Howard Phillips
INVEST YOUR VOTE IN HOWARD PHILLIPS
AND THE CONSTITUTION PARTY
July 18, 2000

The most significant fact about the Year 2000 Presidential election is that it prepares the ground for historic political changes in 2004.

In this century, three Presidents in particular Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson have successfully launched fundamental assaults on America's heritage of Constitutional liberty. None of their successors altered the course on which these Presidents directed us.

Neither Harding, Coolidge nor Hoover undid the damage done during the Wilson presidency. Eisenhower consolidated and extended the systems put in place under FDR's New Deal and carried forward the institutional policies of the Truman presidency.

When Richard Nixon became President, instead of challenging the neo-Marxist revolutionary agenda of LBJ's Great Society, he consolidated it and extended it, while providing increased funding for its activities.

Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton all operated in the context of LBJ's Gramsci-esque political reality which was, in essence, a Federally funded war on the Constitution, on the culture, on the military, on traditional educational policy, and on the family.

Instead of e pluribus unum, America has become "a house divided", with its citizens defined on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.

A runaway Supreme Court has, without serious challenge, asserted legislative claims never intended or granted by the Framers. Religious liberty has been assaulted, respect for the sanctity of human life has been abandoned, local control of crime has been undermined, and private property rights have been jeopardized.

During this century particularly, Congress has failed to adhere to the stipulation in Article I, Section 1 that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States".

Control over policy and resources has been surrendered to bureaucracies domestic and foreign, to Federally funded non-profit corporations, to the Federal Reserve, to the judiciary, to regulatory agencies, and to the usurpations of Presidents who unconstitutionally claim authority to legislate and rule by Executive Order, Presidential Directive, Executive Agreement, and States of Emergency.

Leaders in both parties in Congress have accepted the premise that government has the right to control the practice of private medicine and the provision of health care, to restrict our right to keep and bear arms, to seize land and resources that the Constitution reserves to the states and the people, and to tax us for purposes beyond those permitted in the document which they, by oath, are sworn to uphold.

Rising popular discontent with things as they have become is manifested in various ways. Environmentalists and socialists, as well as those simply concerned about fascistic alliances between Big Business and Big Government, have become impatient with the Democratic Party and have been attracted by the candidacy of Ralph Nader.

On the right, disgust with the supremely corrupt presidency of Bill Clinton has caused many otherwise sensible Christian and conservative leaders to lower their standards and embrace the presidential candidacy of Governor George W. Bush in order to prevent the election of Mr. Clinton's Vice President, Al Gore.

The abominable record of Bill, Hillary, and Al is the reason why Governor Bush will, in all likelihood, be elected President this coming November.

Certainly, Christians and conservatives would look elsewhere if they based their conclusions on a comparison of the policy positions held jointly by Mr. Bush and his Congressional allies, on the one hand, and the Clinton-Gore team on the other:

permanent Most-Favored-Nation status for Communist China, abandonment of the U.S. military presence in Panama, perpetual U.S. intervention in Kosovo and Bosnia, support for the World Trade Organization and NAFTA, continuation of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Legal Services Corporation, expansion of the Federal role in education, more gun control, more socialized medicine, more subsidies to Planned Parenthood and Gay Men's Health Crisis, expansion of foreign aid to include a $1.3 billion intervention in Colombia's no-win war, a $17.9 billion bailout of the International Monetary Fund, U.S. troops under foreign command, expansion of NATO, payment of phony debts to the United Nations, confirmation of and support for Supreme Court Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and John Paul Stevens.

On all of these issues, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore, Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, Trent Lott, and Thomas Daschle are agreed.

The most significant statistic is, perhaps, the fact that since the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994 they have increased Federal taxes and spending (in league with the Democrats) by nearly 50%, up from about $1.4 trillion in 1994 to about $2 trillion today.

It took 207 years to reach the $1.4 trillion level, but it took the Congressional Republicans fewer than 6 years to expand the role and size of the Federal government in American society by another $600 billion annually.

It is tempting to complain about the lack of media coverage given to my Presidential candidacy particularly, and, to some degree, the limited coverage assigned to Harry Browne, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader, and John Hagelin the other non-establishment candidates for President who will be on the ballot in states representing more than a majority of the electoral college.

It is also telling to point out the unconstitutionality and inequity of the massive Federal treasury subsidies of roughly $100 million apiece awarded to the Democrats and Republicans (as well as the $15.1 million from which the Reform Party benefits this year) as explanation for "third party" weakness and establishment party strength.

But the real reason for the pro-Bush dynamic of the Year 2000 election is the overriding disgust with Bill Clinton and the desire to end the Clinton era.

Moreover, America's permanent power structure needs a pretty new face to mask ugly old policies.

