Constitution Party Selects Baldwin for President, Targets New World Order
J. Michael Bennett, Ph.D
RaidersNewsNetwork.com
I have just returned from Kansas City, Missouri, having covered the U.S. Constitution Party National Convention held this past weekend, which convened to nominate its presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2008 general election. The Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com) is the third largest national political party in the United States (after the Democratic and Republican parties), with almost 400,000 registered voters nationwide. It began its life as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, led by its founder Howard Phillips, who served as its presidential nominee in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Its current political platform, which has largely existed for some time but was updated and approved at the Convention, includes the following major capsulized positions, as a paraphrased sampling:
(1) no exceptions for legalized abortion, and no federal funding of abortion, nor for bio-research using human embryonic or pre-embryonic cells,
(2) return of powers and realms of authority from the federal government to state and local governments, to comply with Constitutional requirements,
(3) abolition of Congressional pensions, and repealing of all laws that delegate legislative powers to regulatory agencies, bureaucracies, private organizations, the Federal Reserve Board, international agencies, the President, and the judiciary,
(4) oppose imposition of the draft, the registration law, compulsory military training or any other form of compulsory government service,
(5) an end to the raiding by the federal government of the Social Security, Railroad Retirement and Medicare funds,
(6) no presidential authority to deploy American troops into combat without a declaration of war by Congress, and no commission of U.S. forces to serve under any foreign flag or command, being opposed to any New World Order,
(7) all federal legislation related to education should be repealed, with education, training, and discipline of children properly placed in the domain of their parents,
(8) an end to electronic or mechanical voting processes and a return to the manual counting process,
(9) under no circumstances may the federal government take private property,
(10) opposition to the use of Presidential executive orders that make law or otherwise usurp the Constitutional authority and responsibilities of the legislative and judicial branches, and
(11) oppose American participation in any form of world government organization, including any world court under United Nations auspices, and call upon the President, and Congress, to terminate United States membership in the United Nations.
Further platform positions are:
(12) immediately terminating American military presence in all foreign countries where such U.S. presence constitutes an invitation for this nation to become involved in, or further participate in, foreign wars, and no further funds be appropriated for any kind of foreign aid program or participation in international lending institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,
(13) upholding the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms, and oppose attempts to prohibit ownership of guns by law-abiding citizens, and stand against all laws which would require the registration of guns or ammunition,
(14) affirming the integrity of the international borders of the United States and the Constitutional authority and duty of the federal government to guard and to protect those borders, including the regulation of the numbers and of the qualifications of immigrants into the country,
(15) repeal of the Federal Reserve Act, and prohibit fractional reserve banking,
(16) the Fourth Amendment right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, including arbitrary or de facto registration, general and unwarranted electronic surveillance, national computer databases, and national identification cards,
(17) recognition that the Constitution grants no authority to the federal government either to grant or deny the religious expressions of the people in any place,
(18) acknowledgment that each state's membership in the Union is voluntary,
(19) support of a tariff-based revenue system, as did the Founding Fathers, which was the policy of the United States during most of the nation's history, and propose legislation to abolish the unconstitutional Internal Revenue Service, supplemented by an apportioned "state-rate tax" in which the responsibility for covering the cost of unmet obligations will be divided among the several states in accordance with their proportion of the total population of the United States (as needed), and
(20) opposition to the National Security Act and the USA PATRIOT Act (these positions are explained and justified in greater detail at their party website).
The biggest news of the convention was the recent arrival of former ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes to the party, as a potential member and Presidential nominee, although it is not certain that he has indeed officially joined the party to date, having publicly announced his departure from the Republican Party approximately one week prior to the convention. He was joined by a large number of very visible and vocal supporters, who intended to assist in the adoption of Dr. Keyes (www.alankeyes.com) as the party nominee. His most popular and familiar rival for the candidacy was pastor, columnist and radio show host Dr. Chuck Baldwin (www.chuckbaldwinlive.com), who served as the 2004 Constitution Party vice presidential candidate (and is also featured as a “Raiders News Network” columnist). A total of six additional Presidential candidates that met filing and nomination criteria, of various backgrounds and credentials, were also available for selection by delegates on site, and all candidates were given opportunities to make candidacy speeches and answer selected questions as time permitted.
