If you could craft the perfect party platform , how would you do it?

Looking at the current parties that actually have a chance to win something, republican and democrat, what do you dislike and like about each and what would you take from either to try and make a perfect party? What other ideas and philosophies would you craft in to make the best platform ?

For me, I would like to see significant freedom of choice.... So kind in the liberal mindset but pushed farther....
1. Drugs are legal / decriminalized to a fine
2. Abortion
3. Gay marriage

I would also like to see less restrictions on business and other enterprises, which would be more of the republican agenda.

I also would like less taxation with less government spending. Big cuts to military and foreign aid. This really goes against both platforms

Finally, I would like to see closed or close to it borders. I do not think we can handle a large amount of immigrants .

If we closed our borders and cut spending on military and foreign aid, we could afford some of our social programs that we have operating.

 

I would start with the Fundamental and very American Political Principle:

Whatever gets adopted by the Party Platform, it MUST always be applied absolutely equally for ALL Americans, regardless of Race, Ethnicity, History, Region, Income, Education, Religion, Interests, Political Camp, Gender, Sexual Orientation, ....


If you're going to honor Marriage, it will be available for ALL Americans, absolutely equally.

If you're going to give healthcare benefits, it will be available for ALL Americans, absolutely equally.

If you're going to set a tax, it will be flat, without exemptions, dodges, or shelters, absolutely equal for ALL Americans.

If you're going to place an environmental regulation or limitation, it will be without set asides, exemptions, exceptions or caveats.


If you can't do it absolutely equally, it should be not be done!

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Cut the number of Fed gov employees in half, save hundreds of billions. And I would guarantee the ave American would not miss them at all.

 

Reducing the size and scope of Government COULD be done absolutely fairly and equally for All Americans. Cut all current budgets in half.

Sounds like a Platform Plank to me!

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• Reduce Spending: Military, Raise the Retirement Age, Pork,
• Eliminate Corporate Welfare
• Reduce Taxation: Income, Capital Gains
• Drill, Drill, Drill + Build Modern Thorium Plants (All the benefits of nuclear with none of the meltdown worries)
• Privatize Marriage - Governments can do Civil Unions for any consenting adults
• Legalize Drugs - Free All non-violent drug offenders in prison
• Increase Legal Migration Numbers Significantly and Streamline the process
• Pull out of the Middle East - Use Domestic Energy Supplies - Wish them a nice day

 

Just follow the Bill of Rights.

 

The original Bill of Rights did not include the 14th Amendment.

A good portion of the problems in America stem from the fact that we are NOT following the 14th Amendment.

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My party platform:

Restructure the tax code to a fully progressive tax code. Count all non-welfare income as taxable regardless of source.

Institute a workfare program aimed at fixing national infrastructure.

Advocate support for proportional representation at the Congressional level. Mandate a public-funding option for elections and advocate an amendment to overturn Citizens' United.

Eliminate corporate welfare. Mandate the minimum wage be a living wage tied to inflation.

Curb corporate influence on the political system, though most of that would be accomplished through the adoption of PR and overturning of Citizens' United.

Reduce overt pork-barrel spending.

Advocate adoption of both FDR's Second Bill of Rights for American citizens and a Business Bill of Rights.

Reform the immigration system to allow for a guest worker program and provide a path to citizenship for guest workers who have remained in good standing for five consecutive years. Mandate enforcement of existing federal immigration laws and partner with states to enforce Federal immigration laws.

Decriminalize use and possession of marijuana. Remove it from Schedule I and put it in a schedule with tobacco and alcohol. Treat drug addiction as a medical, versus a criminal problem. This would not decriminalize drug-trafficking, because it would mandate that only marijuana grown by a license-holder within the United States is legal for sale. Driving while under the influence of any drug listed on a schedule except for nicotine would still be a criminal offense, which the penalties would be increased.

As well as the programs I outlined in this thread: http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=334507&highlight=SSI

O Great Logical One... damn, I can't even type that without laughing my ass off.....

Give some specifics, what government agencies would you cut.

 

Note how the Lefties want ANYTHING but all Americans treated equally?

I miss the days when the Democratic Party meant classical Liberal in the vein of Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, John Locke, and JFK, and stood for true equality.

These Neo-Liberals are several steps into the territory of Authoritarian Statist Fascism. The Neo-Liberals cannot, MUST NOT be trusted.

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For what purpose? The platform I think would be most successful, or the one I personally would like to see implemented? For the former, it'd be what the people want to hear. Just look at statistics and pick the most popular things. As for what I'd want.. Lower taxes, reduction of the welfare state, strengthened military, increased co-operation on all levels with europe, and the nordic and baltic countries in particular, a stop to bs radical feminist and multicultural stuff. and whopdido, we're in heaven, otherwise known as Sweden (if I were dictator).

 

so you and 47% pay no income tax, the top 10% pays most taxes and that's not 'progressive'?

 

I would dissolve the Union and give people the choice as to whether or not to form a new one.

 

Have you considered the Libertarian party?

Yo dawg I herd u liek libertarianism...

 

that's actually a great idea, I see no way we can continue with this political split and soon to be destabilizing demographic shift.

 

I like the libertarian party concept, but must the backers seem to not understand the true format.

 

So cut the EPA, FDA, FAA, CDC, and a bunch of other vital agencies?

 

Disband the union? Are you (*)(*)(*)(*)ting me?

Just let the country be invaded then...

Just collapse the global financial system. Kill the petrodollar. Let the Middle East destabilize. Let Putin take over the world.

 

Anyone who works pays taxes. Their NET payment for some is negative. Let's be clear.

