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Americans are being brainwashed to believe that what's holding things back is some huge struggle between Republicans and Democrats, producing gridlock. Nearer the truth is that the two parties are both dominated by the same special interests and Big Money. They're two sides of the same coin; they give merely the illusion of choice.

Part of their racket is to constantly demonize the other party. By inflaming passions, they keep everybody's eye off the ball. In this climate they collude to pass massive corporate bailouts, and to conduct wars without debate and without goals.

Americans have been lied to continually about Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars have devastated the American economy, morale, and way of life. It's time to reclaim our country. The first step is to end the wars. Then, when we can see clearly again, we can address our domestic challenges.

The Republican/Democrat duopoly is keeping the important issues off the table. However many relevant ideas are presented by third parties. Before the 2008 election, I reviewed and summarized the platforms of the major third parties. I then looked for recurring themes, or what we could call core issues. Let's stop wasting time arguing, back-biting, and finger-pointing, and get on with the business of the country. To begin we should look at these core issues.

• Core Issues
  

• Third Party Summaries

Core Issues

In reviewing the platforms of these major third parties, I was struck by the fact that there are good ideas out there. The problem seems to be that each party has a few good ideas, along with (in my personal opinion) some pretty bad ones. Thus, for example, the Socialist party wants a 30-hour work week (good!), but, well, they also want socialism. What would clearly be nice is if we could cull all the good ideas from the various parties, and implement only those, without the bad policies.

One suspects that what this reveals is something basic to how political parties operate -- that they attempt to form a coalition of support by patching together a bunch of policies each of which caters to a different special interest group. Perhaps this is the basic obstacle we've got to overcome. It's presently a paradox: unless these coalitions are built, we don't get third parties. But the price we pay is having, within each party, some unappealing or unrealistic policies.

I think there are alternatives. Eventually we might move to a true electronic democracy, where government will be determined more by popular vote on specific issues, instead of us having to go through the intermediaries of political parties.

In any case, here is a list of the some of the more interesting or promising items:

• End the wars!
• Require (per Constitution) Congressional declaration to conduct foreign wars
• Sustainable environment and economy
• Elminate long commuting as a way of life
• Term limits
• Tax reform (flat tax or fair tax)
• Remove barriers to third-party and independent candidates
• Voting reform (proportional representation, electronic democracy, voting by issue instead of candidate, etc.)
• Increase tax on alcohol and tobacco to reflect societal costs
• Prison reform (abolish privatized prisons, where prisoners work for corporate profit)

The last item deserves special comment. There has been a recent trend toward privatization of prisons, a system where private corporations run prisons -- for profit! This phenomenon has been justifiably referred to as the Prison-industrial complex. Prisoners work, for example, in prison factories, manufacturing goods for the corporation. These companies make billions of dollars a year. They compete unfairly in the marketplace, because they have, in effect, slave workers. More importantly, this system gives society an incentive to put people in jail, even for comparatively 'minor' drug-related offenses.

Why does the US has an incarceration rate five times higher than Europe, and ten times higher than Japan? And why is the rate for African-American males as much as ten times higher than that for Caucasian males? Americans should educate themselves about this problem. Otherwise, are we not like the Hitler-era Germans who unwittingly let the holocaust happen by failing to look at it?

There were also some issues I didn't see mentioned but I think should be:

• Rebuild America's transport railway infrastructure; we waste a lot of fossil fuel trucking produce and goods everywhere. Trains are much more energy-efficient.
• Do something to improve the quality of television; how about tax breaks for educational production companies?

Another observation is that one might question whether it is really necessary to involve so much religion in politics. It seems like we see ourselves as radically polarized along quasi-religious lines -- conservative vs. liberal -- and that this colors the larger political debate, obscures dimensions on which there is more agreement, and distracts us from solving some of the fairly obvious social problems that confront us.

