My dream third party
I actually wrote this once - hopefully this time it won't vanish.jtr asked on Monday what my dream third party would have as it's platform. First of all, I think it's essential to understand that having a platform and actually living it out are two very different things. Republicans tend to say they are fiscally conservative, but the current administration is the most free spending in American history, so things like that need to have the platform and the practices be true to each other. Now this stuff is going to come mostly off the top of my head and it is certainly not the only position a Christian can have on these issues, nor will these issues be drawn out to be anywhere close to complete, but here is what I would like to see in my dream third party on some of the bigger topics of the day:
* Sanctity of life: No abortion, no killing people off on their death beds, no attacking other sovereign nations that have no threat to us, no death penalty. Human life comes only from God and only God should be deciding when it ends.
* Environment: Protect it and preserve it - it's God's amazing creation and we've got more than enough developed areas already.
* Taxes: Highly progressive. No one should live in poverty and no one needs excessive wealth, so the lower class pay a low percent, the middle class pay a middle percent, and the upper class pay an upper percent. Ideally, I think the economic concepts of socialism are probably the most Christian, but in a fallen world with very selfish consumers around it's too easily abused.
* Gay marriage: Have to allow it. Legally this country doesn't forbid marriage for anyone based on a sin - which I do believe this is. So we can't on this either. No, marriage has not always been the same - it's been changed rather often through time. And it's not a threat on marriage - certainly not more than forbidding marriage to those who practice promiscuity, physical and emotional abuse, lack of real commitment, and the things that do truly threaten 'traditional marriage'. I think we need to encourage people to repent of their sins, but I don't think legislation is the way to get them to do that.
* foreign policy: I say we work with as many sovereign countries as possible. If they don't want to, then we need to seriously consider why they disagree with us. And we practice pacifism. Military is for self defense, not for pre-emptive strikes on non-threatening nations.
* Education: This may not be such a position from Christian principles, but I'm a teacher, so it's not like I'm going to skip this either. Education opportunities needs to be expanded. I propose making the school year be 45 four day weeks with an optional, for extra pay fifth day with a variety of educational options. And no vouchers - if you want to pay to send your kid somewhere else, then you can make that choice, but we're not doing anything to take away from public education. Also, less emphasis on standardized testing and excessive requirements for continuing education on teachers.
* Guns: Only for military and police use.
* Honesty: I want a party of politicians who will honestly and willingly say things like "We made a mistake", "I don't know the best answer for that", "We're going to try someone else's idea, because it was better than our own", and things that every other normal human being has to say on a regular basis.
* Cell phones: Absolutely banned from use in an automobile. Period. I know it's not really a Christian topic, but we're talking about my dream party platform and this would be essential to it!
These are just some ideas and they certainly aren't fully thought out, but I think this is the base of a platform I would enjoy seeing from a party and overall it doesn't seem very close to the Democrats or the Republicans, so I'm thinking it would take a third party to see this. It's all just some ideas though, so if you have some comments, I would love to hear them. Thanks!
posted by gurufrisbee @ 6:06 AM
