The definition of a party platform (from YourDictionary.com) is “a set of beliefs that are accepted as characteristic of a particular political party and presented to the public to help the public know the principles and values for which that party stands.“ We are all inundated with ads and mail, but a party’s platform can help you see a larger picture of where the party wants to lead the country.

The comparison below is between the New Hampshire Republican Party platform, the New Hampshire Democratic Party platform, and the National Libertarian Platform. Due to space constraints and the differing categories in each platform, the comparison shows the category heading used by the party and descriptive sentences that highlight major differences.

The actual platform of each party shows a great deal more detail. You can view them at NHDP. org/platform, NH.GOP/platform, and LP.org/platform.

The Democratic National Committee revises their platform every four years and their 2020 platform is found at: Democrats.org/ Where-We-Stand/Party-Platform.

The Republican Party’s 2016 platform and the resolution carrying it forward for 2020 is at prod-cdn-static.gop.com/docs/Resolution_Platform_2020.pdf.  I did not find an official national 2022 platform.

Democratic Party

Condensed from NHDP.org/platform.

Introduction

New Hampshire Democrats put people first. We know that quality public services are foundational to the common good.

Democrats know life in New Hampshire has become more costly.  We understand the financial strains individuals and families are experiencing and what it will take to ease those financial pressures.  

Protecting Democracy and Voting Rights

The freedom to choose our leaders and speak up for what we believe in is foundational to American democracy.

We believe in policies that broaden voter participation and make it more convenient to vote. 

We support fair redistricting free of partisan gerrymandering to ensure every vote counts. 

We reject all attempts to undermine legitimate election results.

We believe civics education should occur at home, in schools, and throughout the community to build awareness and understanding of our democratic institutions.

We reject all attempts at voter suppression.

Economic Building Blocks

We know that government serves a vital role in partnering with the private sector  and public employers to create the building blocks New Hampshire’s economy needs to thrive today and tomorrow.

We believe that good government promotes business development statewide by ensuring the availability of a well-educated, well-trained, and well-compensated workforce with competitive wages and benefits and the skills needed to compete in a globalized economy.

We believe Government must promote policies that include ensuring the right of every worker to join a union, making the minimum wage a living wage, achieving pay equity for women and people of color, restoring overtime protections, and supporting prevailing wage standards.

Government plays an important role in ensuring a comprehensive transportation infrastructure, including bus and rail service.

Government is responsible for helping establish telecommunications and broadband infrastructure.

We recognize the importance of our immigrant population to our workforce and economic growth. 

 Fiscal Responsibility

We are committed to engaging the public to develop a fiscally sound, transparent, and accountable balanced budget to serve the needs of all Granite Staters.  

We believe an effective and efficient government must provide essential services including supporting the health and safety of our residents, public education, the protection of our environment, access to courts and justice, consumer protection, and the physical infrastructure necessary to maintain a robust economy and expand employment opportunities.

We believe the state budget must reflect the true costs of assuring an effective and efficient government and be supported by sufficient, sustainable revenue.

We oppose unfunded mandates and downshifting costs to the local municipalities and property taxpayers. 

Health Care

We believe health care is a basic human right.

Quality health care includes physical, mental, and oral health care, including prevention and early intervention in clinically appropriate settings in all urban and rural areas.

All people must have access to affordable, safe, legal, and accessible reproductive health care, including contraception and abortion care, regardless of geography, income, or insurance coverage, and free from government interference. 

We oppose bans on abortion and other measures that add barriers to accessing care as arbitrary and unnecessary infringements on individual liberty.

Our youth must have access to sexual, reproductive, and mental health education that promotes personal health, social stability, and gender equality.

Support for Our Veterans and Military Families

We honor and respect our veterans, active duty and reserve military personnel, national guard and military families. 

We believe the best way to honor our veterans is to keep our commitment to provide physical and mental health care, education, and disability support throughout their lifetimes. 

Education

Public education is a bedrock principle of our free and democratic society.

All students have the right to a quality education, from early childhood through post-secondary college or career training.

We appreciate and value our community school personnel. 

We support policies to equalize education funding and eliminate the gap for children across income levels and zip codes.

We reject all efforts to divert public funding to privatized education as part of the systemic attack on our community schools.

We believe that our educators support their students appropriately and that they teach history and scientific principles accurately to all students.

