Democratic Platform

We Democrats are well-advised to remain focused upon our values: work, family and country. The Republicans have bamboozled Americans into thinking that our system of politics for the privileged and free enterprise for the few is the only available form of democratic capitalism. Our economies and governments are moribund, but the Republicans are only willing to fiddle with change at the margins. The Democrats are prepared to bring our 18th Century system into the 21 Century.

Gov. Bill Clinton spoke of a “New Covenant,” a compact between the people and their government based upon moral responsibilities. We do not want a nation where the have-littles are pitted against the have-nots. We want to become a people again, united and indivisible. The disintegration of our national community did not result from this group or that group, but from all of us. We lost our moorings as a society, confusing might with right and consumerism with citizenship.

PAUL RYAN, Pasadena