The Reform Party and Beyond

The Democrats and Republicans no longer have anything to offer our country. All they have a agendas, defected by inbreeding. Demopublicans…both serving corporate interests, the corporate geography with no love for, no idea what America is, and no concern for what Americans want. What separates the parties is religious fundamentalism on the part of Republicans and the Democrats desire to give away our tax money as handout to every open hand and whining mouth.
So I’ve done research, found a new party, the Reform Party. Here are some RP positions (according to their 2003 platform) and my commentary:

1) TRADE – RP says to repeal NAFTA, I agree…fair trade is a ploy for Big Business to get cheap labor by exporting U.S. jobs. STOP SENDING AMERICAN JOBS OVERSEAS.
2) CORPORATE TAKEOVER – RP wants heavy handed government regulation of mergers and to bust up monopolies, I agree. This is radical but I think there should be a cap on how much a company can have in assessts, arbitrarily lets say $5 million. Of course this ceiling would have to be raised for capital intensive industries like construction, airplane manufactureing, shipping and others but you get the idea. The best way to destroy the large corporations which currently control the U.S. and world economies is through relentless taxation. At the same time tax incentives and government aid should be offered to encourage small business start up to provide the services and products currently being supplied by large corporations. The only hope for America as we know it, its land and its people, is to destroy the corporate geography, the globalism that has been created through the cancerous, rampant growth of international business. Corporations have even taken over America when she goes to war, and its costing the tax payers billions. The war in Iraq is a joint effort between the U.S. military and Halliburton and its subsidiaries who charge the U.S. exhorbitant amounts to pay its often underskilled workers outrageous salaries for performing tasks which could be performed by military members making a third of what the contractors are paid. Additionally, these corporations make enormous profit and will promote campaigns which will keep them in business. As long as this new system of fighting a war is so profitable the powers that be will frivolously engage our country in war.
3) ENVIRONMENT – RP says we need to decrease our dependency on foreign oil by increasing our use and research for alternative energy sources. Further RP supports increased organic agriculture and decreased use of harmful biotechnologies and commercial, corporate farming tactics. I agree. Read Fast Food Nation and visit www.culturechange.org to learn more. RP also encourages privatization of land while protecting all land, even private land based on sound ecological ideals and research rather than blatant partisanship which plays to the sentiments of those who would scourge the land as well as those who would deem all land untouchable…I partially agree. Some of our vast public holdings should be turned over to non-profit organizations (much like public radio has done) to manage with the philosophy of sustained use. The thought of public land being opened for economic use makes many people cringe but the answer to responsible, non-devastating timber and mineral harvesting lies in capping the size of the harvester. Small companies will be limited to working smaller pockets of land. Make the many small companies bid on how they will protect and restore the land they will be working. The same philosophy applies to grazing rights with special incentives given to ranchers who raise native species such as bison and elk for commercial use. Science, not warm fuzzies or dollars is what should drive use of our pristine lands.
4) FOREIGN AID – RP supports reducing foreign aid. Dumping in more of our money won’t save the world…I agree. However, I do propose we aid the most impoverished third world nations by helping them build small scale infrastructures based on alternative energy, which could serve as test platforms for larger scale projects in the United States.
5) IMMIGRATION – RP supports a halt to all immigration until we figure out who really lives here. America is here to support and provide for Americans and not illegal aliens…I partially agree. I think we should set limits on the number of foreigners we let in. To totally cut off the ingenuity and new ideas coming into the United States, particularly from Asia would be to loose out on what others have to offer. Furthermore the RP calls for heightened border patrol and security. I absolutely agree. We have to get handle on our border with Mexico. Stagnant over crowded cities are not in keeping with the spirit of America. Only by controlling our borders and limiting our population can we clean up the squalor of overcrowding while preparing our cities for the high density living arrangements of the future. We must preserve jobs, opportunity, and room to breathe for all Americans citizens.
6) TERM LIMITS – RP is for term limits…I disagree. I think some people have a calling to politics and if they are effective I see no problem with them staying.
7) MEDICAL CARE – RP is for privatized medical where the user has absolute choice. They are also for tax-free medical savings accounts. I sort of agree. I think Americans are charged way too much for medical care. It is a basic human right. RP calls for universal medical coverage for all veterans, even if its not at VA hospitals…I agree.
8) SOCIAL SECURITY – RP is for privatizing social security while keeping contribution mandatory. They also call for a minimum safety net to be maintained…I agree. Let people invest how they wish with those dollars…so long as they save them some way.
9) FOREIGN POLICY and INTERVENTION – RP quotes John Adams, "Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her [America's] heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."…I wholeheartedly agree. The time has come for America to stop being the policeman of the world. If look inside we have lots of stuff to fix at home. Other nations need to do their part to save poor countries and help oppressed people. Let France do something for a change.

I didn’t see any plank for the military on the RP web site. I would support a small decrease in military spending. Of course this can only be accomplished by pursuing alternative energy sources. If we keep Republican and Democrat administrations in power, both being hand puppets to the corporate geography, we will continue our dependence on foreign oil. Peak oil will neccesitate constant U.S. invasion of oil producing nations, a military draft to support these invasions, and increased military spending to support the behemoth oil machine that fuels our corporate state which will look increasingly like a military state. Honor, courage, love of country…things most Americans possess and emotions the corporations will manipulate. I think of Waylon Jennings singing,
And could you tell me why the hell we tried to win back in the warWhat we wasted in the last?Might just aint as righteous as it used to be beforeWhen your armys out of gas

And when its over the oil economy will collapse anyway.
That said I want to make one thing clear. EVERY American owes their country two years of service. Whether it be military service or service rendered rebuilding America’s infrastructure (through yet to be developed government programs in the spirit of the New Deal), every American need to leave home, leave everyone they know behind and discover the places and people who make up our country.
Nothing is more ridiculous to me than someone straight out of high school who attends a college two hours away from their hometown and suddenly becomes vehemently critical of their country which through the eyes of an adulthood they’ve seen nothing of and know nothing about. Education is a right of every American but every American owes two years of service to their country first. Only after the preconceived notions of different people, different places, and ideas which were passed on to us during our childhood have been challenged by experience, are we open to the benefits of higher education. At its best an education will help us form our own ideas which a new generation will challenge and take away the best parts of to build on themselves.
Just as the Whig party controlled and faded, the No-Nothings elected a president and fell apart, its time for the people of the United States to bring a new party into power…one that cares about Americans and wants to protect the our way of life…one for Americans.