United States Pacifist Party
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United States Pacifist Party | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Ideology | Non-interventionism Anti-war Pacifism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Website | |
| uspacifistparty | |
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The United States Pacifist Party is a pacifist party in the United States which supports the anti-war movement. It supports the non-violent resistance of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
History[edit]
The party was founded in 1983 by Bradford Lyttle. Lyttle ran in the 1984 Presidential Election and got enough support to continue the party running again as a write-in candidate in the 1996 Presidential Election and the 2000 Presidential Election. In 1998, Gary Swing ran in the 1998 Colorado Senate election as a member of the Pacifist Party but got the fewest votes of any candidate. He received 1,903 votes, or 0.14%.
In 2008 Lyttle ran for U.S. President and was on the ballot in Colorado. He received 110 votes. Nationally he came in last out of 23 candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state.
Following the September 11 attacks interest in the party grew[citation needed] and Lyttle appeared on a special for CNN and The O'Reilly Factor explaining the party's response to the attacks in a pacifist sense and getting threats for it.[1]
Presidential candidate performance[edit]
![[icon]](/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2019) |
| 2008 | Bradford Lyttle / Unknown | 111[citation needed] | 0.00% | 0 |
| 2016 | Bradford Lyttle / Hannah Walsh | 382[citation needed] | 0.00% | 0 |
Policies[edit]
Overall the Pacifist Party is moderate in tone and is on the left wing when it comes to issues despite references to a "divine revelation" as a source of inspiration.[2][3]
International relations[edit]
The Pacifist Party opposes the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) and the Iraq War and in general all war that's not related to national defense.
The Pacifist Party is against nuclear weapons, biological warfare, and chemical weapons as well as all foreign military aid. It supports reducing the military budget to zero and abolishing weapons through treaties.[3]
The Pacifist Party is opposed to the Patriot Act and for normalizing Cuba-United States relations by terminating of the Helms-Burton Act and putting an end to the United States embargo against Cuba.
Or in less simple terms: As the huge arsenals of thermonuclear weapons, and drone warfare, show, our “civilization” has developed military force to the limits that our technology allow. Governments claim that these weapons systems are the foundation of “peace,” and are constantly striving to “improve” them. This is an unrealistic understanding of military force. Nuclear deterrence ultimately will break down by producing catastrophic accidents with nuclear weapons and nuclear war. This is because deterrence involves constantly risking the events it is intended to prevent, and, over time, this makes the probability of the events approach certainty. Drone warfare is assassination, and kills many innocent people. It tends to make people throughout the world hate, not respect, us. We claim to value “The rule of law,” but our military programs suggest that we instead believe in the rule of arbitrary violence.
To escape from the suicidal logic of military force, it’s necessary first to abandon the practice of describing attacks on us as “acts of war.” Once they are seen as acts of war, responses to them rapidly become devoid of any moral content or limitation on their violence. Such attacks should be seen as “criminal acts.” As such, our response should be non-lethal, involving, first, apprehending the perpetrators, and then trying them before some court of law. Once in court, they should have the right to an attorney (representation), the trial should be open and fair, and any sentence imposed not “cruel and unusual.” The dependents should have full opportunity to explain their points of view, and even file counter suits. Such a process is accepted as fair by almost everyone, and will not tend to generate hatred for us. It will give us the moral high ground. At the present time, the International Court of Law in the Hague probably is the best place to try cases that involve conflicts seen as between nations. Therefore, the United States should:
Announce that we will never use nuclear weapons, and immediately begin the deactivation of all of our own nuclear weapons, regardless of existing international agreements, and what other nations may do; Cease all drone operations designed to assassinate “enemy” leaders; Accelerate the development of non-lethal weapons whose purpose is to capture people trying to harm us. Such weapons might include non-lethal drones and robots, tranquilizers, incapacitating gasses such as nitrous oxide, odiferous agents such as skunk musk, throw nets, gas masks, protective armor capable of stopping at least long gun projectiles, smoke, fogs, and disorienting sound and light sources. People who are willing to risk their lives to maintain peace and justice should be trained to use these non-lethal weapons in the face of lethal ones. Imagine such a defense team capturing, rather than killing, Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden then could have been tried in an international court, which would have been an expression of the Rule of Law. Non- lethal weapons used to capture terrorists would take much of the macho romance out of terrorism. Set