39 Political parties in America, and None for Me

39 Political parties in America, and None for Me

How about You?

I vote with the Democratic party, but I have grown disappointed with the party post-Obama. Even under Obama I was frustrated with the pro-war, pro-money in politics, and general pull to the right / lack of integrity of the Democratic Party.

I decided to read through the platforms of all 39 of the political parties in America using this wikipedia page as a finder:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States

Here are my top 12 issues

1. Pro-equality – all flavors of humans are equal: equal pay, equal rights, equal representation, gender, orientation, identification, minorities, pro-choice

2. Electoral reform – end gerrymandering, reverse citizens united, end PACs, and corp $ speech

3. Progressive tax reform – all of the Warren Buffet stuff, eliminate the offshore shenanigans

4. Universal healthcare – nothing interesting to debate

5. Free college / student debt reform – we are causing an economic contraction with what we are doing to the next generation

6. Index minimum wage to inflation & productivity – ultimately we are going to need a universal basic income, lets start by paying people as gains in productivity

7. Pro-environment – boost renewable energy, climate change adaptation, semi-soft landing for fossil fuel industries

8. Pro-space – we need a back-up planet

9. Fiscally rational – not small-government, but smart government – kill pork e.g. F-35

10. Pro-troops / Anti-war – increase troop pay & veteran care, eliminate many weapon programs, non-interventionist unless called by the UN

11. Pro-Well Regulated Militia – we need rational regulations on guns

12. Open-immigration – you can find work, pay taxes and not a felon? Great you are a citizen.

I could not find a party that shares these 12 as a policy platform.

In general, the left-wing parties I totally agreed with on pro-human and pro-environment issues, but lose me being in general so anti-capitalist that they turn also into anti-science/anti-technology. While I say that, the Green Party is probably over-all the closest party for me on a stated platform basis. But when their leading candidate that is a medical doctor makes a major issue out of WIFI signal radiation you lose me. They are also so fed up with neo-liberal economics that they want to throw out the baby with the bath water. I favor sensible, strong regulations to create a fair market. Greens also have no stance on the out of control menace of guns in their effort to broaden their tent.

On the right, I have to say I agree with a lot of the Libertarian Party. They are surprisingly anti-war, anti-war on drugs, and also want electoral reform. But they lose me when they are NRA-aligned free-for-all guns without laws. Also, the general friendly association with Ayn Rand and the racist groups is a deal breaker for me.

One thing that continues to surprise me is the appropriation of the words Socialist and Worker in some of the neo-Nazi parties when they have nothing to do with pro-human, pro-worker, pro-socialism policies. Part of the Orwellian tradition of naming in politics, policies and laws.

I learned a lot, there were many more parties than I was aware of. There were also a number of parties that I found had a surprisingly nice set of policies, but there was always sadly a deal-breaker for me.

All of these guys are openly neo-nazi, paleoconservative, racist:

American Freedom Party

America First Party

Christian Liberty Party

Constitution Party

Independent American Party

National Socialist Movement

Republican Party

Traditional Worker Party

These guys are anti-government, libertarian w/o the horsepower of the Libertarian party:

American Populist Party

Objectivist Party

These guys are too-left/single issue for me:

Black Riders Liberation Party

Humane Party

New Black Panther Party

Party for Socialism and Liberation

Peace and Freedom Party

Legal Marijuana Now Party

Socialist Equality Party

Socialist Alternative Party

Social Party USA

Socialist Labor Party America

Socialist Workers Party

United States Marijuana Party

Workers World Party <<< crazy support of the NK regime including condolences of passing of Kim Jong-Il

Nutters:

Prohibition Party (still has 36 people mooching of an $8,000 a year trust fund)

But here are the honorable mentions for me (I will follow up with a comment for each of these):

American Solidarity Party

Citizens Party of the United States

Unity Party

Justice Party

United States Pacifist Party

Pirate Party

Libertarian Party

Green Party

Veterans Party

EDIT:

Charles Speyer added a new party that I never heard of that has some really great platform policies:

https://www.justicedemocrats.com/platform

Originally posted on Facebook on February 13, 2018.