HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES

A look at how we have been duped by the Progressive Infection

Today let’s take a close and critical look at why the Progressives have made such inroads in the Nation;

I believe, it is because they are extremely adept at using our own morals, honorable pursuits, charitable feelings, basic decency, community standards, religious beliefs, desire to do what we have always been told is right, among other things we were taught, and subtly twisting them and skewing them to validate their skewed viewpoints. In addition, they promote those points as the only valid and reasonable ones that are acceptable in American Society.

They constantly disabuse anyone who decides to disagree as some kind of reprobate, or degenerate hater/racist, or a mentally disabled miscreant, and foster that false view through all of their controlled outlets and rabid pundits. The problem as I see it is we believe those outright lies because we have been conditioned to believe them over generations of being lied to, and they almost matched up with what we were taught as good behavior when we were young. Remember those lies started out as only slightly different from our original moral compass and traditional definitions of good and evil. Then they gradually morphed them over decades into what they are spewing today.

It was Them, that twisted our belief in a beneficent and loving God, by repeating the false mantra that God is only a bourgeois myth to keep people in line, control their every move, and keep them giving to religions.( I think they gave away their hidden agenda there.) And afterwards, they are morphing the concept into the real myth of Secular Humanism, Not Us.

It was Them, that used our compassion for those who are picked on and abused, and twisted the system, to change the system, from punishment for heinous crimes, to a system of revolving door rehabilitation ideology that usually devolves into recidivism and more innocent victims being hurt or killed, Not Us.

It was Them, who changed the moral idea of sexual abstinence into the immoral idea sexual promiscuity. They even reduced the age of interest down to the absurd level of elementary school children. They tried to justify this by claiming it was good for their 'proper social and mental development'. The method used was through government controlled public education, in an "Institutional setting that had been priory corrupted with Progressive Ideology" instead of being taught about it in a moral manner at the proper time by their parents, Not Us.

It was Them, who hid their continuous Racist Past until the mid-twentieth century, when the winds of change were sweeping the country. They hijacked the movement and demonized the conservative side, calling everything that did not fit with their planned destruction of our sides history of Anti-Slavery, Equality of the races, etc., referring to us as Racist/Bigoted/Haters when we challenged their politically correct agendas, Not Us.

The whole fabric of our current beliefs about the modern state of affairs that is considered laudable behavior, has been conditioned into us, and is based on their Twisted Value System, and Politically Correct Programming of the lies that have been foisted on us for several generations by those ignoble miscreants now in temporary power. The destruction of our society has been done strictly and only for those whose personal profit and aggrandizement benefited by it was to have us believe, as they programmed us to believe.

The Left has usurped the higher values of humanity, and have bent and twisted them to their own evil and nefarious purposes. It was done to get us to march to the tune of their drummer by using our traditional sense of right and wrong against us. They pretend to have the high moral ground by just paying lip service to the Honor and Integrity those values actually stand for, and the feelings they engender in decent human beings.

I am ready to cast off the ties and shackles they have illegally burdened us with, but to what avail? We must have a clear and concise goal to move towards lest we engender a similar fate as now befalls us. The only answer to that question is for us to thoroughly and completely re-examine the thoughts and directions of our Founders, so we can reignite the passion exhibited by the First Patriots in the Original Revolution.

Support the Convention of States movement, by supporting the Article V project to restore Liberty's push for the 28th Amendment. Call Write, Send Postcards, Go to Town Hall Meetings, in general keep the pressure on to your State Legislature Representatives about petitioning for an Article V Amendment Proposal Convention, and the necessary background work necessary to insure it is not going to be a useless melee by informing them of laws like Examples: http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2013/SE/SE0224.1.html "Duties of Delegates" Describing the Legal Restrictions the Legislature puts on them At the Convention

AND,

http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2013/SE/SE0225.1.html "Selection of Delegates" A law describing how delegates to Article V convention are selected.

Of course these are only general guidelines, and the State Residents and Legislatures will have to determine on an individual State by State decision as to what and how these things need to be done.

This will be the beginning of the end of Progressive Influence and Destruction on what we all hold as the proper direction for our Republic.

The Tradesman

Guide to Progressives and The Progressive Golden Age In America IIl

I want you to consider this about the current Progressive push to reassert themselves somewhat into the original mold they developed during their "Golden Age" from the 1890's to the 1920's. During that time frame they gained massive support from the public, many of whom were second generation children of Irish Refugees from the famine, and children of the Scots who came here because of the clearances. They were being abused like their parents were by the Lords of the old country. Because the progressives portrayed themselves as fighting against the same callousness towards the workers by the Robber Barons of that era, the Second generation was eager to rid themselves of the same actions from the Barons as the Lords displayed. Those Barons put profits ahead of an employee's basic safety, because they believed that workers were infinitely replaceable, and anyone who contested that was automatically considered one of the 'good guys' by the abused.

Progressives use the same tactics today with the poor and downtrodden of our generation. They promise everything but in the end they only steal the wealth and deliberately keep the poor held down and dependent to the progressives for their daily bread.

This public persona contrived by the progressives worked well for them, but only until the public realized how they were destroying the Republic. The realities of the movement derogate the actual loss of freedoms and rights Americans have, and acting as if they should not exist. This is because the basic 'Philanthropic Progressive', lauds praises and compliments on themselves, and are to a person, guilty of believing themselves to be the final authority on everything that is good and necessary, and create legal requirements for everyone to follow their desires mindlessly.

The overriding similarity among Progressives then and now, is they actually believe they know what is better for everyone than the "mere mortals" themselves know and the believe they have the right to enforce their beliefs. To do that they set up Progressive oriented Governments that want to control their people from cradle to grave for their own good. Notwithstanding, the profits from the labors of all the 'little people' go to the elites primarily.

They try to change the minds of everyone, encouraging them to break away from the Free, Independent, Moral, Work Ethic Spirit that made America Great, into one of utter dependence on the Central Government to provide everything 'freely' to all, and risk losing everything should anyone disagree with their orders from on high. How they plan to accomplish this is cleverly never spoken of, but it is done through total redistribution of wealth, and iron fisted control over society. This in turn is disingenuous because it destroys all incentive to do better, to innovate, or even to complete necessary tasks. It destroys the basic American respect for Liberty and Independence, and most importantly Self Respect. After taking those things away Progressives automatically Replace it with a Nanny State. Think Communist Russia under Stalin or China under Mao when you think of a 'Progressive' Nanny State.

One thing to always remember; Progressive Socialism also has a Right and Left side track, just like our Republic has Left and Right Factions in Government. ‘Hitlerian’ Fascism is the Right side Track of Progressive Socialism, and Stalinist or Maoist Communism is the Left side track of Progressive Socialism when it's taken to its logical conclusion. Another overriding factor about Socialism is, the practitioners have no compunctions about using outright lies and mis-direction combined and recruiting people to their way of thinking with a false philosophy of telling the people they can do anything they want to do, with no bad consequences to themselves for their actions.

Actually the Original American National Political Leaders for the Progressive movement were; Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. LaFollette Sr., and Charles Evans Hughes on the Republican side and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Al Smith on the Democratic side. From the 1890's through the 1920's movement flourished as the way to purify the Government and break down the Machine Bosses like Tammany Hall for example. Even Prohibition played a part and one of the obscured reasons it passed was to break the power structures of the Bosses which was usually based in the saloons. The 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th amendments were amendments that were pushed by the Progressives to permanently fix their reforms into law.

Between the Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, 1901 through 1921, most of the Federal Regulatory agencies came into being because of the Progressives. Prior to 1910 they made a push into education (to begin to entrench their way into all schools). This was the era when Progressive Scholars began taking over research universities. Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Michigan, California, and Wisconsin were targeted for Progressive Ideology based Modernization with the specific goal being, to make them into the Progressive idea of 'Scientific' Social Sciences like History, Economics, and especially the new field of Political Science. All these 'innovations' were incorporated into School systems with a new 'Ideological Professionalism' based on existing international models of progressive scholarship.

In actuality during the golden age of Progressivism (1890's - 1920's) they got their hands into everything with their philosophy, and changed America from the Republic it was, to the beginnings burgeoning Democracy by doing it. When the magazines and newspapers of that era began exposing the political corruption, Roosevelt gave them the nickname of "Muckrakers" to try and discredit them to the public. Maybe this is the underlying reason the progressives have taken control of most of the media today?

The Progressives Agendas encompassed these things then and still do now, however they are more insidious and sophisticated now;

"Progressive Modernization Ideology".
This included inroads into Science, Technology, and Especially Education ( to indoctrinate the subsequent generations into their philosophy), Intervention into economic and social affairs, and promoting the illogical concept of the efficiency of Government intervention.

"Progressive Philanthropic Ideology".
This is where the Elites took notice of the movement and joined in for their own reasons, and hiding those reasons through what they named 'a duty to society' where they gave money ( with tenuous strings attached) to Colleges, Hospitals, Libraries, Museums, Social Betterment ( whatever they thought that was it was). In effect they set up and controlled the foundations and business oriented operations we know today. None of this was actually charity though, and that let them operate with tremendous power internationally as benevolent and powerful entities.