Third Party Summaries

• Constitution Party
• Green Party
• Libertarian Party
• Prohibition Party
• Socialist Party
• Reform Party
• Peace and Freedom Party

Constitution Party

Domestic

• 'Pro-Life' (No abortion)
• Abolish Congressional pensions
• Prohibit 'riders' on Congressional bills
• No military conscription (draft)
• Balance budget / reduce deficit
• Supports capital punishment
• Election reform: end special 'Major Party' status
• Repeal Endangered Species Act
• 'Pro gun'
• Moratorium on immigration
• State rights
• End federal income tax

• No deployment of troops without formal declaration of war
• Military priority on self-defense, not intervention
• Quit the United Nations
• End foreign aid

Green Party

Domestic

• Political reform based on grass-roots participation
• Campaign reform
• Alternative voting systems (proportional voting)
• Better mass transportation
• Corporate tax reform (better enforcement)
• Call for equal representation of women in Congress
• Abortion rights
• Social equality (minorities, gender-equality, sexual orientation, indigenous people, mentally ill)
• Remove religious symbols from public buildings
• Prosecute environmental crimes
• Increased domestic spending

• Reduce militarism
• Phase out foreign military bases
• Support U.N. contraception programs
• Demilitarization of space
• More U.N. involvement
• Fair solution to Israel & Palestine issue

Libertarian Party

Domestic

• Challenge the 'cult of the omnipotent state'
• Reduce the dominance of government
• End censorship and all communication control
• 'Pro-gun'
• No conscription ('draft')
• 'Pro choice'
• Repeal laws that define marriage, or which give special tax or other benefits based on marital status
• Balanced Budget Amendment
• End corporate welfare
• De-prioritize 'victimless' crimes; repeal all anti-drug use laws

• No military intervention
• Simpler, fairer, more transparent immigration policy

Prohibition Party

Domestic

• Balanced budget
• Reduced taxes
• Return to gold-standard currency
• End employment and educational quotas
• Right of the unborn; ban 'partial-birth' abortions
• School vouchers (let's parents choose schools; supports educational competition)
• Right to prayer and Bibles in public schools
• End the two-party 'duopoly'; reforms aimed to end suppression of independent and third-party candidates
• Farm aid
• Maintain anti-drug abuse laws
• Increase taxes on alcohol to offset social costs
• Alcoholic beverages under jurisdiction of FDA

• Reduce foreign involvement
• End non-humanitarian foreign aid
• No interference in sovereignty of other nations
• Reduce immigration

Socialist Party USA

Domestic

• Transformation of capitalism through compassion
• New social order oriented to workers and communities
• Collective ownership of 'productive resources'
• Strengthen unions
• 30-hour work week with no loss of pay
• $15/hr minimum wage
• Eliminate corporate welfare
• More support for arts, artists, culture
• Enhance school programs (more music, foreign languages, etc.)
• Mandate smaller class sizes
• Rent control
• Promote mass transit, bicycles
• Public ownership of airline & pharmaceutical industries
• Public ownership of energy resources
• Right to assisted suicide
• Abolish FBI
• Public campaign financing, including alternative parties
• Prison reform; end prison labor for private profit

• Immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan
• Call for Israel's withdrawal from West Bank; end all U.S. aid to Israel
• Immediate 50% reduction of US military budget
• Pay debts to UN
• Constitutional amendment requiring binding vote of public before war
• Withdraw from international trade organizations (NAFTA, etc.)
• Cancel third-world debt
• De-militarize the US/Mexican border

Reform Party

Domestic

• Balance federal budget
• Reduce national debt
• End corporate welfare and special interest subsidies
• Reduce unnecessary federal programs
• Immigration reform (less immigration)
• Eliminate off-shore corporate tax havens
• Social security reform (encourage private accounts)
• Simplify tax system
• Term limits (2 terms Senate, 3 terms House)
• Environmental concern, sustainable lifestyle, alternative energy

• Reject use of military intervention and 'nation-builiding'
• More selective foreign aid (people-based, not corporate-based)

Peace and Freedom Party

Domestic

• Public ownership of industry and natural resources
• Right to work
• 30-hour work week, same pay
• minimum 4-weeks vacation
• End prison labor for private profit
• Right to strike (no replacement workers)
• Gender rights: equal pay for equal work
• Free abortion on demand
• 'Gay' rights: marriage, adoption, visitation privileges, etc.
• Improve environment with regional planning
• Community open spaces
• 'Massive' development of public transportation
• Tuition-free higher education available to all
• Rent control
• Public health care
• Election reform (proportional representation)
• Repeal sales tax

• No military intervention
• Stop arms exports
• Dissolve military pacts
• Abolish Selective Service System
• No weapons in space
• Open borders

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world" - Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe