Your New American Political Party

[omin]

If you could create your own political party, what would be your combination of views on the general issues and what issues would you focus on that aren't being focused on?

To make the discussion clear, make your standpoint on the issue and give a brief reason why.

After you make all your standpoints clear, give your party a name.

Here's a few issues to atleast get you started:

Abortion
Budget & Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy & Oil
Environment
Families & Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade Government Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure & Technology
Jobs
Principles & Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War & Peace
Welfare & Poverty

 

[omin]

The United States Technocracy Party

Abortion: Legal. It's a man and womans right. But, a woman has more of a right than a man. But, during the period where abortion is legal, a natural father may terminate his resposibility for the child. If the natural mother decides to have the child, she has full responsibility for the child and may not order responsibility for the child.

Crime: Rid ourselves of the prison pork barrel operations by implementing tent cities, barb wire, guards with rubber bullets, and ankle bracelets for work release. Some offenders would have to stay at on site work camps based on danger to society.

Criminalize the selling of custody of natural children by the judicial system to their natural parents. Pass a law making inherent rights before any court preceeding. Full equal rights and full equal responsibility for each parent before any order of any kind should exist. Interference of child relations with no valid cause is a felony and punisheable by work-camp, with child visitation.

Bring the right to personal sexual consent to thirteen. If you have children and they want to have sex with an 18 year or older, it's their business and probably, you didn't raise them right.

Drugs: Legalize marijuana.

Education: Make physics and journal writing through 1 - 12 a mandatory daily course. No homework, it's a teachers responsibility to teach. Home is for families and school work is not for home, unless parents take on that responsiblity.

Outsource all midterms and final to grade teachers performance in all basic disciplines. Hire and fire, demote and promote based upon students scores on outsourced exams and tests.

Year around education.

Energy and oil: Increase investments in a hydrogen economy. Solar and wind power investments also.

Families and Children: Mandatory reform of employment and education time infrastructure so families can spend more time together. Increase after school activity infrastructure to meet work schedule of parents.

Foriegn policy: No Bush War.

Gun Control: Automatic weapons are the limit.

Health Care: National health care. Change all cigarette, alcohol tax to soley purchaser's health investment. As they purchase more, they're tax increases, based upon known health risks and mandatory physicals. Implement junk food tax for personal health insurance investments. All taxs need to go to maintain these citizens health and research in there disease area only!

Homeland Security: No Bush War.

Immigration: Keep it intelligent based upon economic conditions.

Infrastructure and Technology: Get rid of energy wasting vehicles. Build more mass transportation. Develop new cities/metropolis based upon non-sprawling developments.

Jobs: Create a national union that makes mandatory a profit-sharing contract and performance based pay in all employment arenas. This is not a communist society! It's America and we're capitialists! All employment needs to be a base wage and profit and production based, which is capitalist. For ten of thousands of years humans have followed the Capitalist discipline: You reap what you sow. But since so-called capitialist's have implemented their policy in America the created the Communist hourly wage instead of profit and production based wage.

Car Insurance: Make all auto liability a tax at the fuel pump. Its pay as you go insurance. Force all accidents to be paid by one at fault so rates stay low (unless it was an accident that is not within reason to be paid over a decade. Get rid of insurance profit based business for liability. Rates will stay at a minimum, tickets, court costs, and other related nuiscense spending will end.

Housing: End rent, residential and commericial. Rent pays for the physical structure, the vacancy rate, the managers salary, the maintenance salary and the interest rates on loans already. Create floating title that may not be liquidated at minimum investment. All exceeding value investing in titles may be liquidated for non-real estate, unless it itself exceeds a minimum value. Makes real estate infrastructure truley conservative and stable.

Make all basic Housing bills(monthly payments) of each American a tax taken on each paycheck.

Section 8 housing is for those who are less fortunate. Middle and upperclass real estate thieves make the tax payers pay for their real estate they rent to these less fortunate citizens. These theives are taking advatage of the goodwill of Americans helping the less fortunate.

End No Cause evicition. This is nothingmore than ignoramus civil code. We don't need ignoramus's creating state or federal policy.