up procedures for bringing those captured before international tribunals, where they will be allowed to have legal representation, plead guilty or not guilty, be tried by a jury of their peers, and have an opportunity to explain their political perspective to an international audience; Negotiate with Red Crescent medical organizations in Islamic countries to ascertain their needs, and provide them with all of the personnel, equipment, and pharmaceuticals necessary to meet these needs; Provide clean, fresh, water to all nations. This could be done through the development of large-scale desalination plants; Prepare for nonviolent resistance against possible invasion and occupation attempts; This would include establishment of a national Department of Peace, and an unarmed service corps trained in strategic nonviolent defense and equipped for mobilization anywhere in the world; Deactivate all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons; Abolish all aspects of the Selective Service System. Participation in the nonviolent defense system would be voluntary; End all overt and covert military aid operations; Close Guantanamo; Repeal the Patriot Act; Reduce the military budget toward zero; Immediately end all foreign military aid, including aid to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Humanitarian foreign aid would be directed toward helping the poor meet their basic human needs and become self-sufficient. Aid to foreign governments generally would be contingent upon exemplary human rights records. When serious human rights violations are suspected, any aid given would be distributed by trustworthy agencies; Establish a massive economic aid program to abolish poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness and ignorance at home and worldwide. The aid would be administered by the United Nations; Repeal the Helms-Burton Act (a law that strengthens and extends the embargo against Cuba); Support legitimate, nonviolent, social change movements that are struggling to advance human rights and political freedom; Support one-person-one-vote democratic world government. [3]
The environment[edit]
Global warning through human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, that can threaten human existence, is a reality supported overwhelmingly by the scientific community. The U.S. should inaugurate a crash program to stop and reverse global warming. This would emphasize promotion of active and passive, decentralized, solar power and other nonpolluting power generating systems that would provide sufficient, free, electrical energy for everyone on earth. It would make only limited and tightly controlled use of fossil fueled plants. Nuclear power plants would be shut down, and all nuclear and fusion energy research would be placed under international control;
Establish a strongly funded program to improve fresh water supplies in this country and throughout the world. This program would include extensive research on desalination techniques, so that the burden of providing fresh water, particularly to metropolitan and industrial areas, can be lifted from sources such as fresh water rivers, lakes, and aquifers; End private logging, grazing, and oil drilling on public lands; Place special taxes on polluting industries to provide incentives for reducing pollution, and revenue for funding other environmental protection programs. [3]
Healthcare[edit]
The Pacifist Party is for remodeling the current model of health care after the Canadian model.[3]
The Pacifist Party supports funding alternatives to abortion but not making abortion illegal.[4]
Immigration[edit]
The Pacifist Party supports unrestricted immigration arguing the money need for health care and education will be paid for by shutting down the majority of military war acts.
In less simpler terms: Adopt a policy of unrestricted immigration. Health and education needs of immigrants would be paid for from the billions of dollars saved by ending military programs Such a program would produce a labor force of well educated, healthy, people. It would attract people from all over the world, and since these people would return much of their wealth to their families in their home countries, the world economic distribution would steadily improve. The program's long-term effect would be to economically homogenize the world, which, in turn, would reduce feelings of injustice, and violent outbreaks. [3]
Economy[edit]
The Pacifist Party supports employment through private employment and a minimum wage for everybody through a negative income tax.
Civil rights[edit]
The Pacifist Party opposes all forms of discrimination and supports a Constitutional amendment banning it. It supports free and unrestricted travel across the border, family planning, and banning handguns and assault rifles. It opposes the death penalty and supports prison reform.[5]
Election reform[edit]
The Pacifist Party supports limiting campaign spending, transparency, and proportional representation.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "History of the United States Pacifist Party". www.uspacifistparty.org.
- ↑ "warbaby.com - This website is for sale! - warbaby Resources and Information". www.warbaby.com.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "The United States Pacifist Party 2008 Platform". USPacifistParty.org.
- ↑ Lyttle, Bradford. "The United States Pacifist Party's Position on Abortion". USPacifistParty.org.
- ↑ Kelly, Kathy. "An Alternative Approach to Criminal Justice". USPacifistParty.org.
External links[edit]
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