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Conservative manifesto coming soon
Politico ^

Posted on 02/12/2010 10:47:56 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Conservative manifesto coming soon By: Kenneth P. Vogel February 12, 2010 12:54 PM EST

With conservatives grappling among themselves for control of their movement — and the Republican Party — a group of more than 80 prominent conservative thinkers are set to unveil their version of a mission statement for the right.

What they are calling “the Mount Vernon Statement” in homage to George Washington will be unveiled and signed Wednesday — on the eve of the annual gathering in Washington of the establishment right, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The big names attached to it include former Attorney General Ed Meese, Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, Media Research Center leader Brent Bozell, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, which is putting on CPAC, among others.

Organizers would not immediately make the text of the statement available, but they billed it as the next generation of the 1960 “Sharon Statement.” That document, produced by a group of young conservative intellectuals including William F. Buckley Jr. and taking its name from Buckley’s Connecticut hometown, helped define the conservative movement for years.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2010midterms; conservatives; cpac; grovernorquist; heritagefoundation; norquist; notconservative
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To: Reagan Man
Our "manifesto":

America's Independent Party Constitution and Platform

Constitution

As free citizens of the United States and founders of America’s Independent Party, we stand in agreement with the founders of our American Republic. Following their example, we declare to the world that our first governmental premise is the self-evident truth that our rights to life, liberty and private property come from our Creator God and are therefore unalienable. With those patriots, we understand that just government can only exist by the consent of the governed.

Our pledge, individually and corporately, is to seek to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will diligently work to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, and thereby fulfill the stated purposes of the Constitution of the United States and this organization.

In recognition of the multitude of ways in which our nation’s leaders have departed from America’s founding principles, we hereby petition local, state and federal government for redress of such grievances, with the urgent imperative demand that each and every officer of government henceforth faithfully perform their sworn duty to defend innocent human life and constitutional republican governance.

Our work is dedicated to our God; to all the patriots who came before us in self-sacrifice for liberty; to all of those who now faithfully serve our country; and to the posterity that will enjoy the blessed fruit of all their labors.

Together, as Americans, let us find the principled grounds for cooperation that will allow us to fully restore moral government of, by and for the people.

E pluribus unum.

Platform

Preface

America's Independent Party has as its goal the return of our nation to a set of foundational principles. We call them "America's Principles." The word "principle" comes from a Latin root that means "first things." America's Principles are the "first things" that our country should consider in all of our domestic and foreign policies.

America's Independent Party recognizes that these "first things" are clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

However, we also believe that there is room for debate over prudential policy matters within certain parameters of fundamental American political thought and a framework of ordered liberty. We seek a return to an approach to government that facilitates that respectful and necessary debate, but that never compromises the moral premises that made this country great.

Our civic duties

Though in civic terms we call ourselves "Independent," we fully acknowledge our utter dependence, as individuals and as a nation, on Almighty God and His divine Providence and Protection.

We also recognize, and seek to actively fulfill, our God-ordained obligations as individual citizens to the whole sovereign body of the people, as well as our responsibility to maintain standards of high moral character, both personally and in our public life.

Equal rights for our posterity

Because the stated ultimate purpose of the United States Constitution is "to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity," we recognize the personhood of all unborn children and their protection by the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments.

The right to life of all innocent persons, from fertilization to natural death, is God-given and unalienable. That is why we consider it to be a moral imperative to fully establish in law that Personhood is granted by our Creator to all human beings from the very beginning of their biological development.

For the principled man or woman, no compromise is possible concerning such a critical matter of life and death. We believe that violators of this supreme right, in words or actions, are unfit for any office of public trust, since any such violation constitutes the breaking of the oath of office and the ultimate destruction of the very basis of our liberty.

The “reason for being” of government, and of America’s Independent Party

The protection of the life, liberty, and private property of the people is the primary reason for the existence of human government, and more particularly, our precious American republican form of self-government. This is why we willingly accept no breach of the rights of the free exercise of religion, free speech, free press, free assembly, free association, and the right to petition government for the redress of grievances. We defend all of the enumerated rights listed in our Bill of Rights, and, in addition, all natural rights that are not enumerated, as per the Ninth Amendment.

