What is The Constitution Party?

Following the announcement that Mary Ruth Edwards would be challenging Doc Hastings (see previous post), we got this from DM via our CD4 Chair to educate us on what she's about:

Mary Ruth Edwards announced Monday that she would run as a "Constitution Party" candidate for Doc Hastings' seat in the U.S. House. On her website, Mary Ruth says:

“We need to start our own party and name it the Constitution Party.” She went home from one meeting and googled “constitution party.” To her surprise, she discovered there already is a Constitution Party. While reading their platform, she kept thinking, “Wow! These guys think exactly like I do!” She soon became a card-carrying Constitution Party member and currently acts as the Benton County Coordinator."

In case you are wondering what people "exactly like" Mary Ruth think, here are some items from the Washington State Constitution Party's Platform taken directly from their website:

Core Principles

The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations...
The U.S. Constitution established a Republic rooted in Biblical law under the authority of Jesus Christ...

Social Security

The Constitution grants no authority to the federal government to administrate a Social Security system. The Constitution Party advocates phasing out the entire Social Security program...

Health Care

We denounce ... socialized medicine, e.g., Medicare;
We advocate ... the elimination of the federal Food and Drug Administration

Choice

Abortion may not be declared lawful by any institution of state or local government - legislative, judicial, or executive ... without exception (including cases of) rape and incest...

We also oppose the distribution and use of all abortifacients. (birth control pills)

Representative Government

...it is also vital that we repeal the Seventeenth Amendment and return to state legislatures the function of electing the U.S. Senate.

Military

We reject the policies and practices that permit women to train for or participate in combat. Because of the radical feminization of the military over the past two decades, it must be recognized that these "advances" undermine the integrity and morale of our military organizations by dual qualification standards and forced integration. (Mary Ruth Edwards advertises on her website that she is a former Marine).

Medicare, Federal Highways, Dams, etc.

Domestic federal "aid" not authorized by the Constitution is not only illegal, it is immoral. We call upon the states, therefore, to decline to accept all monies from the federal government for any purpose...

Education

All teaching is related to basic assumptions about God and man. Education as a whole, therefore, cannot be separated from religious faith.
(Mary Ruth Edwards is currently a public school teacher in Prosser).

Election Reform

The Voting Rights Act should be repealed. The Federal Election Campaign Act, including its 1974 amendments, and the Federal Election Commission should be abolished.

Energy (Hanford)

We call for abolishing the Department of Energy.

Gay Rights

The law of our Creator defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman. No government may legitimately authorize or define marriage or family relations contrary to what God has instituted. We oppose any legal recognition of homosexual unions.

Foreign Policy

(We) call upon the President, and Congress, to terminate United States membership in the United Nations...bar the United Nations, and its subsidiaries, from further operation...

NATO, for instance, serves no defensive purpose for the United States, and this country should withdraw from it.

The Judiciary

We particularly support all the legislation which would remove from Federal appellate review jurisdiction matters involving acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.

Taxes

We propose legislation to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, and will veto any authorization, appropriation, or continuing resolution which contains any funding whatsoever for that illicit and unconstitutional agency.

There is substantial evidence that the 16th Amendment was never legally ratified. When elected, we will act to cease collection of direct Federal personal income taxes.

Source:

http://www.constitutionpartyofwa.com/platform.html