"Progressive Democracy Ideology".
Here's the rub, ostensibly the Progressives promoted the concept of Democracy to the public originally to circumvent the political bosses and assume their power over the people. However you would not get them to admit that even among themselves except behind closed doors. They wanted more direct rule by an uninformed and highly maniputable public, who they could talk into doing exactly what they wanted them to do, because the Progressives always did and always will believe they knew what was best for the people, more so than the people did for themselves.

This culminated in the passing of the 17th Amendment Ratified in 1913. That Amendment took the power of the Legislatures away and gave it to the Progressives under the false Flag of reducing the power of political bosses. The progressives succeeded taking it for themselves, all in a benevolent way of course, to better help the people.

They were not idle at the State levels either. This was a concerted effort to change politics in America with the Progressives always leading the charge. The State 'Reforms' they initiated were "Initiative" "Referendum" and "Recall". the Initiative and Referendum allowed citizens to directly introduce, propose, and approve laws in the State. The recall provision, gave citizen voters the power to recall elected officials.

About half of the States today have some form of this because it was pushed into their State Constitutions by the Progressive's influence over the masses. The Progressives looked at it as a way to negate the influence of countering the so called 'Influence of Large Corporations', and supplanting it with their Progressive Influence.

"Progressive Municipal Reform Ideology".
With this concept, the Progressives began a major reorganization of City and State Governments. They began by getting Progressive Mayors elected to City Governments, and also getting Progressive Governors elected at the State level to facilitate the reorganization of State Governments. A good example is Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin who began the process of using the State University (Remember the education push the progressives made) as the major source of ideas for change.

“Progressive Family and Food Ideologies".
Progressives knew the importance of convincing families to be the foundation for their Progressive Agenda for America, and American Society. America could not be changed until the basic concept of how families viewed themselves and how their position in society could be changed to the better because of the Progressive Model.

The progressives used their influence in government to gradually change and strengthen acceptance of the progressive concepts into the family unit. This was not enough to satisfy the progressives. They took over the existing public assistance programs and formed them into what we see today, as welfare programs that keeps generations trapped and subjugated to control their votes, for a continuous progressive handout of redistributed wealth.

They established Juvenile Courts complete with the laws that took away parental control and vested it in the State. They set up standards for pure Drugs, Water, Milk, Foodstuffs, and established Federal agencies to enforce those standards. They even began to censure Motion Pictures and Movie houses because they deemed them Unsafe and Unclean environments (see how they believe they know what is best for us mere mortals and then force it on us). Doing that then, planted the seeds for things like the EPA, Dept. of Education, and all the other Federal Agencies we must contend with today.

"Progressive Eugenics Ideology".
This is where it gets very dangerous for the average person. The Progressives embraced this philosophy because they believed in their God like Delusions about their infallibility, and that they were the ones designated to "Improve" the Genetic Traits and Quality of the human population. This heinous philosophy advocated promoting that "Improvement" by encouraging higher reproduction rates among the people they deemed had the best traits (usually of their own ethnic group), and heavily suppressing even to extinction, the reproductive rates of those they deemed had undesirable traits (usually racially based decisions, citing mental inferiority). See how the Progressives tried to institute this program here, years before Hitler instituted it in Germany.

"Progressive Constitutional Change Policy".
The Progressives tried to hedge their bets by attempting to insert their reforms in the body of amendments to the Constitution, instead of in Federal Law to do it. That was because the Federal Laws could be declared Unconstitutional at a later date, or they could be repealed by a later Congress. They knew it would be much harder to repeal an Amendment to the Constitution, so they instigated for the proposal of the 16th Amendment because the income tax they wanted to impose was ruled Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court before the 16th amendment existed, and for the 17th Amendment for the direct election of Senators, knowing they would abridge State Powers and quietly, reduce the Power of the People to seriously influence the Federal Government. Due to Sentiments against the Germans during WWI, they were able to pass the 18th Amendment for prohibition. The final Progressive Amendment passed was the 19th Amendment for Women's suffrage proving that not even dyed in the wool Progressives can be totally evil.

"Progressive Prohibition Reasoning".
In another spectacular failure of the Progressives who believe even until today that they can legislate morals and social behavior, tried to do that through the Volstead Act. Progressives helped pushing it through Congress to prohibit the manufacture sale and transportation of alcohol, and did not prohibit drinking. The underlying reason was to break the political machine bosses by attacking the seat of their continued power, the Saloons. Prohibition was basically a movement by Protestants and was embraced by the Progressives to gain their votes, and to weaken the political saloon based big city political machines whose power the progressives wanted to take over. In retrospect we can thank the progressives for setting up and entrenching the Criminal mobs we have today.

"Progressive Education Initiatives".
Basically it was grab the children when they are young and indoctrinate them with the Progressive Philosophy. It worked out then to projecting their public persona of trying to improve the living standards through educating the youth of America so they could get better paying and more prestigious jobs, The progressives pushed hard to reform schools and their curriculum to their standards as modernization of the schools (they are doing this again through Common core Programs today). The progressives created the Department of Education at the Federal Level and that took the regulatory power away from both parents and the States. Up to 1910 big city schools numbers expanded considerably, and after rural school systems followed suit. By 1940 half of American teens had a high school diploma, and that along with WWII and the GI Bill, resulted in a rapid growth of the educated middle class which became the prime support of the progressives.

"Progressive Medicine and Law Initiatives".
The progressives made inroads into the medical profession through a report (Flexner Report) sponsored by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation (remember Carnegie was one of the first Elites to embrace progressivism for power and profit) . The Flexner Report was compiled by Abraham Flexner in a book length study bewailing the poor state of medical schools and their teaching practices, and advocating for a unified and government controlled system, in typical progressive fashion, to correct the perceived problems.

By the way, Abraham was not a doctor, he was a secondary school teacher. The report was basically responsible for the closing of a multitude of smaller schools the average man could afford to attend for a higher education, and focused National Funds on medical schools associated with Universities like Harvard. Leaders like the Mayo brothers supported the essence of the report and it gained traction.

It also affected the Legal Profession, and the American Bar Association set up the Association of American Law Schools in 1900 establishing national standards and replacing the time honored practice of apprenticing under attorneys to study law and gain proficiency in it, and requiring using progressive standardized School settings for learning, as was done with the medical profession. Progressives really like the national control bit don't they?

"Progressive Social Sciences Experiments".
The Progressive Scholars ensconced in pivotal positions in Universities like Harvard, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, etc., worked to modernize those places utilizing the modern progressive disciplines. The progressive goal and game plan, was to change them into models of progressive social sciences of history, political science, political correctness, and economics. This professionalization required the universities to create new career tracks making hiring, with promotion dependent on meeting the international models of scholarship the progressives cherished.

"Progressive Economic Policy Experiment".
The golden age of progressives was basically prosperous with only two minor glitches; the panic of 1893, which was basically a Deep Depression (this was when the attitudes began to change toward the Progressive agendas, and the Small Businesses, Farmers, and Labor Organizations, began looking to the Federal government to act in their interests) and the panic of 1907 basically affecting financiers. These two issues did weaken the economy and stressed Wilson's policies creating federal deficits resulting in changed fiscal policy (imposition of the Income Tax and the Federal Reserve). This continued until WWI. I find it very strange that Progressive policies that precipitate a fiscal crisis precede world wars and police actions that are not called wars. Progressives constantly argued for more government regulation of businesses.

This was the era of greatly expanded Federal Government control where agencies were formed like The Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1877 the ICC was formed as an agency to regulate the railroads. The Progressives expanded it to encompass trucking, interstate bus lines, common carriers, and telephone companies and in 1995 was disbanded and its functions transferred to the expanded jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board which is exempted from certain Federal State and Local Laws unlike its predecessors early years ICC regulations took a Federal court order to become effective. Now we have a

The Sherman Anti-trust Act, the Clayton Anti-trust Act and the Federal Trade Commission were all conceived and created during the Progressive era ostensibly for the protection of the consumers but in effect to control business practices. Here is where we find out that much of the substance of the Sherman and Clayton acts were developed and animated by the Progressive Supreme Courts to effectively legislate from the bench. The Neill-Reynolds meat inspection report that was one of the reports used to justify the creation of the Food and Drug Administration which took the regulatory power away from the States

"Progressives and Labor Unions".
It can be said that Labor Unions are a progressive movement or the child of progressives and they created great numbers of supporters for the progressive agendas. In 1906 the Labor Movement joined into a working political alliance with the bastion of the progressives, the Democratic Party. The main focus was in the large industrial cities where the labor unions wanted restrictions on the judges who ruled on labor disputes mostly or wholly on the side of business. The Democrats progressive political machine facilitated those demands, thus securing a large voter base for progressives to retain their power. the real breakthrough for the Progressive/Labor Movement cause was the passage of the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932.

"Progressive Immigration Policy Ideology".
After 1896 Immigration grew until WWI and the influx of unskilled workers stopped suddenly and resumed in 1919. Labor Unions turned to the progressive leaders and asked them to place restrictions on immigration especially Chinese and other Asians. The unions did this because those people would work for lower wages and the unions’ efforts to raise wages were thwarted. the leveling factor was the rapid growth of industry that needed the large numbers of workers that could be trained for the menial jobs in those industries.