Legalize idealogical neighborhoods and residential building that may discriminate based upon idealogy. Seriously though, it's equal opportunity discrimination with discrimintory territory areas limited based upon comparitive ratio of the populations known ideolgy differences.

Voting: End secret Ballot.

Technocratic Electoral Peoples Voting System. Use intelligence tests and point system to increase influence of voters who have proven they read upon the basics and understand the views on specific issues. You need a liscense to drive and you need to prove you can drive safely. You must prove your knowledge to vote on each issue or you get the default value when you vote on that issue.

Create a separte issue based peoples agenda for the elected presidential party. The party voted in has to follow the issue created agenda by the people, not there own. This is their job description for the people by the people.

Social Security: National Health Care promoted now will get the momentum necessary for the baby boomer generation. Bush says we can't pay for it now. Based upon economic standards today and his claim that we can't pay for it today, is basically saying we can't take care of the baby boomers tommorow, because tommor is going to be a lot tougher with a lot of retirees and convalencent population. He'd spend the money producing war equipment and killing innocent humans rather than set our economy up for our older generation, which needs immeadiate attention so we are ready. Bush don't care for the general American. He' promoting the rich who already have retirements and huge savings accounts. Social Security is not an issue for his crowd. But he'll blow away opportunities to get things ready for the rest of us.

Welfare and Unemployment:All jobs in nation made mandatory to be listed with national job line, or stiff penalty to employer is issued. That means all jobs will be known that exist, making welfare and employment work programs much more easy to regulate. The improved communication will increase production and efficiency overall.

Work based benefits only, with short benefit period without work. If the right job doesn't exist after this short period then part-time work for benefits. If no job exists, then benefits are mandatory with a new work search program that proves work search is occurring. (Once a person is in the system where all jobs are listed, things will be much easier to determine for benefit and job interview proof.)

Poverty: Revamp housing codes and infrastructure so no American is homeless or ever can be homeless.

Cable Television: Subsidize all news channels and science channels making them free signals where any cable line exists.

Domestic Communications: Free long distance on all landlines.

Tax Reform: Tax no extra. Keep no extra. Rid ourselves of returns.

Employment: Lower the work week to 30 hours over a decade. Make mandatory work investment policy in America for all citizens.

End no cause firing or layoff.

Civil Rights: No cause firing or layoff.

War: Take the right to wage a war away from presidential leadership or congress. Only a non-secret vote of the people, may vote for war. America is a Democracy, not a dictatorship.

Currency: Change over to electronic currency back up by physical currency in banks in case of mass technical problem.

Marriage: Legalize Polygamy.

Debt: Begin to end the policies that create interest rate profiteering. In otherwords, all profit must be producition based, rather than policy based.

 

[wasteofo2]

Abortion: Do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make it as rare as possible, promote the use of birth control and make it available for free, but leave it available in the case that the mother may die from the birthing process.

Budget & Economy: Low income taxes for everyone of the working class, relatively high income taxes on luxury items. If you want to live in style and have leather and fur and race cars and 3 houses, fine, but it'll cost you what you get to keep in income taxes. So as to avoid people buying foreign goods or buying goods abroad and taking them back to the USA, there will be high tarrifs on imported lavish goods as well.

Civil Rights: For

Corporations: Let them make as much money as they want, everything lavish will have very high taxes.

Crime: Against, would get Guliani as crime minister

Drugs: Legalize marijuana at 21, keep alcohol at 21, keep cigarettes at 18 and smack super-high taxes on all of them to make up for the money they'll cost the system in health-care.

Education: For, but let teachers and teachers unions decide what they need and let them present it to the govt.

Energy & Oil: Work as hard as possible on transforming as large a % of the national energy used to be wind/solar or whatever else. Oil is finite, we're running out, we need alternatives.

Environment: Don't deny science, protect the environment from global warming so the whole planet doesn't fall into chaos. Running out of Gasoline should help protect the environment pretty well though.

Families & Children: Uhh... For?

Foreign Policy: Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Free Trade: sounds good to me

Government Reform: Very much for, the government needs a lot of reformations now and needs to constantly be reformed to meet current needs.

Gun Control: Guns made by militaries to kill people should all be illegal, as should fully automatic weapons.

