Coming out of a year that has left me ever less enamored of both our major political parties, their polarized and gridlocked behavior on Capitol Hill, their uninspiring candidates and ratty presidential campaigns, not to mention their antics in many a statehouse, I’m ready for a promising, credible third party. You could call me a recovering Democrat (adulthood to about 1980) and increasingly disaffected Republican (the past three decades), the latter made more painful by the fact that the several live Republicans who would make superb presidents are the ones who decided not to run.
Until something better comes along, I’m going to fancy myself a member of the Green-tea Party. Here are its seven tenets, one for each day of the week:
- Low taxes, efficient government, a balanced budget, a vigorous foreign policy (no more “leading from behind”), and a strong national defense.
- A full-bore, full-throated war on terrorism, terrorists, pirates and other such menaces, wherever they are.
- Decent provision for the truly dependent—and no help at all for those who can and should provide for themselves, their families and their neighbors.
- Decent respect for the environment—I’ve seen those glaciers melt and trash in the ocean—and for conservation of non-renewable resources.
- Minimal government regulation of just about everything else.
- That includes governments (and politicians) keeping out of adults’ lives, bedrooms, beliefs, orientations and practices. (Children are another story.)
- High education standards, plenty of quality school choices and lots more bang for the education buck.
Anybody want to join me? To run on this platform? You might even get more than one vote.
-Chester E. Finn, Jr.
This post also appears on Flypaper.