In the 1920's the progressives and the industry realized that the influx needed to be restricted to a manageable level, even the progressives who believed in eugenics were involved as were the prohibitionists and protestants who wanted to again curtail the "Saloon Power " of the political bosses. The Progressives were in fact racists and that was ingrained in the movement from the start and pushed to the fore Front by Wilson. But I digress.

The progressives of that generation pushed the "Americanization" of the immigrants with their programs pushed through the public school system they had essentially taken over decades before. Immigration restrictions continued after WWII as a national policy. Recently the Progressive faction, in an attempt to again dominate the voting public, has recanted and tried to reform immigration policy back to an open door policy, in hopes of capturing generations of voters to keep them in power. As can be seen the Progressives have no real loyalty to any program, but will back anything that will keep them in power.

The "Real" Democratic Party

This is now the "official" Democrat Party's logo. My, how they have changed!

The Democratic Party backed the KKK, and it did create the Jim Crow Laws. It also resisted the move to end Slavery, and that was the Reason the Republican Party broke off from the Democratic Party in the 1850's over the slavery issue.

Don't believe me, Google it at:
http://www.ask.com/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Republican_Party

To see if the Democratic Party supported the KKK, go to:

http://www.ask.com/wiki/1924_Democratic_National_Convention

The Democratic Party's Legacy of Racism:
http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-02-racism/

The Real Democratic Party complete with time lines and pertinent information:
http://realdemocrathistory.wordpress.com/category/kkk/

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, founded in 1971. Our vision is for a world in which all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of sole dominion over their own lives, liberty and property by building a political party that elects Libertarians to public office, and moving public policy in a libertarian direction.

Libertarian Party Platform

This is a PDF file:
https://www.lp.org/files/LP%20Platform%202012.pdf

20 Questions Liberals Can't Answer

"It is not enough for the insecure left to deem a position wrong; if it’s merely wrong, it needs to be argued about, and it can’t survive that. It must instead be morally abhorrent, so that the zealot reacts to the toxin of questioning much like a jogger coming across a decomposing body on the side of the road — it must be internalized that the correct response to such a horror is to retch, and faint, and call the authorities post-haste.

This is how the leftist faith protects itself from the infection of doubt. (Meanwhile, of course, patting itself on the back for being so open-minded…)" -- Ace of Spades HQ

"If it were true that conservatives were racist, sexist, homophobic, fascist, stupid, inflexible, angry, and self-righteous, shouldn’t their arguments be easy to deconstruct? Someone who is making a point out of anger, ideology, inflexibility, or resentment would presumably construct a flimsy argument. So why can’t the argument itself be dismembered rather than the speaker’s personal style or hidden motives? Why the evasions?" -- Ann Coulter

Liberalism doesn't convince with logic. It can't, because the policies liberals advocate don't work. So instead, liberals have to use emotion-based ploys and attack the motives of people they disagree with while attempting to keep conservative arguments from being heard at all. Why? Because they have no good answers to questions like these.

1) A few days ago, we were hearing that the Boston Marathon bombers COULD BE conservative, which proved that the Right is evil. Now, when we know that the terrorists are Muslims, how can the same liberals be saying that it means nothing?

2) If you believe we have a "right" to things like health care, food, shelter and a good education, then doesn't that also mean you believe we also have a right to force other people to unwillingly provide those things at gunpoint?

3) How can you simultaneously want a big government that will make decisions that have an enormous impact on the lives of every American while also saying that the character and morals of our politicians don't matter?

4) What exactly is the "fair share" of someone's income that he’s earned that he should be able to keep?

5) Why is it that time and time again, revenue paid to the treasury has GONE UP after we've cut taxes?

6) Are you pro-choice or pro-abortion? If it's pro-choice, do you feel people should be able to choose to have an assault weapon, what kind of light bulb they use in their house or whether they'd like to put their Social Security funds into a private retirement account?

7) If corporations are so awful, greedy and bad for the country, then shouldn't we be celebrating when they decide to close their plants here and move overseas?

8) How can liberal economists like Paul Krugman be right when they claim that our economy isn't doing well because we aren't spending enough money when we're already running massive, unsustainable deficits and spending is going up every year?

9) If Republicans don’t care about the poor, why do studies consistently show that they give more to charity than Democrats do?

10) Give us a ballpark estimate: If something doesn't change dramatically, how long do you think it will be until we have an economic crash in this country similar to the one we're seeing in Greece or Cyprus?

11) Since we "all agree" with the idea that our level of deficit spending is "unsustainable," what would be wrong with permanently freezing federal spending at the current level until we balance the budget by increasing revenue, cutting spending or some combination thereof?

12) If we change God's definition of marriage to make gay marriage legal, then what's the logical argument against polygamy or even adult siblings supposed to be?

13) In a world where people can easily change states and can, with a bit more difficulty, permanently move to other roughly comparable parts of the globe, do you really think it's feasible over the long haul to have a tax system where 86% of the income taxes are paid by the top 25% of the income earners?

14) If you win a lawsuit that's filed against you, why should you have to pay huge legal bills when you did nothing wrong while the person who filed the suit pays no penalty for wrongly accusing you?

15) How can you oppose putting murderers to death and be fine with killing innocent children via abortion?

16) A minimum wage raises salaries for some workers at the cost of putting other workers out of jobs entirely. What's the acceptable ratio for that? For every 10 people who get a higher salary, how many are you willing to see lose their jobs?

17) The earth has been warming and cooling for thousands of years with temperature drops and increases that are much larger than the ones we've seen over the last century. Since we can't adequately explain or model those changes, what makes us think we can say with any sort of confidence that global warming is being caused by man?

18) We live in a world where people have more choices than ever before in music, entertainment, careers, news sources and what to do with their time. Shouldn't government mirror that trend by moving towards federalism and states’ rights instead of centralizing more and more power in Washington, DC?

19) If people in the middle class aren't willing to pay enough in taxes to cover the government services that they use because they don't think it's worth the money, shouldn't we prune back government to a level people do feel comfortable paying for in taxes?

20) If firms can get by with paying women 72 cents on the dollar for the same quality of work as men, then why don't we see any firms with all female labor forces using those lower costs to dominate the marketplace?

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/04/20/20-questions-liberals-cant-answer-n1573545

Liberal Rednecks: A Salute

By Kelly OConnell (Bio and Archives) Monday, May 13, 2013

Mindless, Progressive Automatons Have Filled America With Righteous Indignation

The term Liberal Redneck will strike progressives as an absurd contradiction. Yet, Conservatives will have an immediate, wearying familiarity with the angry, judgmental, uninformed and doctrinaire viewpoint of this group. In fact, the Liberal Redneck is every bit as small-minded, bigoted, dismissive, self-righteous, judgmental, uneducated and intolerant as the worst fundamentalist.

The problem in America today is that there is never a level playing field offered for the discussion of ideas. Therefore, most important topics are only mentioned in a predetermined format. In other words, one can mention, for example—gay marriage, but only with the proviso that the topic for debate and conclusion—is closed. But the Liberal Redneck is a special kind of smug, progressive partisan, who—while refusing to admit any bias, is more angry, close-minded, accusatory and bombastic than an ayatollah at a radical feminist convention. You undoubtedly know the type.

I. What is a Liberal Redneck?

The definition of Liberal Redneck is obvious. A large class of persons exists across America who see themselves as open-minded, enlightened, non-judgmental, unbiased, educated, non-superstitious and elite. Of course, this is the group of persons who claim the mantle of “modern liberal.” In fact, this group is anything but fair-minded and tolerant. Dictionary.com offers the following definition:

    redneck

    1. an uneducated white farm laborer, especially from the South.

    2. a bigot or reactionary, especially from the rural working class.

A Liberal Redneck, like any other bigot, assumes beliefs without bothering to investigate whether any credible evidence exists to disprove them. They assert such a lofty intellectual position that they claim no reasonable person could disagree with their ideas. Such persons only up the ante by increasing their vehemence when positing their beliefs viz a-viz religion. Consider Harvard dropout thespian Matt Damon’s pathetic, ad-hominem laced critique of Sarah Palin: (video)

    “It’s like a really bad Disney movie, “The Hockey Mom.’ Oh, I’m just a hockey mom from Alaska, and she’s the president,” the actor said. “She’s facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It’s absurd.

    “I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about how absurd it is. It’s a really terrifying possibility. The fact that we have gotten that close to this being a reality is crazy.”

    Damon expressed concern about Mrs Palin’s political experience - “mayor of a really small town and governor of Alaska for less than two years”, saying he did not understand why she had been chosen.

    “I think the pick was made for political purposes. But in terms of governance, it’s a disaster.”

    He added that he wanted to know more about Mrs Palin’s views on evolution versus creationism “because she’s going to have the nuclear codes” and whether, according to some reports, “she banned books or tried to ban books. We can’t have that.”

II. Liberal Redneck Information Sources

The pièce de résistance of Liberal Redneck information is the New York Times. But the most typical source of leftist beliefs are progressive news organizations, such as MSNBC and others. And some have taken note that the progressive mainstream media has relentlessly slanted news in favor of Liberal Redneck bias, such as in the recent gun control debate:

    Even by the standards of today’s partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. TV hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly.

