Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Platform of the Constitution Party


In reviewing the platform set forth by the Constitution Party, I realize it reflects exactly what the name of the party implies: a purely constitutional form of government as established by our founding fathers.

Here are some key excerpts that make this party appealing to me, a more complete list can be found here:

Sanctity of Life

The Preamble of the Constitution states a purpose of the Constitution to be to:
"secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".
We declare the unalienable right of Life to be secured by our Constitution "to ourselves and our Posterity". Our posterity includes children born and future generations yet unborn. Any legalization of the termination of innocent life of the born or unborn is a direct violation of our unalienable right to life.


Congress

The Congress of these United States has become an overpaid, overstaffed, self-serving institution. It confiscates taxpayer funds to finance exorbitant and unconstitutionally determined salaries, pensions, and perks. Most members of Congress have become more accountable to the Washington establishment than to the people in their home districts. Both houses of Congress are all too often unresponsive and irresponsible, arrogantly placing themselves above the very laws they enact, and beyond the control of the citizens they have sworn to represent and serve.

We seek to abolish Congressional pensions.

It is time for the American people to renew effective supervision of their public servants, to restore right standards and to take back the government. Congress must once again be accountable to the people and obedient to the Constitution, repealing all laws that delegate legislative powers to regulatory agencies, bureaucracies, private organizations, the Federal Reserve Board, international agencies, the President, and the judiciary.


Defense

We call for the maintenance of a strong, state-of-the-art military on land, sea, in the air, and in space. We urge the executive and legislative branches to continue to provide for the modernization of our armed forces, in keeping with advancing technologies and a constantly changing world situation. We call for the deployment of a fully-operational strategic defense system as soon as possible.

We believe that all defense expenditures should be directly related to the protection of our nation, and that every item of expenditure must be carefully reviewed to eliminate foreign aid, waste, fraud, theft, inefficiency, and excess profits from all defense contracts and military expenditures.


Education

Because control over education is now being relegated to departments other than the Department of Education, we clarify that no federal agency, department, board, or other entity may exercise jurisdiction over any aspect of children's upbringing. Education, training, and discipline of children are properly placed in the domain of their parents.

We support the unimpeded right of parents to provide for the education of their children in the manner they deem best, including home, private or religious. We oppose all legislation from any level of government that would interfere with or restrict that liberty. We support equitable tax relief for families whose children do not attend government schools.

So that parents need not defy the law by refusing to send their children to schools of which they disapprove, compulsory attendance laws should be repealed.


Election Reform

To encourage free and fair elections, all candidates must be treated equally. We call for an end to designated "Major Party" status that gives an unfair advantage to some candidates by providing ballot access and taxpayer dollars, while requiring others for the same office to gather petition signatures or meet other, more stringent criteria.

We call for a repeal of all federal campaign finance laws (i.e. McCain-Feingold) due to their violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.


Family

We stand against so-called "sexual orientation" and "hate crime" statutes that attempt to legitimize inappropriate sexual behavior and to stifle public resistance to its expression. We oppose government funding of "partner" benefits for unmarried individuals. Finally, we oppose any legal recognition of homosexual unions.

We recognize that parents have the fundamental right and responsibility to nurture, educate, and discipline their children. We oppose the assumption of any of these responsibilities by any governmental agency without the express delegation of the parents or legal due process. We affirm the value of the father and the mother in the home, and we oppose efforts to legalize adoption of children by homosexual singles or couples.


Gun Control

We emphasize that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. In such circumstances, the peaceful citizen's protection against the criminal would be seriously jeopardized.

We call for the repeal of all federal firearms legislation, beginning with Federal Firearms Act of 1968.

We call for the rescinding of all executive orders, the prohibition of any future executive orders, and the prohibition of treaty ratification which would in any way limit the right to keep and bear arms.


Immigration

We affirm the integrity of the international borders of these United States and the Constitutional authority and duty of the federal government to guard and to protect those borders, including the regulation of the numbers and of the qualifications of immigrants into the country.

