing and regulating childcare services, plant-closing notification, more federal spending for education, federal funding of abortions, expanded housing programs, affirmative action based on goals as well as timetables and procurement set-asides, a "national health program" and extensive new programs for farm areas.

All this and more would be carried out, of course, "within a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility."

While endorsing proposals that would impose heavy costs on all businesses and threaten the viability of many of them, the platform also blithely cites the importance of "a healthy small-business community."

This platform calls for federal control of financial markets, mergers and takeovers. It opposes offshore drilling "in environmentally sensitive areas," which could mean almost any site, and asks for reduced reliance on nuclear energy but recommends a balanced energy policy.

Big labor isn't forgotten in the 1988 Democratic platform any more than it has been in past such documents. This year's statement contains a commitment to assure all workers of "the protection of an effective law that guarantees their rights to organize, join the union of their choice and bargain collectively with their employer, free from anti-union tactics."

That passage contains an echo of the AFL-CIO's long effort to win approval of so-called labor-reform legislation, which business has opposed on the ground that its ultimate purpose is to make it easier for unions to organize workers and harder for employers to resist such efforts.

The platform proposal would presumably require further legislative definition of "anti-union tactics," thus opening the door to further limitations on the rights of employers.

At a time when the nation is nearing the six-year mark of an unprecedented economic boom marked by record employment, the Democratic platform talks of "economic violence against poor and working people" and asks the nation "to reassert progressive values."

A party platform can be a forthright statement of the policies that the party will pursue if successful at the polls. It can also be a device to reassure as many constituencies as possible that their goals can be achieved by election of a given party's candidate, even if man y of those goals are mutually exclusive.

Either way, a platform offers insights into the approach that the candidates running on it will take to the actual business of governing. The 1988 Democratic platform offers just such insights.

It is not, as has been widely reported, a vague, unfocused document. It is a blueprint for th restoration of the policies that voters have soundly rejected in the last two national elections. Business people should be aware of this as the 1988 presidential campaign gets under way.