    The decision by some members of the media to come down so firmly on one side of a policy debate has only served to reinforce conservatives’ longstanding suspicions that the mainstream media has a deep-seated liberal bias.

Such anti-gun advocacy is notable when many studies show gun control laws simply do not work to stem violence, as seen today in Chicago (Gun Control is Why Chicago Murder Rates Are Skyrocketing). Scholar Thomas Sowell has written extensively on this failure: “The Fact-Free Gun-Control Crusade—Stricter gun-control laws don’t reduce murder rates, but who’s counting?”

Pulitzer-Prize winning American playwright David Mamet staged his political coming-out party in the Village Voice in an article titled, David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’. Mamet rejects his former cynical attitude, saying: “This is, to me, the synthesis of this worldview with which I now found myself disenchanted: that everything is always wrong.”

Mamet then wrote a book titled, The Secret Knowledge, On the Dismantling of American Culture (video). Here he delivers a gem: “Liberalism is a religion. Its tenets cannot be proved, its capacity for waste and destruction demonstrated.” Mamet claims that Liberal Rednecks don’t understand their opposition because they never take the time to absorb any information they don’t already believe. An article about Mamet from the Wall Street Journal said this:

    Before he moved to California, Mr. Mamet had never met a self-described conservative or read one’s writings. He’d never heard of Messrs. Sowell or Steele. “No one on the left has,” he tells me. “I realized I lived in this bubble.”

    When it popped, it was rough. “I did what I thought was, if not a legitimate, then at least a usual, thing‚ I took it out on those around me,” Mr. Mamet says wryly. It took “a long, long, long time and a lot of difficult thinking first to analyze, then change, some of my ideas.”

Interestingly, after a number of botched stories, the mainstream media is beginning to count the losses. CBS correspondent Scott Pelley recently stated: We’re Getting Big Stories Wrong, Over & Over Again’

Our house is on fire. These have been a bad few months for journalism,” he added. “We’re getting the big stories wrong, over and over again.

Perhaps if the mainstream media were not suffering from a terminal case of confirmation bias, these Liberal Rednecks would not be drowning in error? (Confirmation bias is a phenomenon wherein decision makers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis, and ignore or underweigh evidence that could disconfirm their hypothesis.)

III. Liberal Redneck Science

A classic example of Liberal Redneck Science is Global Warming. This “science” is the classic example of anecdotal mythology, placed into pseudo-scientific explanations, with no more real explanatory power than phrenology (explaining personality and character via skull shape). Despite the perpetual faked research regularly propping up Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW), Liberal Rednecks never consider this could be evidence of a falsified movement. (list of AGW hoaxed stories)

The UK Daily Mail published an article March 16, 2013 titled: The Great Green Con no. 1: The hard proof that finally shows global warming forecasts that are costing you billions were WRONG all along:

    ...irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed. This blows apart the ‘scientific basis’ for Britain reshaping its entire economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. These moves have already added ¬£100 a year to household energy bills. Academics are revising their views after acknowledging the miscalculation.

This information comes after a recent study found there has been no discernible increase in temperature for the last two decades: Twenty-year hiatus in rising temperatures has climate scientists puzzled. Yet this news has not stopped Liberal Rednecks from attacking “climate-deniers.” Eugene Robinson wrote this article in January, 2013: Is it hot enough for you?, stating:

    The climate change denialists—especially those who manipulate the data in transparently bogus ways to claim that warming has halted or even reversed course—have been silent, as one might expect. Sensible people accept the fact of warming, but many doubt that our dysfunctional political system can respond in any meaningful way.

In fact, some research shows the earth is cooling (Sorry Global Warming Alarmists, The Earth Is Cooling), which makes this year’s coldest Spring ever (After coldest Easter ever, spring is set to be chillier than winter) even more suprising.

Or consider this extraordinary religious conclusion, when atheist physicist Stephen Hawking curiously explained the Big Bang needed no Big Banger, “...caricaturing the religious position with the myth of an African tribe whose god vomited the Sun, Moon and stars.” He then added: “‘What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing Hell for people who asked such questions?”

Unsurprisingly, after visiting Iran he now has decided to boycott Israel for Palestine.

The issue here is not whether a person can take a position upon a controversial topic, and then claim their belief is supported by science. The real issue is whether these same people are willing to look at the data which seems to disagree with their views, or if they would ever change their minds on the subject. If not, they might be a Liberal Redneck!

IV. Liberal Redneck Reaction to Unbelievers

Liberal Rednecks have absolutely no tolerance for those who disagree with their opinions. This is because Liberal Rednecks think their own beliefs define reality. Here is world-class Liberal Redneck Bill Maher commenting upon the Tea Party:

    Now that they’ve finished reading the Constitution out loud, the tea baggers must call out that group of elitist liberals whose values are so antithetical to theirs. I’m talking of course about the founding fathers. I think it’s pretty clear that the founding fathers would have hated your guts and what’s more, you would have hated them. They were everything you despise. They studied science, read Plato, hung out in Paris, and thought the Bible was mostly BS.

In an even more bizarre tirade, the world’s richest capitalist, Bill Gates, lays waste to the goose that delivered his ($67 billion) golden eggs, saying:

    Capitalism means that there is much more research into male baldness than there is into diseases such as malaria, which mostly affect poor people. Our priorities are tilted by marketplace imperatives. The malaria vaccine in humanist terms is the biggest need. But it gets virtually no funding…it’s a flaw in the pure capitalistic approach.

What makes Gates’ comments even more interesting is that, according to Tracy Kidder in Soul of a New Machine, Gates made his company the world’s largest by predatory business practices. And who could forget Obama’s comments about Conservatives?

    And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

V. Liberal Redneck Komedy—Janeane Garofalo

Actress, comedienne, and Liberal Redneck Janeane Garofalo recently discovered she needed a divorce, since her drunken, gag wedding in Las Vegas 20 years ago was determined to be a real wedding. This fits in with her obsession with explaining Conservative views by claiming they emanate from the limbic “lizard” brain center. She also insulted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a black man too stupid to know he’s being prostituted by his white masters.

Explain that one to me now, you have an African American gentlemen married to a white woman who is in cahoots with a group that has a lot of racists in it. Is that Stockholm Syndrome on his part or what’s going on?

Doubling down on her obsession with Black Conservatives, Garofalo claimed Herman Cain was a paid stooge:

    Herman Cain is in this presidential race because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party certainly. In the last 30 years the Republican party has been moving more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more. Gay-baiting more. Religion-baiting more. But, Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like ‘I love that, that can’t be racist. He’s a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.’ Or ‘it’s a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It’s a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.’

Garofalo then comments upon “pathological” limbic brain dysfunction of Conservatives:

    And you know, you can tell these type of right wingers anything and they’ll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become—it’s like showing Frankenstein’s monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile. That guy, causing them feelings they don’t know, because their limbic brain, we’ve discussed this before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist, the limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person, and it’s pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring.

Conclusion

Liberal Rednecks are a growing segment of a society run by mindless elites, who—in lacking any substantive education or training in logic or debate, feel as if they were born under politically correct star, effortlessly purifying all their beliefs. The question is—Can we survive this holier-than-Mao, brain-addled class? God save us from the deranged Janeane Garofalos of this world, and their limbic brained analysis.

Kelly O’Connell hosts American Anthem on CFP Radio Sundays at 4 pm (EST).

Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico. Kelly is now host of a daily, Monday to Friday talk show at AM KOBE called AM Las Cruces w/Kelly O’Connell

An excellent PDF document regarding We The People and the Progressives!
http://wethepeoplehq.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/WTP_Vol1_Episode3.pdf

THE ESTABLISHMENT

First, we will discuss the "Establishment", as many of us so commonly hear.
Other articles of importance to this subject will be coming later.

THE ESTABLISHMENT
By Mangus Colorado

The entire political world and all the citizens have believed that this mystical power
called the ESTABLISHMENT runs the world of Governments from behind the Wizards
curtain. Let us look and try to identify what people and groups make up this
“establishment” thing.

It starts in the cities and counties around the nation and is then broken into many
groups called parties but it is just two major parties that control the power of selecting
those that will be elected to local offices like - school boards, city councils, county
commissions, Sheriffs, and Judges. This works its ways by forming candidate selection
groups which meet with citizens to recruit them to run for office. Many times there
might be numerous people seeking that office so a primary election is required to select
one for the general election. The process now gets nasty and biased as it is necessary to
reunite the various groups that backed other candidates - losers are often very angry
and it is difficult to gain their support.

When this happens many accuse the winner to have been selected by the
"ESTABLISHMENT PARTY LEADERS." Clearly the selection process was an open and
fair primary election and voting by people that know the candidates in most cases so
how could the BACKROOM people be picking the candidate? Next, we now go the State
elections and again in the Legislature elections, most will come from lower office or
from civic leaders. Yes, the parties recruit the candidates that they feel can be elected
and that represents their values. There is more than one person seeking each office so
again, there is a primary election. This election covers more area and therefore requires
considerable monies to promote the candidate; this in itself can limit the selection as
those that cannot raise the required money will fail.