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

The right of self-preservation and self-protection is inherent in all persons, communities and societies, which is why we fiercely defend the indispensable provisions of our Second Amendment. Liberty cannot be protected if the people have been stripped of the physical means of doing so.

Restoring limited government

We seek to restore the intended balance between the three separate branches of our government, and to strictly limit government to the Enumerated Powers granted and expressed by the will of the people of the United States in our Constitution.

All existing functions of the Executive branch that are outside of those Enumerated Powers must be eliminated.

All spending and regulation by the Legislative branch that lies outside the Enumerated Powers must cease.

Judges who attempt to legislate from the bench, or who abandon the clear principles of our Constitution, must be checked if liberty and justice are to prevail in our society once again.

We demand a return to adherence to the provisions of the Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Peace through Strength

We believe in a supremely strong, prepared, and well-equipped civilian-controlled United States military, and a bold, visionary and intelligent program of principled constructive engagement with the rest of the world. For us, "peace through strength" is not a mere slogan. It is the means of survival for our country in a very dangerous and often hostile world. Our friendship should be a sought-after possession of all men and women of good will everywhere in the world. Our enmity should be something that all rightfully fear.

As Ronald Reagan opposed and defeated the designs and desire of the Soviet Union to dominate the world and place it under the tyranny of their Evil Empire, we stand unalterably opposed to all who approve of, plan or commit terrorist acts. Since the first principle of America is the protection of innocent human life, any who would use acts of terrorism targeted at innocent civilians to forward their political, ideological or religious aims incur our effective and determined enmity.

Sovereignty

We completely oppose any action that surrenders the moral, political or economic sovereignty of the United States and its people, and demand the immediate restoration of that sovereignty wherever it has been eroded.

We demand the immediate securing and continuous vigilant maintenance of our sovereign territory and borders. We oppose any private or governmental action that rewards illegal entry into the United States in any way, and demand speedy and full enforcement of our laws concerning all such activities.

Repeal of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments

We consider the federal income tax to be destructive of our liberty, privacy, and prosperity. Therefore, we are working to bring about its complete elimination and the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We recommend that the current system be replaced by an equitable, simple, noninvasive, visible, efficient tax, one that does not destroy or even infringe upon our economic privacy and liberty.

We also call for the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment. Its enactment greatly reduced the power of our state legislatures and state governments – which are much closer to the people – and damaged our system of federalism.

Marriage and the natural family

We seek the passage of a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and oppose all attempts everywhere to redefine marriage as being anything but what it has always been: the union of one man and one woman. Since the natural family is the basic God-given institution of our civilization, and the nursery of our future, it must be protected from all who would destroy it.

America’s Principles work

America's Independent Party is a principled party, but it is also a practical party. We believe that America's Principles work whenever the people diligently put them into practice.

We invite all like-minded Americans to join with us in our fight to restore and protect Liberty.

Truly, this is intended to be AMERICA’S Independent Party.

Approved in Convention August 20, 2008

© 2008 America’s Independent Party

41 posted on 02/12/2010 11:51:46 AM PST by EternalVigilance (A vote for McCain is a vote for amnesty.)
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To: Sub-Driver

Most of this crowd appear to be part of the Republicrat Party....or am I missing something here?


42 posted on 02/12/2010 11:52:53 AM PST by mo
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To: Doomonyou
However, Levin said this about Romeny:

The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney.

And I guess Levin wanted to be fooled, which is never a good thing. I can see saying Romney isn't as bad as McCain, although that's like saying one skunk don't stink as bad as another. But Romney in no way or form shares most of our conservative principles, if you look at his history instead of what he is currently running for.

43 posted on 02/12/2010 11:55:51 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy
Agreed.

It's all relative, sometimes you have to go with the lesser of two evils.

44 posted on 02/12/2010 12:02:46 PM PST by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
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To: Doomonyou
It's all relative, sometimes you have to go with the lesser of two evils.