 

1. Make it illegal for the government to reward/penalize people through the tax system or with subsidies. Ethanol doesn't need my money, Churches shouldn't get a tax break just for being a church, and I shouldn't have to pay 200% market price for alcohol because the LCBO thinks I shouldn't drink. This paternalistic "I know what's better for you than you do" attitude is one of the main reasons I dislike the government so much.

2. Allow free practice of private medicine. If I don't want to wait in line for 8 hours at a public hospital, why the hell am I not allowed to pay someone in order to be treated immediately? If I want treatment that is outside the government's normal heathcare budget, why can I not pay someone to perform it for me? Becoming a doctor is hard enough, let alone being one on the job. Why it is presumed that private medical practitioners must be evil money grubbers who hurt people I have no idea - you don't have that kind of commitment to helping people just because you get paid for it. (*)(*)(*)(*) this healthcare system, seriously. And speaking of which:

3. How 'bout public insurance for private care? Private medicine is equivalent to or better than public medicine in most cases - allow medicine to operate as if it were a free market, with competition and such, but simply give everyone public health insurance to cover some/all of their costs.

4. All Canadian governmental documents, signs, any kind of text, should have the English 50% larger than the French - because if Quebec is going to play this stupid game, at least do the same thing right back to them.

5. Stop giving the natives special privileges and giving them welfare for life. They are living in poverty because they refuse to live like the rest of Canada, because of "heritage" or some bull(*)(*)(*)(*). If they're forced to live like everyone else they might actually not be poor anymore - just ask the ones who own the casinos.

6. Take the fudge words out of the Charter. I'm sorry, but as it stands the Charter might as well not exist because the supreme court has shown that it doesn't absolutely guarantee you any rights - so essentially, we're like Britain, where your rights are subject to current politics. I want a US-style, definitive Constitution with no exceptions to it - I want an absolute freedom of speech, I want an absolute protection against warrentless search or seizure, and yeah actually I would like an absolute right to arm myself, especially considering how you treat me like a problem to be fixed rather than a citizen to be served.

7. Stop banning guns. Seriously.

8. I think I already covered this with the absolute freedom of speech thing but just to be specific, get rid of hate speech laws.

9. Get rid of laws protecting unions. Unions should not be given artificially high power through legislation, their leverage should come from their members' usefulness to their employer.

10. Break up Telus, Rogers and Bell, the telecom monopolies that the government willingly created, and start over with an equal and open playing field - let any company who wants to set up in Canada do so.

11.Get rid of broadcasting standards or restrictions or censorship of any kind - I don't need to be babied with what I watch and I don't care about having a certain percentage of content be "Canadian" - I want to watch what I want to watch and (*)(*)(*)(*) you for forcing me to watch something else.

12. Build a pipeline to Pacific already - (*)(*)(*)(*) the natives and (*)(*)(*)(*) the enviros, if the Chinese want oil let's make it easy for them to get it.

13. And for (*)(*)(*)(*)S SAKE MAKE QUEBEC ACT LIKE THE REST OF CANADA. Do NOT let them continue violating federal laws simply because they want to be considered special - they are part of this country and as such should follow the same rules as everyone else - that means no (*)(*)(*)(*)ING LANGUAGE GESTAPO and no anti-English laws. It's really easy, just threaten to cut off all federal funding for their over-zealous welfare programs - they'll have no choice, they know they can't do what they want to do on their own, they need the rest of the country, so make them (*)(*)(*)(*)ing act like they're part of it.

14. Oh yeah and replace welfare with a flat negative income tax. God I say that so much I can't believe I forgot to put it here.

15. And also, try to localize education standards as much as possible. Education is not a monolith, it is best administrated by local school boards not some great Canadian People's Ministry of Glourious Education in Toronto. How the hell are they supposed to know what the best kind of education is for the people from, say, my ass-backwards, conservative, drug-addicted, unemployed hometown?

 

Fear monger much?

 

*Invest in renewable energy, along with drilling.

* Completely revamp our education system, making it geared towards needs of a 21st economy. Institute School choice along with trade schools.

* Audit every single Government institution.

* Close all tax loop holes. Abolish the income tax.

*Up the age requirement to 68 for SS and Medicare for everyone under 54.

*Downsize the military and federal government.

*Give all federal land back to the western states, with the exception of the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

*Work with Congress to reform lobbying rules and term limits.

*Invest in desalinization plants in California to ease strain on the Colorado River.

*Withdrawal US Forces from Europe. Start Peace talks between North and South Korea, once a treaty has been reached bring US forces home.

 

You forget, with the Romney's of the world. They pay taxes but their own employees do not. And what do the Mitts of the world do? Vilify their own workers. At least in bizarro Romney land.

The reality is a overwhelming majority pay taxes through payroll taxes and income
from investments. If wacko doodle GOPers want more taxes then they need to start eliminating deductions that the majority of Americans take. Good luck
selling that to the American people.

 

The first step would involve moving to a country where the electorate was more educated.

After that, the problem mostly fixes itself.

Here, politics are mostly driven by emotions, lobbyists, and propaganda, so there's little hope of constructing a platform that consistently focuses on rationality over ideology and pandering.

 

Actually, no. But I can see how you'd think that, having to deal with folks like you, I've come to understand your thought patterns. I actually feel like Jane Goodall in a sense. Saying all non-welfare income is taxable means that income derived from the stock market would be taxable. So, instead of the wealthy being able to amass extra untaxed wealth through the stock market as they currently do, they'd have to pay taxes on it.

 

I agree with most of what you said, except for the increased retirement age. If someone works and pays into the Social Security system from the time they are 16 until they are 65, they should start getting their money back in my book. Isn't 49 years enough? I am 62 and started working at 15. Gimme my $$$$....Cheers