In State Legislature races it is possible for the candidate to literally go door to door
meeting every voter in the district. This candidate can win and defeat the money
candidate. Now we go to the next level which is the Constitutional offices - Governor,
Secretary of State, Treasurer Attorney General and other offices as some States might
elect. Again many would say incorrectly that these candidates are picked by the
establishment, as most come from lower offices or are a person that is very active in
civic projects on a local and State level.

These offices require a very organized professional managed campaign which means
that the candidate must be capable of raising significant money to pay salaries, ad
costs, printing, mailing, polling, tracking, and building a grassroots group in each
district. They must have the support in the general election of the County Central
committees and the State Central committee. Each of the major parties have this
structure and it is a very powerful support network but it is not some tight group in a
back room [establishment]. All of the positions in the Central committee are filled by
local elections so anyone that is active and works hard can become a member.
A large percentage of the population do not understand the political structure so they
attempt to create complicated scary backroom super powerful deal makers picking out
the winners and the losers. Nothing could be further from the truth than that. Many
candidates have been active members of the County and State central committees for
years so they are well known and can secure a wide range of support from people that
have seen them perform for years.

It becomes apparent that our Constitutions at the State and Federal levels direct our
election processes. In the past many people were called “king makers” as they controlled
the Media and Newspapers - there was no electronic media or WWW to get
information to the masses [millions of voters]. These were the days of a real
ESTABLISHMENT for very few could win a State wide or National office without the
entire party machine being placed behind that candidate.

What has replaced this backroom power in the political world? It is the Lobbyist, the
Unions, the Associations, the Main Stream Media and the Churches. Look at the
amount of money being spent in the current Presidential election - several billion by
most estimates. This means that each candidate is dependent on special interest groups
and the financial support of the millions of individuals. Money is the mother’s milk of
politics and surely it makes the world go around. Is it then fair to say that moneyed
interests have an unfair advantage?

No, each candidate has the ability to build coalitions to provide financial assistance and
the money does not flow to only one party. Many associations and even some Unions
give to both sides as they want to insure that they can speak to which ever person is
elected. Again, we see that there is no set system and no set ESTABLISHMENT that
controls the flow of donations to candidates. All of the general election candidates have
had significant money available if they can prove to be even close in the polls. If one
looks at the campaign accounts of many elected officials like Senator Reid, Senator
McCain, and many members in the House have multi-millions in their reelection funds
- they commonly use these monies to buy power from those they help.

Yes - the ESTABLISHMENT IS DEAD, but the influence of money and prestige is not.
Those that have acquired seniority hold special positions in the system. They are the
chairmen of powerful committees that control where money is spent. They set the rules
and regulations for businesses and Unions. Budgets are made by one committee. So,
yes there is a power structure in place and it many times works behind closed doors. If
one want to fault the system it would be the seniority system that is the ESTABLISHMENT
as it makes the Senators and House members unequal - the longer you are there, the
more power you possess.

The most likely way to end these abuses of power is for 38 State Legislatures to hold an
Article V State convention to amend the Constitution. To return the powers and rights
to the States and to the people; the 14th, 16th and 17th amendments must be revoked
while forcing the Courts back to the limits of Article III and no powers not expressly
stated in the words and meanings of the day. The Executive has the Sword, the
Legislature has the Purse and the courts hold sway over neither. The courts were
designed to be weak and not capable of creating Law from the bench - they could only
say yea or nay and on only limited items as stated in the Constitution. All other powers
are reserved for the States and the people.
To summarize the above, there is no functioning Establishment anymore but power is
now just usurped by all levels of government. That means that they have stolen the
powers guaranteed to the PEOPLE and used them to limit freedoms and liberties. In
effect, the various governments have become the ESTABLISHMENT which is run by
BUREAUCRATS not Republicans or Democrats. Just look at the excess of the EPA and
other agencies that have applied to the PEOPLE and our businesses.

MODERN PROGRESSIVES

Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are living in the twilight of democracy. We have begun the decent into darkness -where the sunlight will struggle to even penetrate.

In the west there is a plant called 'leafy spurge'. It has a pleasant enough stem and an attractive flower. To view it from a distance, many find it attractive and quite pretty. It consumes the soil where it roots. It chokes out all of the other living plants and takes over where it resides. It soaks up all the nutrient and the sunshine. It thirstily drinks all of the water. It spreads like a disease.
Its seeds fly and disperse in the wind and it thrives near the waterways so that it can fall into the flow and travel far past its original plot.

The Progressives began their first planting of thought and theology in the early 1900's in our Country. They have patiently nurtured, quietly spread, hid when necessary and have now found the environment for complete abandon after 100 years of establishment and deeply rooted branching out.

Please read and study the following. They sincerely hope that you won't. How can we resist what we cannot/will not see. How can you identify the flowering plant among the entire flower garden that is the Judas in the bloom.
By showing, knowing, looking and identifying the noxious weed.

Look at the Constitution that we love. The first 10 amendments are under open attack. The 2nd, and the 4th which completely involves the 1st in a House vote just tis week. The 10th is already neutered. If we loose the first 10 amendments what is left? We have 13-15-19-21 and 26 that address any individual rights. Even in Socialist countries elections are had-the choices on what to vote for are defined. Socialist and communists enjoy their drink and their young persons can certainly fight in their wars, slavery is practiced only in the most hidden methods or phycological and insidious socio-economic forms. What is left is the spurge of the 14-16 and 17 amendments and the lesser that grow-feed and sustain the growth and expansion of centralized federal government. The lesser would again serve as limits if 14-16-and 17 were removed.

Un -attended and un-challenged 'The spurge' has nearly won the garden. Passers by looking at Liberty's garden see the bright and beautiful ' other colors of a flowering republic scattered with increasing sparsity among the tall yellow growth. From afar they may think our garden beautiful, the small offerings of other color seem to somehow define and set apart the yellow. Once the other colors are choked out...the beautiful part will be truly gone. We will have a country of bland where only one color will be allowed to grow and that single flower will be all that exists in the garden. Where is the beauty of color-if only one color is all that there is? A garden is only,truly a garden, when the plants of honest purpose and fruitfulness which offer sustenance or succor are allowed to grow...and the weeds are pulled and left for their entire plant and vital roots to dry and shrivel in the sunlight.

Friends allow me to introduce you to and help you to identify the 'leafy spurge' of our Nation.
Please read the full report. There are tremendous leads in the following information that you can continue to follow and research for yourself.

**WHAT DO “PROGRESSIVES” Believe- Commonweal Institute
www.commonwealinstitute.org/cw/files/Trounstine_What_Do... · PDF file

A report for the Commonweal Institute prepared by Trounstine Research Associates.” WHAT DO “PROGRESSIVES” BELIEVE?
JESSICA T. ROUNSTINE, PH.D. (28 pg. report)

**NEW PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE
Platform
http://newprogs.org/platform

**http://www.progressiveleaders.org/aboutus/goalsvalues.htm
Center For Progressive Leadership - About Us
Our vision......

**list of liberal think tanks
http://think-tanks.findthedata.org

Liberal Think Tanks
Find and compare Liberal Think Tanks based on political affiliation, contributions, revenue, year founded, revenue, expenses, and directors.

The intended 2020 Constitution appears in this thread. This is just a highlight of the research available to all. As we Continually ask...please, please, please ALWAYS think-study-and research FOR YOURSELF. USE YOUR MIND...

They are in full bloom the Progressive Spurge, their deep roots and spreading plants operate fully in the sunlight of America. They have thrived and sustained to nearly the full of their potential, in the environment that they seek to destroy.
Thank you for taking the time to study and read. Where we go from here depends entirely on who will make the effort to do so.

From afar what may deceptively look to a casual observer 'beautiful'...upon closer inspection, is a garden over-run by a destructive growth; desperately in need of strong backs, determined and gloved hands, and an exacting hoe. The spurge can be removed-the 28th amendment is the 'tool' to effectively free us from the flowering spread of socialism and communist theory. It restores the soil and the garden where liberty once bloomed in all its bright ad shining color.

Progressive Plans for Our Constitution!

In researching for our site we seek to find information and conversation pertinent to the current political views expressed in our society today, as they reflect the opinions and the standing of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Our project: http://articlevprojecttorestoreliberty.com
and the proposed 28th Amendment-20 words-that call for repeal of the 14th-16th and 17th Amendments, sole purpose is to restore the original intent of the Framers of Constitutional representative government- our Republic.

Our research came upon the following. We are well aware of the critics of the Article V process and the fear tactics that they employ to seek to dissuade persons from investigation or knowledgable pursuit of Article V. We call it simply the con/con theory.

I would offer this thought concerning those criticisms. If you love and respect the document, let it stand on it's own truth and exercise it's own power. Article V is the process left to us by the Founders to address the governmental crisis we face today. The con/con fear is that the document would/could face danger to it's entirety. Read the following and then tell us that that danger is not already being realized, by our doing nothing. Look at the intention of the persons of progressive theology and their plans for the document in the future.

Presentation-Sanford Levinson
Why Political Progressives Need to Think About the Entire Constitution

By Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School, and Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.

I am immensely grateful to be invited to discuss my new book, Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance, to the readers of ACSblog.