Updates to come when more free time surfaces

Health Care:
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure & Technology
Jobs
Principles & Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War & Peace
Welfare & Poverty[/QUOTE]

 

[russ_watters]

Long list, short answers:

Abortion - generally against, but pro choice
Budget & Economy - fiscally conservative: cut social welfare and reduce the debt.
Civil Rights - self-evidently pro, but enforce real fairness. Yeah, fairness is politically incorrect, I know.
Corporations - Reasonable restrictions such as the Sherman act are good. Not too many areas to improve, but some investment companies have been doing shady things and the govt (can't remember the agency) needs more power to enforce the law. Same goes for other corporate bookkeeping
Crime - I'm against it. See drugs.
Drugs - I'm against it. See crime. Go after the sources.
Education - toughie: force parental accounability.
Energy & Oil - I have a big alterate energy plan that will end our dependence on coal and greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It uses already available technology and is safe and non-polluting. Sounds great, doesn't it...?
Environment - See: energy & oil
Families & Children - I'm in favor of them
Foreign Policy - heavy-handed world-policemanship.
Free Trade Government Reform - Are they the same thing? Free trade:good, but it needs to be free and trade for real - not the one-sided thing we have with Asia.
Gun Control - Pro
Health Care - Con
Homeland Security - Pro
Immigration - Pro - with limits
Infrastructure & Technology - Big pro
Jobs - the market is handling them fine.
Principles & Values - big pro
Social Security - Eliminate it immediately (but gradually )
Tax Reform - Vastly reduce taxes as the social security debt goes away
War & Peace - Do what needs to be done, not what is necessarily popular
Welfare & Poverty - make tough restrictions to limit exploitation

edit: oh, the name. Quite obviously, it should be named after me. Call it the Russian party!

 

[selfAdjoint]

Seems odd that you guys are conservative freepers, to judge by your choices, but you're in favor of gun control? Where does this big-brotherism come into your philosophies?

 

[omin]

Gun control. Well as an individual, every person ougt to be able to protect their family. An automatic weapon should be more than enough. So, I stopped there.

And, of course, the logic behind equilization of the handgun in civilian affairs and the balancing effect of peace it does bring against Bush types, I support Nukes for all who have the intelligence to produce them. Iraq would never be bothered and peace would be reign in that region, because Nukes bring about that intelligent attitude: it's stupid to be a theif and not be diplomatic. Of course, those with inferior enough minds won't see this. Watch, North Korea will not be f*!k#d with. How nice. War is for those with inferior minds who don't understand how to do things diplomatically. Too bad Iraq had their own brothers turn two faced and create that whole mess with them over the years.

 

[russ_watters]

Seems odd that you guys are conservative freepers, to judge by your choices, but you're in favor of gun control? Where does this big-brotherism come into your philosophies?

Simple, really: I don't care which party has which position, I pick the positions that make sense, then figure out which party fits them better. As a result, some of my opinions are to the left, some right.

 

[Moonbear]

Party Name: Check This Box (I figure I can get a few FL votes with that name at least ) Okay, okay, I think all the best names have been taken, but I'll try a better one:

The Stars and Stripes Party.
(I hope that hasn't already been taken too.)

Issues:

Abortion: Pro-choice, but need to improve sex education and availability of birth control so it becomes a rare occurrence. Medicaid should pay for abortions, but only once for a woman. If someone can't afford an abortion, they definitely can't afford to raise a child, but they also shouldn't expect the government to bail them out for reckless behavior if they don't learn their lesson the first time. In exchange, those requiring such assistance need to attend mandatory counseling about sex education and birth control options.

Budget & Economy: Cut the fat! Make government agencies more accountable for their budgets. Cut pork-barrel spending. If states want special projects, they can raise state taxes. Tighten up tax loopholes. Only minimal restrictions on businesses to keep them honest.

Civil Rights: Equal rights for all, regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. That's EQUAL, not pushing a previously discriminated group ahead of others. (i.e., women required to register for Selective Service along with men)

Corporations: Limited restrictions, primarily via tax incentives and/or benefits, and to avoid another Enron, or monopolies. Laws apply to corporations as they do to individuals. also see Environment. also see Budget and Economy.