We support gun-free schools. We will fight any attempts to arm teachers or militarize schools under the pretense of school safety.

Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community

We believe that LGBTQ+ individuals of all ages deserve equal rights and opportunities in all aspects of life and society.

Public Safety and Justice

We support our law enforcement, firefighters and EMS personnel who protect us. We achieve this through safe and healthy working conditions, proper staffing, and adequate funding. 

We support continued training and support for law enforcement officers.  This includes non-violent strategies for assisting those experiencing mental and behavioral health issues.

We believe in responsible gun ownership. We support universal background checks to protect our communities from gun violence. We believe that military- style weapons, bump stocks, and high-capacity magazines do not belong on our streets.

We believe communities should have the right to establish gun-free zones in certain public places.

We understand that prevention, education, treatment, diversion programs and rehabilitation are often more effective than incarceration. 

Cannabis should be legalized and regulated.

We oppose the privatization of prisons. We believe prison privatization creates improper incentives toward imprisonment rather than prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

Diversity Makes Us Stronger

We believe our diversity makes us stronger and more welcoming to newcomers and business.

We believe in basic protections and security for all people in our state and that everyone should be free from discrimination.

Climate, Energy, and Agriculture

We reject all efforts to deny the validity of science. Climate change presents a real and imminent threat, and it is our immediate responsibility to proactively address and counter its effects.

We believe we must eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels by no later than 2040 by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy resources, infrastructure, and jobs.

It is our duty and responsibility to preserve clean air and water and a healthy environment for ourselves and for future generations.

We actively support our local family farms.

We support the protection of our mountains, forests, parks, coastal waters, lakes, rivers, and streams.

Republican Party

Condensed from NH.GOP/platform.

Statement of Principles

We believe, above all else, in the founding principle that all people are created equal, endowed by our Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, unimpeded by intrusive government regulation and control.

We believe that the Founding Fathers gave the 1st Amendment its pre-eminent position with intent that religious freedom deserves to be protected.

We believe that the 2nd Amendment is in a position of prominence with the intent that law-abiding citizens of the United States of America have a right to protect and defend their lives, their families and their property without government infringement.

Local government should not be allowed to infringe on individual rights and that the state should ensure protections from such local government overreach.

We believe that the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, healthcare, education, and wellbeing of their children is a fundamental right. Decisions in regards to the upbringing, healthcare, education, and wellbeing of children should be the free choice of parents.

Voting

We believe that we the people are strongest when we stand together, that it is our responsibility to hold government accountable and that it is through the integrity of the ballot box that we do so.

Prosecute violations of election law and ensure that voting is done by NH residents only

Jobs and the Economy

Remove barriers to business formation and encourage small businesses.

Minimize business regulations, permits, licenses and paperwork.

Prefer incentives to penalties and issue warnings before fines.

Work with municipalities to streamline planning and zoning barriers to business.

Support the development of a robust telecommunications and technology infrastructure.

Uphold the right to join or avoid labor unions without coercion or intimidation; support “right to work” legislation.

Taxes and Spending- Low Taxes are the Result of Low Spending:

Strongly oppose new taxes and fees, including an income, sales and capital gains tax.

Cut or eliminate taxes which inhibit enterprise, earnings and savings and investment, such as the Interest and Dividends Tax and the Business Enterprise/Business Profits Tax.

Limit the growth of state spending to not more than the rate of inflation plus population growth

Oppose “downshifting” of costs and regulatory enforcement from state to local government

Work to reduce energy costs and remove New Hampshire from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

Government Structure:

Privatize programs and functions that can be handled more effectively by the private sector.

Ensure that public employee benefits are similar to and do not exceed those of the private sector

Expand openness and transparency to employment, expenditures and all recipients of taxpayers’ funds

Health

Support the repeal of Obamacare and oppose its implementation in New Hampshire.

Allow free market driven health care plans and “a la carte” insurance plans free from government mandates.

Allow the purchase of insurance plans across state lines

Provide for the special needs of seniors, including opportunities for personalized home health care and less expensive alternatives to hospital stays and prescription medication

Respect New Hampshire’s honored veterans by ensuring that they receive the benefits they have rightfully earned and deserve, particularly by combating homelessness and making all medical facilities available to qualified veterans.

The Family

Support the pre-born child’s fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment and implement all Constitutional and legal protections.