I have crafted these comments in a way that highlights what may be an important difference between my take on the Constitution and that of many of my friends in the ACS. Although many, perhaps most of us, share the perception that the contemporary United States is increasingly caught in a “crisis of governance,” attention tends to be addressed at the defects of particular leaders, including, of course, the present majority of the United States Supreme Court.

There is much with which I agree in the vision of The Constitution in 2020 set out in the book co-edited by my friends and casebook co-editors Jack Balkin and Reva Siegel.

However, I believe that we cannot begin to diagnose the causes of our crisis by focusing only on what I call the Constitution of Conversation. It can also be described as the litigatedConstitution, and it is litigated precisely because

clever lawyers are highly skilled in demonstrating that the indeterminate language of, say, the Commerce or Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, can be used to support a constitutional vision congruent with the collective goals of the lawyers’ clients or perhaps the lawyers themselves (if they are “cause lawyers”).

In any event, these conversations are known to all of us, and we see them being spelled out particularly passionately with regard to the Affordable Care Act.

But the most important political realities of the Affordable Care Act are first that it took literally more than a half century to pass after initial proposals by Harry Truman and, secondly, that it is a defective bill in many respects with regard genuinely to getting a handle on the costs of a modern medical system.

To explain these realities requires no conversation about the “meaning” of the Constitution. Rather, it requires addressing too-often-ignored “civics class” features of the United States Constitution. How does a bill become a law (or, more practically, why do most legislative proposals have only a snowballs chance in hell of being passed)?

The answer lies in the almost insurmountable hurdles set up by the particular American system of bicameralism and the opportunity of presidents to veto any legislation they do not like on policy grounds, with the near impossibility of overrides.

I will rejoice when the Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Care Act, as I still think is likely. But it should also be recognized that what the Court will be doing, at best, is saying that a mediocre, albeit necessary, piece of legislation is constitutional if it can run the minefield against progressive legislation established in 1787 and left remarkably unchanged since then.

That is the importance of looking at the basic “framing” of the Constitution and the assumptions underlying it. It was designed by people who were basically mistrustful of popular democracy and, more particularly, redistributive legislation. They succeeded quite well in creating a political system that stifles both.

Moreover, the book looks at the constitutions of the 50 states, almost all of which differ in extremely interesting ways from the national constitution. All but Delaware’s, for example, include at least some element of direct democracy, whereas the national Constitution is committed exclusively to representative democracy.

All of the state constitutions include some elements of “positive rights,” the most important example being education. Each and every state constitution is easier to amend than the national constitution. Fourteen state constitutions allow the electorate at regular intervals to vote whether to have a new state constitutional convention.

Each and every state follows the rule of “one-person/one vote” established by the Supreme Court in 1964 instead of tolerating the sheer absurdity of an institution like the national Senate and its grant of equal representation to Wyoming and California, Vermont and Texas.

Most state judges in the United States are elected—and have limited tenure in office—as distinguished from the national practice of appointed judges (with Senate confirmation) and tenure until death.

A century ago, political progressives were well aware of the deficiencies of the national Constitution and put great effort into such amendments as the 16th, 17th, and 19thamendments.

Today, that kind of “constitutional imagination,” which requires that one attend to the seemingly dull and boring “structural Constitution”— what I call the Constitution of Settlement — is almost completely absent as we devote almost literally all of our time and attention to the Constitution of Conversation.

My deepest hope is that members of the ACS will realized that serious discussion of The Constitution in 2020 should include how it might be necessary to transform basic constitutional structures if we are ever going to achieve the progressive changes in national policy that most of us support. [end comments of Mr. Levinson]

Conclusion:
Yes, they have done the Constitutional Republic in already - the legislature does as it pleases, the executive does as he pleases and the Courts take away individual and States rights - so in effect the entire Constitution is gone they are just connecting the dots. Did you note the part on the 14th amendment ?

With all of the multiple Constitutions in play...once they have their 2020 version...the original will no longer exist...the nea-sayers need to wake up and smell the coffee...doing nothing will re-write the original more surely than any fear of any 'convention' of any imagination would be able to do! A dear friend to our project has said to us ....not to decide...is to decide. Friends we can no longer afford the time we spend to debate or not to act. Not to act will surely mean the death of the Constitution as we know and love it. The enemies of the document have surely chosen to decide that, they speak openly, publically, and proudly of their intention.

footnote:
In his widely acclaimed volume Our Undemocratic Constitution, Sanford Levinson boldly argued that our Constitution should not be treated with "sanctimonious reverence," but as a badly flawed document deserving revision. Now Levinson takes us deeper, asking what were the original assumptions underlying our institutions, and whether we accept those assumptions 225 years later.

Overview of Framed.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/framed-sanford-levinson/1110771922?...
In Framed, Levinson challenges our belief that the most important features of our constitutions concern what rights they protect. Instead, he focuses on the fundamental procedures of governance such as congressional bicameralism; the selection of the President by the electoral college, or the dimensions of the President's veto power—not to mention the near impossibility of amending the United States Constitution. These seemingly "settled" and "hardwired" structures contribute to the now almost universally recognized "dysfunctionality" of American politics.

Levinson argues that we should stop treating the United States Constitution as uniquely exemplifying the American constitutional tradition. We should be aware of the 50 state constitutions, often interestingly different—and perhaps better—than the national model. Many states have updated their constitutions by frequent amendment or by complete replacement via state constitutional conventions. California's ungovernable condition has prompted serious calls for a constitutional convention. This constant churn indicates that basic law often reaches the point where it fails and becomes obsolete. Given the experience of so many states, he writes, surely it is reasonable to believe that the U.S. Constitution merits its own updating.

Whether we are concerned about making America more genuinely democratic or only about creating a system of government that can more effectively respond to contemporary challenges, we must confront the ways our constitutions, especially the United States Constitution, must be changed in fundamental ways. and its grant of equal representation to Wyoming and California, Vermont and Texas.

Most state judges in the United States are elected—and have limited tenure in office—as distinguished from the national practice of appointed judges (with Senate confirmation) and tenure until death.

A century ago, political progressives were well aware of the deficiencies of the national Constitution and put great effort into such amendments as the 16th, 17th, and 19thamendments.

Today, that kind of “constitutional imagination,” which requires that one attend to the seemingly dull and boring “structural Constitution”— what I call the Constitution of Settlement — is almost completely absent as we devote almost literally all of our time and attention to the Constitution of Conversation.

My deepest hope is that members of the ACS will realized that serious discussion of The Constitution in 2020 should include how it might be necessary to transform basic constitutional structures if we are ever going to achieve the progressive changes in national policy that most of us support.

PROGRESSIVES

Most of the down hill slide on American Freedoms, States rights, and Liberty Started with Teddy Roosevelt - a Republican PROGRESSIVE - then was furthered with Wilson and increased by FDR. The final blows to our Freedoms and Liberties came from LBJ and the War on Poverty - the GREAT SOCIETY . . every Congress and every President since then has added Liberty destroying laws - the EPA, IRS, DOE, FDA, Clean Air and water Act, limits on land use, locking up natural resources. Regulating foods, paint, farming, driving, flying, shipping [Jones act = must be UNION ship], Davis Bacon Act [Requires Union pay on all government construction sites].

It is not the parties it is the desire for more and more power from all of the POLITICAL CLASS - stop passing new laws that can not and will not be enforced. Gun controls are silly it a nut case wants to kill nothing but a well placed piece of lead will stop them. The problem can not be stopped a new law against criminals - they are already criminals so what is going to keep guns out of their hands - answer - NOTHING.

1912 PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM - WHAT THE MODERN PROGRESSIVE IS ABOUT?

This will show all what Progressive really have in mind for America and our way of life. They accomplished a lot of their goals; they are still fighting for some items. Pay attention to the fact that they want to make it easier for the Constitution to be changed {by general vote as in a true Democracy?]

Progressive Platform of 1912

The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national problems, has called into being a new party, born of the nation’s sense of justice. We of the Progressive party here dedicate ourselves to the fulfillment of the duty laid upon us by our fathers to maintain the government of the people, by the people and for the people whose foundations they laid.

We hold with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that the people are the masters of their Constitution, to fulfill its purposes and to safeguard it from those who, by perversion of its intent, would convert it into an instrument of injustice. In accordance with the needs of each generation the people must use their sovereign powers to establish and maintain equal opportunity and industrial justice, to secure which this Government was founded and without which no republic can endure.

This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.

It is time to set the public welfare in the first place.

THE OLD PARTIES
Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.
From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.
Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE
This declaration is our covenant with the people, and we hereby bind the party and its candidates in State and Nation to the pledges made herein.

THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE
The National Progressive party, committed to the principles of government by a self-controlled democracy expressing its will through representatives of the people, pledges itself to secure such alterations in the fundamental law of the several States and of the United States as shall insure the representative character of the government.

In particular, the party declares for direct primaries for the nomination of State and National officers, for nation-wide preferential primaries for candidates for the presidency; for the direct election of United States Senators by the people; and we urge on the States the policy of the short ballot, with responsibility to the people secured by the initiative, referendum and recall.

AMENDMENT OF CONSTITUTION
The Progressive party, believing that a free people should have the power from time to time to amend their fundamental law so as to adapt it progressively to the changing needs of the people, pledges itself to provide a more easy and expeditious method of amending the Federal Constitution.