I was able to privately conduct a 30 minute interview with Dr. Keyes, which will be broadcast on my radio show “Future Quake” Tuesday evening. In the discussion, he clarified his position that the United States must aggressively fight the War on Terror overseas, and stay engaged in international diplomacy and other efforts as a player on the world stage. He acknowledged that this position could be interpreted by some as being contrary to platform principles of the Constitution Party which discourage foreign wars and entanglements, and that the decision of the convention delegates in determining if they could concede to this pragmatic reality (as he perceives it) would likely be a determining factor in whether he might find a “home” in the party.
This dilemma was brought to a head in the convention speech by the party's founder, Howard Phillips, who bluntly suggested that they now had a “candidate for our party, who until about a week ago was a Republican, and who is a 'Neo-Con'”, and that “we need to choose whether we will be the 'Neo-Con Party' or 'Constitution Party'”. He continued to list the positions of this “candidate” that he said aligned with “Neo-Con” principles, as opposed to the platform principles he associated with the Constitution Party. He clearly announced his support, alternatively, for the candidacy of Dr. Baldwin. After this speech, Party Chairman Jim Clymer expressed his concern for the hostile tone of the speech, and offered his admonition not to “denigrate” in speech those with whom we disagree, and for the convention participants to “take the high road”, and the convention activities resumed without further incident.
After drawing for the order of speaking by the candidates, Dr. Chuck Baldwin spoke graciously of his rival Dr. Keyes, and extolled his colleague's virtues, while eloquently and passionately defending the platform, and the crisis in American policy and world standing which required its remedies. Dr. Keyes, in like manner (while given extra speaking time to compensate for the critical words by Mr. Phillips), spoke eloquently concerning the state of politics and American society, focusing on the loss of spiritual and moral compass of the citizenry by the departure in the nation's discourse of the acknowledgment that our civil rights and privileges originate from the Creator. He also made it clear that some existing party platform positions might be idealistic yet naïve, as illustrated by the Constitutional requirement for our government to honor existing treaties, rather than simply dissolving them. The other candidates spoke from a range of perspectives and emphases, including one candidate who discussed uncomfortable “questions”, such as determining the true perpetrators of the World Trade Center tragedy, and the dangers present in vaccines and genetically-modified foods.
After a brief period of questions posed to the individual candidates, the delegate voting process began, with reporting by each state delegation. Many state delegations split their voting blocs proportionally between Dr. Baldwin and Dr. Keyes, with California providing a large portion of Dr. Keye's votes, and with a few votes for the “favorite sons” by the state delegations that were home to the other candidates.
In the final tally, Dr. Baldwin prevailed over Dr. Keyes by an approximate 3:1 ratio (283 votes to 125), with a subsequent unanimous “affirming” vote for Dr. Baldwin by the delegates, in accordance with Convention rules. Subsequent voting for the Vice Presidential nominee led to the selection of attorney Darrell Castle from the Tennessee delegation, after being nominated for consideration by Dr. Baldwin himself. Both gentlemen gave acceptance speeches, and Dr. Baldwin acknowledged (in addition to further praise for Dr. Keyes) that, although he and most of the party participants were “people of faith”, and indeed the party platform reflected this relationship, he welcomed fellow citizens of various expressions of faith to join in the fight to restore Constitutional principles to government, and the restoration of individual rights and pursuit of self-determination, in an environment of mutual respect and collective objectives. He also minced no words by stating that when Baldwin administration takes office, “the New World Order is coming down!”. Dr. Keyes also released a subsequent audio statement on his website, expressing caution and concern for the party participants and their actions and positions (comparing his experiences to that of an “abortion”), and doubts about his support of the party's activities, and his own political career as well, in the future.
Larry Pratt, President of Gun Owners of America reported on recent activities by federal, state and local governments to deny citizens their Second Amendment rights to bear arms, the unintended impact on crime in the U.S. and overseas when guns have been confiscated from lawful citizens, and techniques his organization and others are using to head off these affronts to individual liberty. John McManus, President of the John Birch Society, spoke on the undermining of compliance with the Constitution due to actions by both the political Left and Right, and Dr. Jerome Corsi, author of the “Late, Great USA”, updated the audience on the latest efforts by unelected and unaccountable officials in creating a supra-national “North American Union”.