Crime: Enforce existing laws before creating new ones. Minimum security prisons for non-violent offenders should offer education programs and psychological counseling to prepare convicts for re-entry into society.

Drugs: Treat addiction as an illness, not a crime. Tough penalties on dealers and smugglers (send them all to Malaysia ...just kidding), but those caught using or in possession should be offered rehab instead of a criminal conviction.

Education: Federal certification for teachers so all students in all states have teachers meeting the same standards. Require subject area certification for high school teachers. In low performing school districts, initiate programs that require parents to be more involved. Provide incentives for PhDs to obtain certification to become high school teachers.

Energy & Oil: Fund research for clean fuels and alternate energy sources. Allocate funds for infrastructure to convert to alternate energy sources as they become available.

Environment: Gradually increase restrictions on emissions to allow corporations to make changes necessary. Provide a tax break to corporations meeting emissions reduction goals for each year they are ahead of the schedule for emissions, assess increased tax penalties on corporations not reaching target emissions levels by the set deadlines. Combine forest preservation with the lumber industry: allow lumber companies to cut along areas of forests needing firebreaks, require replanting of other areas cut. As alternative building materials are developed, such as from recycled materials, offer job training to lumbermen (and women) to find employment in the new building material industry. The same could apply to those working on oil rigs to transition them into a different energy industry. also see Infrastructure and Technology.

Families & Children: They can be annoying at times, but we put up with them see also Welfare and Poverty.

Foreign Policy: Maintain good relations with allies. Unless there are clear and egregious human rights violations (i.e., genocide), we stay out of other countries' fights among themselves, and when we do get involved, it is only to support U.N. forces and only if it is clear that we can make it better by getting involved. If they attack us, we attack back, but the goal is to maintain a strong enough alliance with other countries that nobody would dare try attack.

Free Trade Government Reform: see Budget and Economy and other topics below.

Gun Control: criminal background check and mandatory safety training to obtain a license to purchase. Assault and automatic weapons banned.

Health Care: Simplify insurance. One of the major excessive costs for physicians is hiring people to fill out all the myriad different insurance forms with all their different codes and rules, etc. While everyone can have their own choice of insurance, insurance companies will be required to use uniform reporting for claims to simplify the paperwork involved. The insurance industry can self-regulate as long as they come up with a single industry standard. Government assistance to those who cannot afford healthcare for prevention/illnesses pertaining to public health risks, such as vaccinations, contagious diseases (tuberculosis, measles, STDs). Risk prevention education in schools, such as about nutrition, sex education, smoking.

Homeland Security: Do it right, not by strip-searching US Citizens getting on planes, but by being more restrictive about visas, and tightening up borders (see also Immigration). Focus on disaster-preparedness as this is useful even in the absence of terrorist threats (i.e., FL hurricanes, CA earthquakes, midwest and south tornadoes).

Immigration: Tighten up borders. Anyone caught entering illegally is deported and banned from re-entering the US; they certainly shouldn't be put ahead in line of those who follow proper channels.

Infrastructure & Technology: Funding for mass transportation, such as building light rails, in growing urban areas to also reduce the environmental impact of commuting. Technology seems capable of industry and corporate driven growth, so government doesn't need to be involved.

Jobs: Tax penalties for US corporations that outsource jobs to foreign countries if eligible employees are available in the US (I have to think more about this one...what percentage of jobs could be outsourced before it would merit a penalty, what constitutes eligible employees, etc.) Tax penalties for outsourcing jobs will be applied toward paying unemployment insurance. Unemployment benefits will be provided for a fairly limited time (no longer than 6 months; seasonal workers are not eligible for unemployment, they should plan ahead for a second job during the off-season). The exception is in a time of recession, in which unemployment benefits can be extended due to the expectation that jobs are harder to find even for those truly trying to find one.

Job training will be made available for industries with a shortage of eligible employees (for example, with Russ_Watters' nursing example in another thread, scholarships would be provided for those unemployed and willing to change careers and get a nursing degree; this way job training targets need areas).

Principles & Values: Everyone should have them, but it's not government's role to regulate them in any way.

Social Security: Raise the retirement age, workers under 35 stop paying in, instead they are allowed a pre-tax deduction to invest in an individual retirement account, or other similar plan. Workers 35 to 55 partially pay in and partially privatize on a percentage basis according to the amount they've already paid in (i.e., older workers will get more from SS while younger workers will be expected to put a higher percentage into private investments/savings). Those over 55 will continue with the current system with an older retirement age. There is no way to avoid a deficit in this area until the entire workforce is privatized, but a gradual shift depending on age should minimize some of the impact.

Tax Reform: Everyone pays a flat rate percentage of income taxes. Close loopholes in the tax code. Federal sales tax will increase for items that contribute to Federal expenses, such as vehicles that don't meet a minimum fuel economy rating, alcohol, tobacco, non-renewable resources.

War & Peace: War is bad. Peace is good. see also Foreign Policy

Welfare & Poverty: Welfare will only supplement income for those who are employed in at least a part-time job but cannot earn enough to support themselves and/or their family. In a two parent family, both parents must work before the family can earn welfare benefits. Food stamps, or any similar program, will be limited to the bare minimum essentials. They will be coupons for specific grocery items sufficient for a nutritionally balanced diet, but no more, similar to the WIC program. If someone has additional children while on welfare (i.e., gets pregnant after starting on the program; pre-existing children will be covered), this will be considered child endangerment and the children will be taken away and put in foster homes or put up for adoption. Birth control will be made available for free.

 

[BobG]

The whole list makes too long of a post, so I only included some. (I wish Moonbear hadn't thought of the "Check This Box" pary before me, that's a good name )

Abortion: Generally against, with exceptions. Emphasis on sex education, contraceptives, etc.

Budget & Economy: Long term health depends on the commercial sector, which depends on science and technology development, which means an investment in education. ‘Pork barrel spending’ is bad, but how many people will re-elect a local congressman who idealistically refrains from making sure his district gets a piece of the pie? Gramm-Rudman type bills that makes it harder to prevent automatic budget cuts (cuts that no congressman has to take personal responsibility for) helps a little.

Jobs: People have to be adaptable to a world that changes rapidly. Education tax credits for continuing education would be a good investment. Ensuring tax laws are consistent with the goal of preserving American jobs provides symbolic clarity more than having a real impact.

Civil Rights: It’s time to enter a new phase. Dropping affirmative action cold turkey may not be realistic, but it’s time to develop a transition plan towards that ultimate goal.

Crime: Increased severity of sentences for repeat offenders. Giving up on a segment of the population sounds bad, but it’s a realistic assessment.

Drugs: Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, all have risks (drunk driving, alcoholism, disease, etc), but fighting them is not worth the money and effort. Taxes on these should primarily be used to increase the fight against the more dangerous drugs, such as crack cocaine, heroin, etc.

Education: One of the best ideas the US had was an organized public education system after the Civil War. In the 50’s and early 60’s, the public education system was the envy of the world. It has big problems, but giving up on it (which I think the voucher system is a step towards) will be bad in the long term. One of the roots of extreme fundamentalism is that religious groups do step into fill the void when a public education system does not exist.

Education should focus on the training needed to fill commercial sector jobs and corporations should play a big role in determining the curriculum. It’s no secret that one of the big incentives to lure new companies into a community is the availability of the community to provide trained workers. As bitter as some people from my old home town (Akron) may be about the rubber companies leaving for cheaper pastures, the contributions those companies made to the education system over the years are still alive and kicking.

Principles & Values: The intent of the constitution was to ensure the government was not run by religions, not to deny the existence of religions. Atheism is as much a system of beliefs as Christianity, Judaism, etc. Banning cultural references from all public places is as bad as mandating that only one religion can have a place in the public view. It’s also a waste of money - the controversy over the Los Angeles city seal being a prime example.

Social Security: We have to be realistic. Social Security isn’t a full service retirement plan. It only (and should only) reduce the impact for those who fail to plan on their own. Social Security income should be taxed the same as regular income.

Welfare: Short term benefits only (four years max with exceptions). Supplemented by free educational grants to move these folks off permanently (the exceptions would be dependent on having made progress toward completing the education requirements, but having been interrupted by events). Edit: Ooh, Ooh! I want to endorse Russ's and Moonbear's idea. If the government's providing the training for welfare recipients, we have the right to guide them towards training that meets a real need.