NATION AND STATE
Up to the limit of the Constitution, and later by amendment of the Constitution, it found necessary, we advocate bringing under effective national jurisdiction those problems which have expanded beyond reach of the individual States.

It is as grotesque as it is intolerable that the several States should by unequal laws in matter of common concern become competing commercial agencies, barter the lives of their children, the health of their women and the safety and well-being of their working people for the benefit of their financial interests.

The extreme insistence on States’ rights by the Democratic party in the Baltimore platform demonstrates anew its inability to understand the world into which it has survived or to administer the affairs of a union of States which have in all essential respects become one people.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE
The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denies political rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.

CORRUPT PRACTICES
We pledge our party to legislation that will compel strict limitation of all campaign contributions and expenditures, and detailed publicity of both before as well as after primaries and elections.

PUBLICITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE
We pledge our party to legislation compelling the registration of lobbyists; publicity of committee hearings except on foreign affairs, and recording of all votes in committee; and forbidding federal appointees from holding office in State or National political organizations, or taking part as officers or delegates in political conventions for the nomination of elective State or National officials.

THE COURTS
The Progressive party demands such restriction of the power of the courts as shall leave to the people the ultimate authority to determine fundamental questions of social welfare and public policy. To secure this end, it pledges itself to provide:

1. That when an Act, passed under the police power of the State is held unconstitutional under the State Constitution, by the courts, the people, after an ample interval for deliberation, shall have an opportunity to vote on the question whether they desire the Act to become law, notwithstanding such decision.
2. That every decision of the highest appellate court of a State declaring an Act of the Legislature unconstitutional on the ground of its violation of the Federal Constitution shall be subject to the same review by the Supreme Court of the United States as is now accorded to decisions sustaining such legislation.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
The Progressive party, in order to secure to the people a better administration of justice and by that means to bring about a more general respect for the law and the courts, pledges itself to work unceasingly for the reform of legal procedure and judicial methods.

We believe that the issuance of injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes should be prohibited when such injunctions would not apply when no labor disputes existed.

We also believe that a person cited for contempt in labor disputes, except when such contempt was committed in the actual presence of the court or so near thereto as to interfere with the proper administration of justice, should have a right to trial by jury.

SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE
The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for:

Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects incident to modern industry;
The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including the Federal Control over interstate commerce, and the taxing power, to maintain such standards;
The prohibition of child labor; Minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a "living wage" in all industrial occupations; The general prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an eight hour day for women and young persons; One day’s rest in seven for all wage workers; The eight hour day in continuous twenty-four hour industries; The abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; and the application of prisoners’ earnings to the support of their dependent families; Publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products; Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community; The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use; The development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuation schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools; The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers; We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
We pledge our party to establish a department of labor with a seat in the cabinet, and with wide jurisdiction over matters affecting the conditions of labor and living.

COUNTRY LIFE
The development and prosperity of country life are as important to the people who live in the cities as they are to the farmers. Increase of prosperity on the farm will favorably affect the cost of living, and promote the interests of all who dwell in the country, and all who depend upon its products for clothing, shelter and food.

We pledge our party to foster the development of agricultural credit and co-operation, the teaching of agriculture in schools, agricultural college extension, the use of mechanical power on the farm, and to re-establish the Country Life Commission, thus directly promoting the welfare of the farmers, and bringing the benefits of better farming, better business and better living within their reach.

HIGH COST OF LIVING
The high cost of living is due partly to worldwide and partly to local causes; partly to natural and partly to artificial causes. The measures proposed in this platform on various subjects such as the tariff, the trusts and conservation, will of themselves remove the artificial causes.

There will remain other elements such as the tendency to leave the country for the city, waste, extravagance, bad system of taxation, poor methods of raising crops and bad business methods in marketing crops.

To remedy these conditions requires the fullest information and based on this information, effective government supervision and control to remove all the artificial causes. We pledge ourselves to such full and immediate inquiry and to immediate action to deal with every need such inquiry discloses.

HEALTH
We favor the union of all the existing agencies of the Federal Government dealing with the public health into a single national health service without discrimination against or for any one set of therapeutic methods, school of medicine, or school of healing with such additional powers as may be necessary to enable it to perform efficiently such duties in the protection of the public from preventable diseases as may be properly undertaken by the Federal authorities, including the executing of existing laws regarding pure food, quarantine and cognate subjects, the promotion of vital statistics and the extension of the registration area of such statistics, and co-operation with the health activities of the various States and cities of the Nation.

BUSINESS
We believe that true popular government, justice and prosperity go hand in hand, and, so believing, it is our purpose to secure that large measure of general prosperity which is the fruit of legitimate and honest business, fostered by equal justice and by sound progressive laws.
We demand that the test of true prosperity shall be the benefits conferred thereby on all the citizens, not confined to individuals or classes, and that the test of corporate efficiency shall be the ability better to serve the public; that those who profit by control of business affairs shall justify that profit and that control by sharing with the public the fruits thereof.

We therefore demand a strong National regulation of inter-State corporations. The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The concentration of modem business, in some degree, is both inevitable and necessary for national and international business efficiency. But the existing concentration of vast wealth under a corporate system, unguarded and uncontrolled by the Nation, has placed in the hands of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible power over the daily life of the citizen; a power insufferable in a free Government and certain of abuse.

This power has been abused, in monopoly of National resources, in stock watering, in unfair competition and unfair privileges, and finally in sinister influences on the public agencies of State and Nation. We do not fear commercial power, but we insist that it shall be exercised openly, under publicity, supervision and regulation of the most efficient sort, which will preserve its good while eradicating and preventing its ill.

To that end we urge the establishment of a strong Federal administrative commission of high standing, which shall maintain permanent active supervision over industrial corporations engaged in inter-State commerce, or such of them as are of public importance, doing for them what the Government now does for the National banks, and what is now done for the railroads by the Inter-State Commerce Commission.

Such a commission must enforce the complete publicity of those corporation transactions which are of public interest; must attack unfair competition, false capitalization and special privilege, and by continuous trained watchfulness guard and keep open equally all the highways of American commerce.

Thus the business man will have certain knowledge of the law, and will be able to conduct his business easily in conformity therewith; the investor will find security for his capital; dividends will be rendered more certain, and the savings of the people will be drawn naturally and safely into the channels of trade.

Under such a system of constructive regulation, legitimate business, freed from confusion, uncertainty and fruitless litigation will develop normally in response to the energy and enterprise of the American business man.

We favor strengthening the Sherman Law by prohibiting agreement to divide territory or limit output; refusing to sell to customers who buy from business rivals; to sell below cost in certain areas while maintaining higher prices in other places; using the power of transportation to aid or injure special business concerns; and other unfair trade practices.

PATENTS
We pledge ourselves to the enactment of a patent law which will make it impossible for patents to be suppressed or used against the public welfare in the interests of injurious monopolies.

INTER-STATE COMMERCE COMMISSION
We pledge our party to secure to the Inter-State Commerce Commission the power to value the physical property of railroads. In order that the power of the commission to protect the people may not be impaired or destroyed, we demand the abolition of the Commerce Court.

CURRENCY
We believe there exists imperative need for prompt legislation for the improvement of our National currency system. We believe the present method of issuing notes through private agencies is harmful and unscientific.

The issue of currency is fundamentally a Government function and the system should have as basic principles soundness and elasticity. The control should be lodged with the Government and should be protected from domination or manipulation by Wall Street or any special interests.

We are opposed to the so-called Aldrich currency bill, because its provisions would place our currency and credit system in private hands, not subject to effective public control.

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The time has come when the Federal Government should co-operate with manufacturers and producers in extending our foreign commerce. To this end we demand adequate appropriations by Congress, and the appointment of diplomatic and consular officers solely with a view to their special fitness and worth, and not in consideration of political expediency.

It is imperative to the welfare of our people that we enlarge and extend our foreign commerce.
In every way possible our Federal Government should co-operate in this important matter. Germany’s policy of co-operation between government and business has, in comparatively few years, made that nation a leading competitor for the commerce of the world.

CONSERVATION
The natural resources of the Nation must be promptly developed and generously used to supply the people’s needs, but we cannot safely allow them to be wasted, exploited, monopolized or controlled against the general good. We heartily favor the policy of conservation, and we pledge our party to protect the National forests without hindering their legitimate use for the benefit of all the people.

Agricultural lands in the National forests are, and should remain, open to the genuine settler. Conservation will not retard legitimate development. The honest settler must receive his patent promptly, without hindrance, rules or delays.

We believe that the remaining forests, coal and oil lands, water powers and other natural resources still in State or National control (except agricultural lands) are more likely to be wisely conserved and utilized for the general welfare if held in the public hands.

In order that consumers and producers, managers and workmen, now and hereafter, need not pay toll to private monopolies of power and raw material, we demand that such resources shall be retained by the State or Nation, and opened to immediate use under laws which will encourage development and make to the people a moderate return for benefits conferred.

In particular we pledge our party to require reasonable compensation to the public for water power rights hereafter granted by the public.