The motto of the modern Republican Party.

And folks wonder why the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

45 posted on 02/12/2010 12:05:12 PM PST by EternalVigilance (A vote for McCain is a vote for amnesty.)
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To: EternalVigilance
And folks wonder why the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

More and more folks appear to be waking up, we ain't to hell yet!

46 posted on 02/12/2010 12:14:25 PM PST by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: Recovering_Democrat
Will Sarah be there?

Unfortunately she would fit right in...arm and arm with McCain and Perry.

48 posted on 02/12/2010 2:02:42 PM PST by Prokopton
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To: Sub-Driver

I don’t get why everyone is complaining so much on this thread. You want all of these folks to NOT come up with a conservative manifesto? Why not?

Let them publish their work and then we’ll all see what it says. If it is a good manifesto then that’s great and we’ll all know it.

I think it might be helpful to have a widely disseminated, well-written, much-discussed distillation of conservative principles to organize around. Let’s use it in the primaries to get conservative nominees. Then use it in the general election to explain why folks should vote GOP. And then use it during the next Congress to guide the new GOP majority’s actions and determine who are RINOs that need a primary challenger next time.

What’s wrong with having a manifesto? The ‘Rat media are going to continue to portray us as the “party of no”. A manifesto could be a useful tool for countering this depiction.


49 posted on 02/12/2010 2:15:07 PM PST by rogue yam
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To: DallasSun; eeevil conservative

I’m not followin’ any document that ends in -o-!

Manifesto! Puh-h-h-l-e-e-e-e-z.

I’m not following a tea party contract , or a new Newt, either! I’m an American and I already have a document to follow. When November gets here...I’ll be following it.

What we already have is GREAT! We just need to pay attention to it!


50 posted on 02/12/2010 3:13:58 PM PST by daisy mae for the usa
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To: daisy mae for the usa

I agree. And it pains me to say so re: Newt. I was a huge Newt fan early on. He lost me a long time ago.


51 posted on 02/12/2010 3:16:25 PM PST by DallasSun (i believe in separation of church and hate.)
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To: Sub-Driver

Huh?

We have a conservative manifesto already.

We call it the U.S. Constitution.


52 posted on 02/12/2010 3:17:55 PM PST by Ronbo1948
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To: Sub-Driver; a fool in paradise
"Just hand out copies of the Constitution."

"Best idea so far......"

I'll second that! Some of these old Rino bulls could use a glance at it once in a while.

53 posted on 02/12/2010 3:24:51 PM PST by AuntB (WE are NOT a nation of immigrants! http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/)
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To: hennie pennie

Grover Norquist’s Strange Alliance With Radical Islam

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/561786/posts

Nothing with his name on it interests me even slightly...unless it’s a suicide note or a confession.


54 posted on 02/12/2010 3:25:29 PM PST by MestaMachine (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2426869/posts SUPPORT RINO FREE AMERICA)
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To: DallasSun

Funny how Newt became a lot more ‘moderate’ when he converted to Catholicism.


55 posted on 02/12/2010 3:25:35 PM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: Sub-Driver

We already have a Conservative Manifesto.

56 posted on 02/12/2010 3:27:29 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: jjotto

I had never put that together. Interesting. He also became more moderate when he got caught with his intern. Funny how he is not quite as self righteous and morally superior anymore.


57 posted on 02/12/2010 3:30:14 PM PST by DallasSun (i believe in separation of church and hate.)
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To: MestaMachine

Yep, I was so shocked when Aunt B started pointing me out to all the info about Grover Norquist.


58 posted on 02/12/2010 3:31:37 PM PST by hennie pennie
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To: AuntB

Here! Here!


59 posted on 02/12/2010 3:37:28 PM PST by daisy mae for the usa
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To: Sub-Driver

“Hey guys! Wherever you’re going, follow me! I’ll lead the way!”


60 posted on 02/12/2010 5:00:14 PM PST by gitmo (FR vs DU: n4mage vs DUmage)
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