The platform of this party, and the direct and piercing oratory by Dr. Baldwin, reflect a growing distrust by the citizenry of an expanding Federal government, unchecked by existing, unenforced Constitutional limits, which expand debt and financial distress, meddle in societal and market forces, and now intrude into the privacy and daily conduct of citizens under the guise of “protection” from ill-defined “terrorist” threats, and form supra-national agreements and alliances without the participation by elected officials, nor approval by the citizenry.
Dr. Baldwin himself reflects the growing disdain and distrust of government aims, and even dissatisfaction with traditional conservative bodies such as the Republican Party, which are perceived as having left these principles such as limited government, maximum freedom and minimal foreign entanglements, and exploited their conservative base without acknowledgment or consideration. Dr. Baldwin directs much of his criticism at the Religious Right and evangelicals, whom he accuses of “looking the other way” when the Republican officials they support pursue actions that are neither conservative or Biblical, and compels them to regain their moral authority by taking another course.
If this movement is to gain traction and have an impact in Presidential and national and local politics, it must broaden its support throughout the traditional religious and conservative communities; it currently has an unprecedented opportunity with a present ideological split within the Democratic Party (as represented by their two remaining candidates), and the disfranchisement of Republican conservatives by the choice of the centrist John McCain, who has a consistent record of betraying conservative principles. It is perceived that this challenge of widespread growth is largely due to a lack of exposure of the Constitutional Party platform and principles to these groups, a message which should resonate with these disillusioned parties, if they follow others and depart from their prior support of foreign pre-emptive wars and international policing. This inability to “spread the word” is largely due to the lack of considerable funds currently available to third party groups like the Constitution Party, since their commitment “not to be bought” by corporate interests over individual rights and principles impedes their ability to raise large quantities of funds from special interest groups, and requires creative measures to take their message to the people. This fact further emphasizes their need to appeal to the emerging Ron Paul movement and typical supporter (which should be possible since Dr. Baldwin has been a strong and vocal supporter of Dr. Paul, and their party's platform and Dr. Paul's positions appear co-incident), whom have shown their zeal and commitment, ability to “make waves” and raise money in novel ways, and operate “below the radar screen” of media acknowledgment through massive grass-roots, imaginative volunteer efforts, and a refusal to be discouraged by the lack of “establishment” endorsement. In fact, it may do the party well to altogether avoid the traditional media, even as the movement grows, in order to “control the message”, rather than letting the establishment media cannibalize the message and lampoon the movement (which tempered the growth of the Paul movement as they focused on the Paul “phenomena”), and thereby associate the mass corporate media with the existing corrupt political establishment it is perceived to incestuously protect, and retain a pure, “underground” revolutionary image to this citizen-led movement.
On Tuesday, 29 April I will be interviewing Mary Starrett, Communications Director for the Constitution Party, on my “Future Quake” radio show, broadcast Tuesday night from 8 to 10 PM Central Time on WRFN, 98.9 FM in the greater Nashville TN area. The interview with Dr. Alan Keyes, nomination acceptance speech of Dr. Chuck Baldwin, and excerpts of other convention speeches will also be broadcast during the show. Listeners outside the WRFN FM listening area can listen to Internet streaming audio of the show at www.futurequake.com, and an archived audio copy of the show in .mp3 format will be uploaded and added to other prior “Future Quake” shows on the following day at the same website for subsequent streaming or downloading. Any questions regarding this topic can be addressed to the author at drfuture@futurequake.com.
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J. Michael Bennett, Ph.D, has spent a career in the sciences, serving as a leader in a governmental aerospace laboratory, as well as operating his own successful technology development enterprise. He currently hosts the weekly radio show “Future Quake”, under the radio moniker of “Doctor Future”. This show can be heard every Tuesday evening from 8 to 10 PM Central Time, live from the studios of WRFN 98.9 FM in Nashville, or archived at www.futurequake.com.
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Posted by Editor at April 30, 2008 11:40 AM