We pledge legislation to lease the public grazing lands under equitable provisions now pending which will increase the production of food for the people and thoroughly safeguard the rights of the actual homemaker. Natural resources, whose conservation is necessary for the National welfare, should be owned or controlled by the Nation.

GOOD ROADS
We recognize the vital importance of good roads and we pledge our party to foster their extension in every proper way, and we favor the early construction of National highways. We also favor the extension of the rural free delivery service.

ALASKA
The coal and other natural resources of Alaska should be opened to development at once. They are owned by the people of the United States, and are safe from monopoly, waste or destruction only while so owned.

We demand that they shall neither be sold nor given away, except under the Homestead Law, but while held in Government ownership shall be opened to use promptly upon liberal terms requiring immediate development.

Thus the benefit of cheap fuel will accrue to the Government of the United States and to the people of Alaska and the Pacific Coast; the settlement of extensive agricultural lands will be hastened; the extermination of the salmon will be prevented and the just and wise development of Alaskan resources will take the place of private extortion or monopoly.

We demand also that extortion or monopoly in transportation shall be prevented by the prompt acquisition, construction or improvement by the Government of such railroads, harbor and other facilities for transportation as the welfare of the people may demand.

We promise the people of the Territory of Alaska the same measure of legal self-government that was given to other American territories, and that Federal officials appointed there shall be qualified by previous bona-fide residence in the Territory.

WATERWAYS
The rivers of the United States are the natural arteries of this continent. We demand that they shall be opened to traffic as indispensable parts of a great Nation-wide system of transportation, in which the Panama Canal will be the central link, thus enabling the whole interior of the United States to share with the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards in the benefit derived from the canal.

It is a National obligation to develop our rivers, and especially the Mississippi and its tributaries, without delay, under a comprehensive general plan covering each river system from its source to its mouth, designed to secure its highest usefulness for navigation, irrigation, domestic supply, water power and the prevention of floods.

We pledge our party to the immediate preparation of such a plan, which should be made and carried out in close and friendly co-operation between the Nation, the States and the cities affected.

Under such a plan, the destructive floods of the Mississippi and other streams, which represent a vast and needless loss to the Nation, would be controlled by forest conservation and water storage at the headwaters, and by levees below; land sufficient to support millions of people would be reclaimed from the deserts and the swamps, water power enough to transform the industrial standings of whole States would be developed, adequate water terminals would be provided, transportation by river would revive, and the railroads would be compelled to co-operate as freely with the boat lines as with each other.

The equipment, organization and experience acquired in constructing the Panama Canal soon will be available for the Lakes-to-the-Gulf deep waterway and other portions of this great work, and should be utilized by the Nation in co-operation with the various States, at the lowest net cost to the people.

PANAMA CANAL
The Panama Canal, built and paid for by the American people, must be used primarily for their benefit.

We demand that the canal shall be so operated as to break the transportation monopoly now held and misused by the transcontinental railroads by maintaining sea competition with them; that ships directly or indirectly owned or controlled by American railroad corporations shall not be permitted to use the canal, and that American ships engaged in coastwise trade shall pay no tolls.

The Progressive party will favor legislation having for its aim the development of friendship and commerce between the United States and Latin-American nations.

TARIFF
We believe in a protective tariff which shall equalize conditions of competition between the United States and foreign countries, both for the farmer and the manufacturer, and which shall maintain for labor an adequate standard of living.

Primarily the benefit of any tariff should be disclosed in the pay envelope of the laborer. We declare that no industry deserves protection which is unfair to labor or which is operating in violation of Federal law. We believe that the presumption is always in favor of the consuming public.

We demand tariff revision because the present tariff is unjust to the people of the United States. Fair dealing toward the people requires an immediate downward revision of those schedules wherein duties are shown to be unjust or excessive.

We pledge ourselves to the establishment of a non-partisan scientific tariff commission, reporting both to the President and to either branch of Congress, which shall report, first, as to the costs of production, efficiency of labor, capitalization, industrial organization and efficiency and the general competitive position in this country and abroad of industries seeking protection from Congress; second, as to the revenue producing power of the tariff and its relation to the resources of Government; and, third, as to the effect of the tariff on prices, operations of middlemen, and on the purchasing power of the consumer.

We believe that this commission should have plenary power to elicit information, and for this purpose to prescribe a uniform system of accounting for the great protected industries. The work of the commission should not prevent the immediate adoption of acts reducing these schedules generally recognized as excessive.

We condemn the Payne-Aldrich bill as unjust to the people. The Republican organization is in the hands of those who have broken, and cannot again be trusted to keep, the promise of necessary downward revision.

The Democratic party is committed to the destruction of the protective system through a tariff for revenue only a policy which would inevitably produce widespread industrial and commercial disaster.

We demand the immediate repeal of the Canadian Reciprocity Act.

INHERITANCE AND INCOME TAX
We believe in a graduated inheritance tax as a National means of equalizing the obligations of holders of property to Government, and we hereby pledge our party to enact such a Federal law as will tax large inheritances, returning to the States an equitable percentage of all amounts collected.

We favor the ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution giving the Government power to levy an income tax.

PEACE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
The Progressive party deplores the survival in our civilization of the barbaric system of warfare among nations with its enormous waste of resources even in time of peace, and the consequent impoverishment of the life of the toiling masses. We pledge the party to use its best endeavors to substitute judicial and other peaceful means of settling international differences.

We favor an international agreement for the limitation of naval forces. Pending such an agreement, and as the best means of preserving peace, we pledge ourselves to maintain for the present the policy of building two battleships a year.

TREATY RIGHTS
We pledge our party to protect the rights of American citizenship at home and abroad. No treaty should receive the sanction of our Government which discriminates between American citizens because of birthplace, race, or religion, or that does not recognize the absolute right of expatriation.

THE IMMIGRANT
Through the establishment of industrial standards we propose to secure to the able-bodied immigrant and to his native fellow workers a larger share of American opportunity.
We denounce the fatal policy of indifference and neglect which has left our enormous immigrant population to become the prey of chance and cupidity.

We favor Governmental action to encourage the distribution of immigrants away from the congested cities, to rigidly supervise all private agencies dealing with them and to promote their assimilation, education and advancement.

PENSIONS
We pledge ourselves to a wise and just policy of pensioning American soldiers and sailors and their widows and children by the Federal Government. And we approve the policy of the southern States in granting pensions to the ex-Confederate soldiers and sailors and their widows and children.

PARCEL POST
We pledge our party to the immediate creation of a parcel post, with rates proportionate to distance and service.

CIVIL SERVICE
We condemn the violations of the Civil Service Law under the present administration, including the coercion and assessment of subordinate employees, and the President’s refusal to punish such violation after a finding of guilty by his own commission; his distribution of patronage among subservient congressmen, while withholding it from those who refuse support of administration measures; his withdrawal of nominations from the Senate until political support for himself was secured, and his open use of the offices to reward those who voted for his re-nomination.
To eradicate these abuses, we demand not only the enforcement of the civil service act in letter and spirit, but also legislation which will bring under the competitive system postmasters, collectors, marshals, and all other non-political officers, as well as the enactment of an equitable retirement law, and we also insist upon continuous service during good behavior and efficiency.

GOVERNMENT BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
We pledge our party to readjustment of the business methods of the National Government and a proper co-ordination of the Federal bureaus, which will increase the economy and efficiency of the Government service, prevent duplications, and secure better results to the taxpayers for every dollar expended.

GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION OVER INVESTMENTS
The people of the United States are swindled out of many millions of dollars every year, through worthless investments. The plain people, the wage earner and the men and women with small savings, have no way of knowing the merit of concerns sending out highly colored prospectuses offering stock for sale, prospectuses that make big returns seem certain and fortunes easily within grasp.

We hold it to be the duty of the Government to protect its people from this kind of piracy. We, therefore, demand wise, carefully thought out legislation that will give us such Governmental supervision over this matter as will furnish to the people of the United States this much-needed protection, and we pledge ourselves thereto.

CONCLUSION
On these principles and on the recognized desirability of uniting the Progressive forces of the Nation into an organization which shall unequivocally represent the Progressive spirit and policy we appeal for the support of all American citizens, without regard to previous political affiliations.

Additional Note:
Pay attention to Madison's words used when describing PROPERTY
Amendment 5 - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life...; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

It would seem certain that money is property and income is money so therefore - using a variable rate "progressive" system is a clear violation of the "TAKING CLAUSE"
The act of government taking for redistribution would require them paying "JUST COMPENSATION." This would clearly end income tax as we know it. Another reason for repealing the 16th amendment.

Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. To guard a man’s house as his castle, to pay public and enforce private debts with the most exact faith, can give no title to invade a man’s conscience, which is more sacred than his castle, or to withhold from it that debt of protection for which the public faith is pledged by the very nature and original conditions of the social pact. – “Property” in The National Gazette (29 March 1792) James Madison
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. – Annals of Congress (1794-01-10) James Madison

SOURCE LINK For Additional Note:

http://api.ning.com/files/ZwIi6Kh8TRM8S9mWCh1jVDneJsVihpTmHoGWsswEE8isCZvgMo*Eoq-Lf1mDDCZsdpjIKFnuZprxCRGglBKzAKSSL40sAh-X/1792MadisononProperty.pdf