That is the reason "Dubya" is the clear favorite.

Once disgust with Clinton is, a few years hence, superseded by a new political reality, with Dubya having been in office for one, two, or three years, sensible conservatives and Christians will discern that, in GWB, they have installed Clintonism without Clinton.

Governor Bush will lead us ever more stoutly into the New World Order. He will preside in virtually every respect over a continuation and expansion of his predecessor's policies.

If neither Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, nor George H.W. Bush had the wit and the will to reverse the policies of Wilson, FDR, and LBJ, why should we expect Governor Bush to do more? He reflects the defeatist willingness of too many American conservatives to "lose as slowly as possible".

Dubya will preside over America's ongoing slide down the slippery slope with a smile on his face and establishment advisers on each arm. There will be more "affirmative action", more illegal immigration, more taxes and spending, more accommodation of Red China, and more Federal assaults on our civil liberties.

When all of that sinks in, a significant portion of those who have provided Mr. Bush and other Republicans with their electoral margins of victory will at last conclude "enough is enough". The question then becomes, where will they go politically? Where will they turn?

My friend, Pat Buchanan, fervently hopes that disgruntled Republicans will leave the Big Tent and join the Big Zoo of the Reform Party. Pat seeks salvation through Federal subsidies. That's why, he told me personally, he sought the Reform Party nomination rather than to go with the Constitution Party whose principles far more nearly correspond to those which Pat, over the years, espoused, than does the anti-Constitutional populism of Ross Perot's political creation.

But, as the saying goes, those who live by the sword die by the sword. Pat has had hopes that he would do so well this year that, instead of having a mere $12.6 or $15.1 million to sustain his candidacy, in the year 2004 he could look forward to Federal subsidies of $50 million or more to Buchanan Incorporated.

At this writing, it seems possible that the Reform Party will not qualify for any Federal subsidies at all in 2004, because, under the law, if its Presidential nominee receives less than 5% of the vote, it gets zero money from the Federal treasury.

As a matter of core principle, the Constitution Party neither seeks nor accepts Federal subsidies. We agree with Jefferson that "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Liberty of conscience is fundamental to our platform.

In office, we intend to cut off all U.S. treasury funds for the propagation of ideas. We oppose Federal subsidies to promote homosexuality, to promote abortion, to promote pornography, to promote environmentalism, to promote particular educational prejudices, as well as subsidies to require American citizens to involuntarily subsidize political candidates with whom they may disagree (as is now the case as the result of the Federal Election Law amendments of 1974).

We don't wish to be labeled hypocrites, and, so that we may restore Constitutional government with clean hands, we have resisted the temptation of putting our hands into the Federal cookie jar. That makes it more difficult for us in the short run, but it will enable us to be more effective in the long term.

The key purpose of my Presidential candidacy is to lay the groundwork for the success of the Constitution Party in 2004 as an available instrument for those who wish to limit the Federal government to its delegated, enumerated Constitutional powers and restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical, common law foundations, by ending Federal interference with state and local lawmaking.

Recognizing that Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution assures that no funds shall be disbursed from the Federal treasury without either a Presidentially signed Congressional appropriation, or a Congressionally overridden Presidential veto, we will use our Constitutional veto authority to end the Federal role in education, close down Great Society programs, withdraw from the institutions of the New World Order, and abolish the IRS.

We will build support for our policy agenda by replacing the present system of direct taxation on American citizens with a revenue regimen based on the design of the Framers, which was duties, excises, imposts and apportionment among the states.

In other words, we will end the income tax, the capital gains tax, the inheritance tax, the gift tax, the Social Security tax, and taxes on business activity, securing necessary revenues through a revenue tariff on foreign products, and excise taxes on non-essential goods and services.

We have run the numbers and can derive from these sources more than the $500 billion which may be needed to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare of the U.S., in the manner stipulated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

We will strengthen our defenses by withdrawing the assignment of our ordnance and manpower to the United Nations and NATO.

We will reverse the homosexualization and feminization of the military, and we will close down the kind of Federal Gestapo which we saw in operation in the kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez from the private home of law-abiding American citizens in Miami.

There are currently 45 Federal agencies which employ some 80,000 police empowered to dress up in camouflage costumes and use assault weapons against American citizens, as was done at Waco and Ruby Ridge, as well as in Miami. I share the Framers' concern about a standing army, and that will be ended.

We will revoke and rescind the unconstitutional Executive Orders and States of Emergency which have been promulgated by too many American Presidents, including FDR, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton.

We will promptly declare the ABM Treaty null and void, and deploy an effective strategic defense, criticism by our adversaries to the contrary notwithstanding.

