J.A. Fisher
The Constitution Party was founded in 1991 as the U.S. Taxpayer's Party by Howard Philips. In 1999 they changed the name to the Constitution Party at their national nominating convention for the 2000 elections. They believed the name changed better reflected the party's core beliefs as stated in the U.S. Constitution. Since its inception the Constitution Party has absorbed the American Independent Party, originally founded by George Wallace's 1968 Presidential Campaign. The Constitution Party also has some substantial support from the Christian Right. The Constitution Party ranks third nationally among all U.S. political parties in registered voters with 438,222 registered voters as of October 2008, though 370,405 of those voters belong to the American Independent Party in California.
The goal of the party, as stated in it's own words is "To restore our government to its constitutional limits and our law to its biblical foundations." To those ends the party is 100% Pro-Life, or you could say absolutely anti-abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest, claiming that, "It is unconscionable to take the life of an innocent child for the crimes of his father."
They don't believe in public education, believing in the abolishment of the Department of Education. Saying, "Education as a whole therefore, cannot be separated from religious faith." They do believe in religious freedom, but often turn towards the Christian religion when discussing policies of pornography (which they are against, saying that as it causes moral decay, it is not protected by the first amendment) and gay marriage, saying that marriage is between a man and a woman, that homosexuals should not be allowed to have civil unions and their partners should not be allowed to have their benefits. Also they are against gays and lesbians being allowed to adopt.
They are against the 17th Amendment, saying that the direct election of Senators takes away the checks and balances the states have on the Federal government. They are against the 16th Amendment and would like to replace income taxes, payroll taxes and estate taxes with a tariff based revenue system supplemented by excise taxes. They are also opposed to the flat-rate tax, national sales tax and value added tax proposals that are being promoted as potential changes or improvements to the current tax system.
They would like to see Social Security phased out, eliminating Social Security once the current promises are made. They'd also like to see the pool of resources for Social Security not be used as 'rainy day funds' by the government.
No doubt they have some interesting views, they oppose all forms of foreign aid, and wars of offense (which they consider the Iraq War to be an example of). They opposed the USA PATRIOT Act as being in direct violation of the 4th and 5th amendments.
They believe U.S. troops should be used in protecting our borders against illegal immigrants, they think that all legal and illegal immigration should be postponed until the point that the system is fixed where they can not get government housing, healthcare and other such things.
In 2008 they had ballot access in 37 states and secured 199,314 votes in the Presidential Election. Going into the 2012 election they will have enough ballot access to win the White House, I'm sure that if you are interested the Constitution Party would appreciate help getting on more ballots. If you believe you want to support this party and cannot get them ballot access in your state, then take the time to find out if your state counts write-in votes or not. Some states do, others do not.
This Friday I will be doing a #FridayNightFacts ( #FNF ) on the #ConstitutionParty ( #CP ) where I will answer any and all questions and be tweeting more facts about the Constitution Party's history, facts, statistics and platform.
Website: http://www.constitutionparty.com/
Facebook: https://http://www.facebook.com/TheConstitutionParty
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ConstitutionParty
Twitter: @CnstitutionPrty
State Parties: http://www.constitutionparty.com/view_states.php
Also, next week I will write a blog on it's current Presidential ticket of former Congressman Virgil Goode and Jim Clymer.