We oppose the provision of welfare subsidies and other taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens, and reject the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in this country.

We oppose any extension of amnesty to illegal aliens. We call for the use of U.S. troops to protect the states against invasion.


Religious Freedom

Our Constitution grants no authority to the federal government either to grant or deny the religious expressions of the people in any place. Both the First and Tenth Amendments forbid such tyranny.

We call upon all branches of government to cease their attacks on the religious liberties of the people and the states, regardless of the forum in which these liberties are exercised.


State Sovereignty

The federal government has no authority to mandate policies relating to state education, natural resources, transportation, private business, housing, and health care, ad infinitum.

We call upon the states to reclaim their legitimate role in federal affairs and legislation (See Amendment 10 United States Constitution) and thus cause the federal government to divest itself of operations not authorized by the Constitution and extract the federal government from such enterprises, whether or not they compete with private enterprise.


Welfare

Charity, and provision of welfare to those in need, is not a Constitutional responsibility of the federal government. Under no circumstances should the taxpayers of these United States be obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens. Neither should taxpayers be indentured to subsidize welfare for persons who enter these United States illegally.

9 comments:

Patrick M said...

I like much of the Constitution Party's platform. My only problem is that they seem focused more on some of the religious right's ideals than I prefer. Of course, I lean a little more toward the Libertarian platform myself.

Pasadena Closet Conservative said...

Keep your heads on straight, everybody. A vote for anybody but McCain is a vote for Obama. We need to make sure McCain gets every vote possible. No sidetrips or we're doomed!

Bullfrog said...

pasadena: I would point out that a vote for either one makes little difference. I can't swallow the, "lesser of 2 evils" argument, my conscience won't allow it.

Mr. Grey Ghost said...

Bullfrog

Unless you live in a liberal state, I'm hoping "hold your nose" and vote for McCain anyway. An Obama presidency will lead this country to ruin.

dmarks said...

"and reject the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in this country."

That is part of the Constitution actually. So at least in this, the Constitution Party wants to ignore an explicit part of the Constitution at most, or at least rewrite it.

Personally, I think it is repugnant to punish native-born Americans for the trespassing crimes of their parents. Stripping these Americans of their citizenship would create a group of 2nd-class native citizens like you have in some countries of the world: native born people who are mistreated as outsiders because of their ethnicity or where their parents came from.

Also, while people coming here to work and better their lives and the economy of the country is sometimes illegal, so are a lot of other things.

Why not strip the citizenship also of the children of people who do much worse crimes? Like bank robbery, or even jay walking?

dmarks said...

@Pasadena: You are right. A vote for the candidate of this spoiler party is a vote for Obama. Just like a vote for Nader is a vote for McCain.

Bullfrog said...

dmarks: It is true that it would take a change to the 14th amendment to deal with the "anchor baby" loophole being taken advantage of by illegal immigrants. As there are many illegal immigrants, with a native baby or not, taking advantage of services anyway this would not seem to me to be the solution to our immigration problem. Enforcing existing immigration laws would be a great start.

Your "illegal immigration = bank robbery" argument is a little weak. Stripping a person of their natural born or earned citizenship because commit a felony? Not proportionate by any stretch. Sending someone back to the country they immigrated from illegally, that is perfectly reasonable.

Honestly, I could fall on either side of the "anchor baby" issue, but this minor disagreement with the Constitution Party isn't a deal breaker.

dmarks said...

"Your "illegal immigration = bank robbery" argument is a little weak"

In the case of the immigrants who come here to be productive, it is much less damaging than bank robbery, and in fact provides a benefit to the country.

Dionne said...

The problem with the Constitution party is they are full of nutjobs right now. They held their convention here in KC and a libertarian friend of mine attended and interviewed some of the people.

The guy who won the nomination for the presidency said that he was more afraid of the people in the Bush administration than the terrorists. That right there sent me over the edge and let me know that I wouldn't be able to support them anytime soon.