The 8 Pillars of Society:
The Center Party Platform will be built around what we consider to be the ‘8 Pillars’ of Society. These are the areas in which the Federal Government should have the most oversight. (Please note, we wrote this in 2019):
1. Planet: Taking care of our planet, our ecosystems and our environment should be our #1 priority. Severe weather and natural disasters due to climate change are literally killing people, ruining lives and destroying communities and businesses. Not to mention costing taxpayers billions to clean up. We take no joy in pointing out that somewhat ironically – much of the damage happens in the gulf states and the midwest, where there’s a lot of climate change denial and a lot of belief in God. Isn’t God showing us something? So come on Big Energy executives who control puppet politicians, think of the world you want to leave for your children and grandchildren. And for God’s sake – listen to the scientists!
The Center Party will support ALL legislation that helps our environment, protects our planet and creates new green jobs and industries. This is urgent – but as with anything that has a drastic impact on so many industries that employ large numbers of people – this needs to be done in a PHASED, MANAGED, COMMON sense way.
2. Health: The second most important area of focus should be the health of our population. This includes not only physical health but our mental health. There are people with money, platforms and unfortunately influence who have serious mental health problems. Mental health issues cause crime, mass shootings, ignorance and the spreading of hate – among other things. Our Health as a nation also includes our Protection – not only from our enemies but from ourselves. So this includes ensuring we have the strongest military on the planet. It also includes ensuring the only people with military weapons are – the military. Yes, everyone has the right to bear arms – for hunting, self defense, shooting targets. But no individual needs an arsenal of assault weapons, extended magazines, silencers, and other modifications designed specifically to kill large numbers of people quickly. Guns should be like cars – own one or two – or a collection if you want – but use them responsibly. And register them and pay taxes and insurance on them. Guns need to be divided into three categories – Personal Protection, Hunting and Military. The first two civilians can own.
Healthcare IS a right, and should be WAY easier and more affordable than it is. But that doesn’t mean it should be FREE and the TAXPAYERS should pay for all of it. Because like any other government handout – it will be poorly regulated, inefficiently managed and as a result – taken advantage of. Some democrats are selling the unrealistic dream that the government will pay for all healthcare. So what happens to the hundreds of thousands of people who work for health insurance companies? When the healthcare companies (pharmaceutical, medical device, private care) profits are slashed – what happens to all the people laid off? So again, the lower cost of healthcare and improved access to healthcare needs to be done in a phased, managed, responsible way that doesn’t shock the system and put many people out of work.
3. Parenting: Once we ensure we have a healthy planet and a healthy population, we need to ensure our children are raised properly so they grow up to be productive citizens with the common good in mind. There are far too many people with wealth, power or influence who are ruining our country due to ignorance, selfishness, greed, corruption, weakness, and a lack of basic morality. This almost always traces back to two things – how they were raised and what they were taught in school (which is why education is our next pillar). So one area in which we’d be more than happy for our taxpayer money to go towards is BUILDING STRONG PARENTS. This includes programs and incentives to encourage two-parent households, parental education and most importantly parental READINESS. Teenagers who are not mentally ready to raise children should not be having children. People without the financial means to raise children should not be having children. Mentally ill people should not be having children. Our country needs to invest in solid parenting because it affects so many other things – crime, mental health, drug abuse, ignorance, laziness – among other things. Taxpayer dollars are spent to combat these things after it’s too late – starting when the children are teenagers. Whey not combat them at the root cause – before they even start – by ensuring children are brought into this world by two loving, responsible, educated parents. Think of all the problems that would solve!
4. Education:
“I believe the children are our future,
Teach them well and let them lead the way.” – Whitney Houston, 1985
That will be true to the end of time. Improper education, lack of education, and ignorance are HUGE problems in our society right now. Ask any successful person – and they will be able to tell you about a teacher or a school that had a profound impact on them. However we have an education crisis in America: teachers are grossly underpaid, public schools are severely lacking in funding, curricula and methods are antiquated, students aren’t getting trained for today’s jobs and they wind up with a mountain of debt. Although in general we believe in smaller government – this is ONE OF THE AREAS that’s too important to cut back on, in fact – we need need to make more of an investment in this area that leads to higher paid teachers, better funded public schools, and more affordable continuing education that will train our workforce for today’s jobs.
However education is beyond just learning and training. It’s also about gaining experiences and hearing things from different viewpoints. A lack of that – primarily in rural America – perpetuates the massive ignorance problem in this country. When we look at the people at a Trump rally, or Fox News viewers – and think about the 40% who still support him – we can’t help but think – How were they raised? Where did they go to high school? Did they go to college? The data shows that the majority of Trump supporters are rural, older, white, non college-educated, religious males. Either that or they are extremely wealthy. But in either case you can’t blame them. People are products of their environment. Blame how they were raised, how they were taught and how they are informed. Once they hit about 16 the ignorance locomotive is on the tracks and won’t be derailed until they get to college. And if they don’t go – it’s all she wrote. They will watch Fox News, surround themselves by people like them, stay mad at the ‘libs’ (without really knowing what they’re mad at) and nothing anyone says will penetrate through. It starts in childhood, and in school. We need to make education a priority in this country.
5. Infrastructure – we hear about it every day – our ‘infrastructure is crumbling’. This is an absolute CRISIS in our country right now. Roads are too narrow, bridges and tunnels are too old, public transportation is completely inadequate and way too expensive. If people are stuck in traffic, afraid to go over bridges and can’t get from A to B without paying an arm and a leg and it taking forever, people stay home, work from home and have everything delivered. That’s bad for the economy, and bad for humanity and social progress. EVERYONE agrees it’s a problem yet nothing ever gets done at a federal level. Europe, Asia, and cities in the Middle East are blowing us away in terms of infrastructure. Investing in it will create jobs, enable people to be more productive and happier AND it will help the environment. It is mind-bending that Washington can’t get anything done on this.
6. Wealth – one of the few socialist concepts we agree with is that all Americans need a certain basic wealth level to thrive in society, and we all need the OPPORTUNITY to achieve wealth. The wealth GAP and the OPPORTUNITY GAP in our country are huge problems. Trickle down economics doesn’t work because it never trickles down, it never has. When rich people don’t distribute wealth downward it creates a nation of broke, frustrated and angry people – who then have to count on the Government. Some rich people possess the ability to be fascinatingly contradicting. Their standpoint is – pay workers less, tax us less, and cut back on government programs. Then they can’t figure out why there’s crime, illness, drug use and mental health problems and a nation of angry people who want change. Why is there an army of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren supporters? Ironically you created them, rich people, by keeping all the money and furthering the opportunity gap. And rural voters – when your job is replaced by robotics or moved off shore, or when your factory or farm can’t sell your products because of American protectionist policies, you will count on the very socialist ideas you now condemn. The bottom line is, everybody should have the opportunity to make a living and get rich. But let’s flatten out the wealth distribution in this country so we have happy, healthy and productive citizens. Look at the happiness index. Look where we are – #18. Really? You think that’s because we don’t have $400 in the bank but hedge fund managers and tech start up nerds have billions?
7. Freedom – America was founded on freedom – but right now – we don’t have it. The Government is too big and controls too much. There is too much religion in government. Although the 2018 mid-terms were a huge step in the right direction, there are still too many old, white, men in power. Right now in this country – they are the only group that truly has freedom. Women, minorities, and transgender people don’t have the same freedoms. Women need to be able to make choices about their body without government interference. Minorities need to be able to go about their day without running into racism, bias and prejudice (and that works both ways – someone who ISN’T racist shouldn’t be ‘guilty until proven innocent’). There should be no bias in law enforcement, the courts, and the criminal justice system. LBGTQ people should have the same rights as everyone else. So when you hear in the national anthem ‘Land of the Free’ – our nation will actually be close to that. Right now different people have different levels of free. It’s adding to the anger and division in this country and it’s got to change. It starts with parents, educators, leaders and yes the government.
8. Justice – last but not least – the final of the 8 pillars is creating a just society. The word just literally means ‘based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.’ The problem in our nation right now is that we’ve got such drastically different viewpoints of what is ‘right and fair’. Pro life people think it’s right and fair to deny women the right to get an abortion because it’s against THEIR religious beliefs. Republicans who support the president think it’s right and fair to separate children from their parents at the border, and treat them inhumanely. To ban ALL Muslims from entering our nation. To call certain nations ‘shitholes’, because of the race of their residents. To give someone years in prison for holding a bag of weed, meanwhile a pedophile hedge fund manager gets a nothing sentence. Anyone remember the ‘pledge of allegiance’ we used to say in school?
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Think about that today. We’re practically the opposite of that. We’re barely a republic, we are completely divided, and there definitely is not liberty and justice for all. We have a lot of work to do America. Lets start by creating a unifying party that will balance to Washington and get things done…