Recognize marriage as the legal and sacred union between one man and one woman as ordained by God, encouraged by the State, and traditional to humankind, and the core of the Family

Oppose euthanasia and physician assisted suicide

Support a Life at Conception Act.

Education

Promote education freedom and parental rights to control the education of their children.

Encourage education freedom to allow all parents to choose the best public, private, charter or home school program for their children

Expand education tax credits and education savings accounts

Repeal the Blaine Amendment to end discrimination against religious school

Promote local control of education policy and funding in order to create the best-managed school systems.

Amend the Constitution to overturn the poorly decided Claremont rulings and return educational funding and policy to the people at the local level.

Support freedom of speech at all education levels

Eliminate tenure and institute merit pay

Reform the teacher certification process to include participation by individuals outside the standard education paradigm.

Enable and encourage a momentary silent prayer or reflective silence in the classroom at the start of each day

Law And Order

Protect the rights of law-abiding individuals to own and carry fire arms to defend themselves, their families and their property; oppose any taxation, licensing restrictions, or registration of firearms; oppose the requirement to obtain a license to carry a concealed fi rearm; oppose any “assault weapons” ban; support the universal right of self defense wherever one has a legal right to be.

Strengthen prosecution and fair enforcement of death penalty laws.

Support the State’s Constitutional right to determine legal restrictions on possession of controlled substances

The Judiciary

Demand the appointment of judges who recognize their proper and limited interpretive role, relying only on the original intent of the federal and state constitutions.

Provide instructions for juries in criminal proceedings that they have the power both to judge the facts and the application of the law to those facts

The Environment

Recognize that private property owners are the most effective land stewards and have a fundamental right to freely use and enjoy their property.

Promote conservation of open space, sensitive ecosystems, wildlife, scenic vistas, historic and cultural landscapes, and especially New Hampshire’s state historic sites.

Require that all energy and infrastructure projects constructed within New Hampshire be constructed in a manner which does not negatively affect New Hampshire’s natural beauty and personal property values.

Federalism

Demand the enforcement of national border security and immigration laws and oppose any form of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Oppose all laws, programs, and mandates from local, national, and international organizations and governments contrary to our principles: including, but not limited to, educational standards, United Nations programs, international treaties, sustainable development initiatives, wealth redistribution plans, and punitive environmental controls.

 

Libertarian Party

Condensed from LP.org/platform.

Statement of Principles

 

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

 

Personal Liberty

Individuals are inherently free to make choices for themselves and must accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make.

We are committed to ending government’s practice of spying on everyone.

Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration, or military service laws.

Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs, provided that the rights of children to be free from abuse and neglect are also protected.

We favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as gambling, the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services.

We oppose the administration of the death penalty by the state.

Economic Liberty

The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected.

All efforts by government to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society.

Libertarians would free property owners from government restrictions on their rights to control and enjoy their property, as long as their choices do not harm or infringe on the rights of others.

We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.

Government Finance and Spending

We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution.

We support any initiative to reduce or abolish any tax and oppose any increase on any tax for any reason.

To the extent possible, we advocate that all public services be funded or allowed to be provided in a voluntary manner.

Licensing

We oppose occupational and other licensing laws that infringe on the right to earn an honest and peaceful living or treat it as a state-granted privilege.

Education

Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government.

Parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children’s education.

Health Care

Medical facilities, medical providers, and medical products (including drugs) must be freely available in the marketplace without government restrictions or licenses. We oppose governments either mandating, or restricting voluntary access to, medical treatments or procedures including vaccines.

 Retirement and Income Security

Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. Libertarians would phase out the current government-sponsored Social Security system and transition to a private voluntary system. We believe members of society will become even more charitable and civil society will be strengthened as government reduces its activity in this realm.

 Crime and Justice

We favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as gambling, the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services.

Death Penalty: We oppose the administration of the death penalty by the state.

Environment

Competitive free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. Protecting the environment requires a clear definition and enforcement of individual rights and responsibilities regarding resources like land, water, air, and wildlife. Where damages can be proven and quantified in a court of law, restitution to the injured parties must be required.

National Defense

We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both avoid entangling alliances and abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world. We oppose any form of compulsory national service.

International Affairs

We would end the current U.S. government policies of foreign intervention including military and economic aid; tariffs; economic sanctions; and regime change. We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups.

Free Trade ad Migration

Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries.