Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Constitution Party on WELFARE

OK, y'all know my thoughts on the "welfare state." So, I thought I would add the Constitution Party's stance on welfare, from their platform. Like I said in my last post, I am just now starting to check out the Constitution Party. I am not saying that I have switched over. I am just saying that people should check them out. Since high school, I was raised to believe that third parties are fringe groups. From what I can tell, the Constitution Party is anything but. In fact if you are looking for true issues, as opposed to to cute/funny soundbites and snippets, this is where you need to look. I have yet to see any more detailed platform from any other party or candidate.

Welfare

God, who endows us with life, liberty, property, and the right to pursue happiness, also exhorts individuals to care for the needy, the sick, the homeless, the aged, and those who are otherwise unable to care for themselves.

America's welfare crisis is a government-induced crisis. Government social and cultural policies have undermined the work ethic, even as the government's economic and regulatory policies have undermined the ability of our citizens to obtain work.

Charity, and provision of welfare to those in need, is not a Constitutional responsibility of the federal government. Under no circumstances should the taxpayers of the United States be obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens. Neither should taxpayers be indentured to subsidize welfare for persons who enter the United States illegally.

The message of Christian charity is fundamentally at odds with the concept of welfare maintenance as a right. In many cases, welfare provisions by the Federal government are not only misdirected, but morally destructive. It is the intended purpose of civil government to safeguard life, liberty and property - not to redistribute wealth. Such redistribution is contrary to the Biblical command against theft.

We encourage individuals, families, churches, civic groups and other private organizations, to fulfill their personal responsibility to help those in need. [source] emphasis mine

I honestly think the reason that people don't check into the Constitution Party is that there is details. "Annoying" issues to read. It's not about identity politics, unless you identify with keeping government out of your life. There is so much of "it would be cool to have a woman president", "it would be cool to have a black president", "we must stand together to defeat the Clintons, regardless of the nominee", "we need to have a Christian president, regardless of what his ideas are, he must be a Christian, that is the most important thing." What would be cool, and what we need is to have government out of our lives.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the Constitution party (a.k.a. the U.S. Taxpayer's Party in Michigan), and if they ever have a chance of winning an election, our family would gladly support them! Having said that, you all should know that Ron Paul's beliefs are very close to the Constitution party, so if you don't like Ron Paul (and I do like him), you may not like the Constitution party. See this article here: http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=613