The Prohibition Party Platform - 2004 Preamble
We, the delegates to the Prohibition National Convention,
assembled at Fairfield Glade, Tennessee, September 5-6, 2003, recognizing
Almighty God as the Source of all just government, and with faith in the
teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, promise that if our nominees are chosen
to administer the affairs of our nation, states, or communities, we will
seek to serve the needs and to preserve the prerogatives and guaranteed
Constitutional freedoms of the citizens of the United States of America.
Constitutional Government and States Rights
We affirm our loyalty to the Constitution of The United
States of America. We support states rights according to the 10th
Amendment. We support the integrity of the three branches of government.
The several
states which created the federal government have had many of their rights
usurped by all three branches of that government. We will take strong
action to preserve and/or restore the states’ Constitutional rights.
Foreign Affairs
We will conduct foreign affairs with the preservation
of American liberty and independence as our chief objective. Except for
emergency humanitarian help, foreign aid should
be ended. We favor free trade only on a truly reciprocal basis among equals.
We oppose ‘most favored nation’ status for nations with a history of human
rights violations. We are opposed to the interference of America
in the sovereignty of other nations.
Taxation and Spending
Some 40% of Americans’ earnings are taken
by government taxation, yet the federal government is still adding hundreds
of billions of dollars to our national debt each year. We favor:
(1) A balanced
budget
(2) A
limit on the taxing powers of Congress
(3) The sale of government-owned
businesses
(4) A return to the
gold standard
(5) Ending programs
funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
(6) Minimizing taxes
which threaten private ownership of land and real estate
(7) Emphasizing excise
taxes for the financing of government
A Free Economy
We support the free enterprise system, and we support
protection of the consuming public from irresponsible and deceptive business
practices.
Monetary Policy
The Constitution provides that Congress shall have the
power to coin money and to regulate its value. Therefore, we call upon
Congress to terminate the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of reducing
the national debt and to withdraw the United
States from the World Bank.
Labor and Management
Anti-trust laws must be applied to both business and
labor. We acknowledge the contributions of workers to the American way
of life and will protect their right to join or not to join a union.
Individual Rights
We support the equality of treatment of all American
citizens before the law. We call upon Congress to take action to end all
discriminatory quotas in employment, education, and housing. All political
subdivisions should be apportioned without reference to the race or religion
of the citizenry.
Right-to-Life
We recognize that, according to the Constitution, ‘no
person’ (including the unborn) ‘shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law. We support banning ‘partial-birth’
abortions.
Military Preparedness
We pray for peace and abhor the prospects of Americas
going to war. However, we favor a sound program of military preparedness
based upon well-paid, highly motivated, volunteer armed forces.
Immigration
We oppose the massive illegal immigration now tolerated
by our government. We support deportation of illegal entrants. We propose
to apply diplomatic pressure on those nations to our south to improve
the economic and social conditions which are the root of this mass migration.
Welfare
We favor retraining programs and public service work,
when appropriate. We oppose abuses of the welfare system, and we oppose
welfare payments to illegal aliens.
The Family
We favor adding an amendment to the Constitution defining
“marriage” as a union between one man and one woman.
Education
We support excellence in education and the raising of
academic standards. We support the awarding of school vouchers to all
students like scholarships or grants, to then be used at the school of
their choice. We support the right for private schools and home schooling.
Religious Liberty
We support the right of individuals to believe,
fellowship, worship, evangelize, educate, and establish religious institutions
in accordance with their beliefs. We oppose discrimination against religious
schools, broadcasters, and other religious groups and individuals at the
hands of the federal, state, and local branches of government.
Church and State
Although we oppose the use of tax money for sectarian
purposes, we believe that it was not the intent of the Founding Fathers
to banish religion from America’s
public life.
We support the right to prayer and Bible reading in schools
and other public institutions. We favor tax-exemption for all non-profit
religious institutions, including parsonages, church publishing houses,
and religious schools.
Public Morality
We favor stronger and more vigorous enforcement of laws
against the sale of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, against
gambling, illegal drugs, pornography, and commercialized vice, and we
will seek to provide moral leadership. We oppose the promotion of unnatural
lifestyles. We oppose state lotteries and other legalized gambling.
Ballot Law Reform
Republicans and Democrats have created a two-party duopoly
by enacting increasingly repressive laws that keep most independent and
third-party candidates off the ballot in most states. We support legislation
to restore equal political rights to all third-party and independent persons
or groups. We support term limits for all members of Congress. We favor
legislation allowing all ballot-positioned independent and third-party
candidates to equally participate in public debates which are supported
in whole or in part by public funding.
Social Security
We support reform of the Social Security system by:
(1) Placing the system
on a sound actuarial basis
(2) Restoring Society
Security to its original purpose as a retirement plan by placing the Medicare
and Medicaid programs in a separate system.
(3) Lifting all restrictions
on the amount of money Social Security retirement beneficiaries may earn.
Agriculture
We will adopt agricultural policies which assist family
farmers in staying in farming. We oppose payment of government subsidies
to agribusiness. We favor repeal of predatory tax levies and artificially
inflated land values placed on farms adjacent to urban areas which tend
to drive the farmer off his land.
Public Health
We favor continued prohibition of such harmful drugs
as heroin, LSD, cocaine, and marijuana.
Because of
the well-documented deadly effects of tobacco products, we oppose the
manufacture, advertising, and sale of tobacco products, and we oppose
continued government subsidies for the tobacco industry. We oppose our
government coercing other countries to accept our tobacco products. We
favor maintaining a level of taxes on tobacco equal to the social costs
of repairing the damage caused by tobacco.
We favor government
action to discover and implement medical remedies for AIDS; we urge the
government to combat the immoral sexual conduct and the illegal drug usage
which are responsible for most American AIDS cases.
Until the
liquor traffic is eradicated, we call for the alcoholic beverage industry
and its products to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug
Administration.
The Environment
Since God has given Man dominion over the Earth, we believe
that individuals and local and state governments are responsible
for protecting the environment and for safeguarding the air and water
that we all must share.
Second Amendment Rights
We recognize the fundamental need of Second Amendment
rights to guard against tyrannical government and for personal protection
against violent crime. We support the Constitutional right of law-abiding
citizens to own and use guns.
The Alcohol Problem
Alcohol is still the number-one drug problem in The United
States. It is a major cause of poverty, traffic crashes, broken homes,
juvenile and adult crime, physical and sexual abuse, political corruption,
wasted manpower, disability, and premature death. We favor maintaining
the nation-wide legal drinking age of 21, and
we favor establishing a level of taxes on alcohol equal
to the social costs of repairing the damage caused by alcohol.
Our program
of leadership, legislation, and education – including publicizing the
scientific basis of the correlation between tobacco use and alcohol use
– will result in a change in societal attitudes toward supporting prohibition
of the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverage products.
The
2003 Platform Committee consisted of:
Don Webb (Alabama),
Sarah Ward (Indiana),
Mary Ann Freeman (Indiana),
Leroy Pletten (Michigan),
and James Hedges (Pennsylvania).
The committee attempted to compress and to polish the writing of the platform,
without making fundamental changes in its position on issues.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world - Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
"Whatever
you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius,
power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
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