Platform - Crime, "Social", and Other Issues
The Problem of Crime
The Current Condition:
Principles of the Independence Party:
The So-Called "Social Issues"
Other Issues
The Problem of Crime
The Current Condition:
Crime is a central issue threatening the family in New York State.
The statistics on the rising wave of violent crime appall those who remember a time when our communities were relatively safe from violence.
Neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party are in favor of crime, and neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to be perceived as soft on crime.
If either of the two parties had a "magic bullet" that would cure this problem, we would have heard about it long ago.
The reality is that neither party has proposed anything that approaches a solution to this problem, and both parties and their candidates are periodically guilty of absurd propaganda against the other in the pursuit of electoral advantage on this issue.
Principles of the Independence Party:
The Independence Party has not yet developed a full blown set of positions on the issue of crime, but we can enunciate some principles that will guide the development of these proposals over the next few months:
- Try as much as possible to keep non-violent criminals out of prison, using various forms of rigorous public service as an alternative to incarceration.
- Reduce the ability of parole boards to release criminals who committed or threatened violence in the commission of their crimes.
- Develop options for dealing with excessively unruly and disruptive youth that takes them out of the school system where they injure the educational possibilities for other children.
- Sharply increase the penalties for the use of a weapon in the commission of a crime.
- Use taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to support efforts aimed at preventing children from using any drug, including cigarettes and alcohol.
- Put more police services into communities, close to the people they protect.
- lncrease the number of police personnel who are recruited from among the racial and ethnic minorities.
Regardless of any opportunity to do so, the Independence Party will not practice the kind of cruel propaganda practiced so frequently by the other parties on the issue of crime.
We will not offer "magic solutions" that might win votes, but would not improve the conditions.
We will not accuse the other parties of "softness on crime." Every reasonable person in this state wishes crime could be reduced.
The way to reduce crime is to make it less of a partisan issue and more of a community issue.
The So-Called "Social Issues"
There are a number of issues promoted by the existing parties which we in the Independence Party believe have no place as party issues.
These issues are largely a matter of one's own personal ethical or moral standards,
and we believe that candidates should be permitted to state their positions on these issues without the party attempting to dictate the position for the individual.
Moreover, we further believe that efforts by outside groups to dictate policies for the parties on these issues have proven extremely destructive to the
overall political process by diverting attention away from the deterioration of our democracy and the impending financial catastrophe facing our children.
For these reasons, the Independence Party will take no formal position on the issue of abortion, the death penalty, or school prayer.
On the whole, as well, the Party takes no position on questions pertaining to one's sexual preference.
However, the Independence Party stands steadfastly opposed to discrimination, prejudice,
and racism in their myriad of forms, and we do not believe that anyone should be discriminated against on the basis of his or her sexual preference.
Other Issues
The Independence Party is in the process of considering other issues of consequence,
and the Party will issue position statements from time to time when a consensus is reached within the Party on an issue.
However, this should not obscure the fact that the Independence Party has a very Specific program of political and fiscal reform that constitutes the top agenda of the Party.
Unlike the other parties, we have a core set of issues that form the basis for our very existence, and we are recruiting both candidates and supporters primarily around this core.
We believe that unless we restore political and fiscal integrity to our politics that the other issues won't matter very much.
Moreover, the outcomes of these other issues will -- without substantial reform --
be dictated by the very same large interests that currently distort all of our priorities, using power they gain through their ability to support incumbents in the electoral process.
lf you agree with our views, we urge you to join the Independence Party, making your own contribution to the restoration of our democracy and our children's financial future.
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