Red Chinese influence in Panama will be challenged and a U.S. military presence will be restored.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution makes clear that no person may be deprived of life without due process of law. I will acknowledge that all human beings are "persons" from the moment of fertilization, with immortal souls imparted by Almighty God, and I will, accordingly, name U.S. Attorneys in every jurisdiction across the length and breadth of the nation for whom the Number One priority will be to prosecute abortuaries and abortionists who slaughter innocent human beings.

The Constitution stipulates that the Federal government may occupy land only to establish a Federal city and to aid the defense of the United States.

Despite this prohibition, the U.S. government controls nearly one-third of the nation's territory, and, in some states, more than 80%. Returning the land and resources of the nation to the states and the people, sufficient funds will be secured to pay off the national debt and fulfill commitments made through the Social Security and Medicare systems as we move toward full privatization.

Under our governance, Americans will once again be free, keeping all the money they earn to invest, spend, or save as they see fit. No longer will there be pressure on both spouses to work, so that one can support the family while the other supports the government.

Ideas which we fail to advocate are ideas which are lost to history. The Constitution Party is the party of America's Founders. It is the only party with which Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and George Mason would be comfortable were they alive today.

I am the only candidate for President this year who has ever headed a major department or agency of the Federal government.

As Director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, I presided over the multi-billion dollar Economic Opportunity Act which funded an estimated 500,000 full-time left-wing activists working through some 10,000 Federally subsidized non-profit corporations. There were, in addition, some 2,000 full-time bureaucrats theoretically reporting to me on the Federal payroll.

I know how the Federal government works, how the budget process works, and how Congress works. I am the only Federal executive who ever made a serious attempt to close down the bureaucracy and the expenditures over which he presided.

Unfortunately, Richard Nixon broke his word and, instead of terminating these Great Society programs by veto, he signed into law funding for their expansion.

The motto of the Republican Party has been "consensus, compromise, conciliation, and cooperation", the banner unfurled by Gerald Ford when he succeeded Nixon in 1974. But, just as in war you can't take a hill without putting your life at risk, in politics, you can't take a hill or win a victory without placing your political career at risk.

The Republican Party has consistently feared a bad press more than a bad result. They have surrendered the principle and merely argued about the details.

They talk about incrementalism and gradualism, but they have been incrementally, gradually, and steadily moving us in the wrong direction enacting the Brady bill without a single dissenting vote, passing the Dole-Kennedy-Kassebaum socialized medicine scheme without a single dissenting vote, and providing billions of dollars in subsidies to pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood, despite having pledged to act otherwise.

I urge you to reject "the lesser of two evils" and to vote for the greater good. The only vote you control is your own. I want to win the election in which you have the only vote. If I get your vote, I'll win that election. Every vote assigned to my candidacy and to the Constitution Party is a vote placed in escrow for the restoration of American liberty.

I can only deliver my message in those states where we will be on the ballot. At this writing, we are assured of ballot access in at least 35 states, and we have a fighting chance of gaining ballot access in an additional 10 states, if I can get the funds needed in the next week or two.

Ballot access rules are different in each state, but they are invariably costly and complex. I must raise a minimum of $100,000 this week or next, or risk losing ballot status in such key states as New York and Massachusetts.

For more information, check out my campaign website, www.Phillips2000.com the Constitution Party website, www.ConstitutionParty.com The Conservative Caucus website www.conservativeusa.org or mail me a check (payable to Phillips 2000) at 450 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, Virginia 22180.

Each individual may contribute as much as $2,000 apiece to Phillips 2000 ($1,000 for ballot access and $1,000 for general election expenditures).

If you are in a position to contribute more than $2,000, your gift of up to $20,000 may be directed to the ballot access account of the Constitution Party. Your check should be made payable to "Constitution Party/Ballot Access".

Since 1974, I have led The Conservative Caucus in battles to preserve the U.S. military presence in Panama, to deploy SDI, to defund the Left, to aid anti-Communist freedom fighters in Central America and southern Africa, to stop socialized medicine, and more.

I am the only person who testified against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice David Souter because of his record in New Hampshire changing the policies of two hospitals on whose boards he served from zero abortion to convenience abortion.

I similarly led efforts to reject the confirmation of Sandra Day O'Connor, who had a consistent pro-abortion voting record in the Arizona State Senate and of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who openly proclaimed her belief that the Supreme Court should in effect be a supreme legislature.

There is no one in America who has more consistently or comprehensively fought for the restoration of limited Constitutional government in the manner set forth by the nation's Founders.

I pray that you will not waste your vote, but that rather you will invest it in a candidate and a party which presents the hope of undoing decades of damage to our heritage of Constitutional liberty and restoring freedom for you and your family.

We must sow the seeds in the Year 2000 if we are to reap the harvest in 2004. Please join me.