The Coming of The Common Sense Party

The time is coming when the Republican party will join the Whigs in the archives of American political history.

In 1852, the Whigs, for forty years a major political force, had been torn asunder by the Clay and Douglas compromise of 1850, a package of bills which kicked down the road the can of slavery in new territories. In'52, Whigs won only four of 31 states. In '54, disaffected northern Whigs split off to found a new party they named "Republican". In the election of '56, Republican Fremont finished a respectable second out of four, and in '60, the six year old party placed Lincoln in the White House with a solid plurality.

As were those 19thC Whigs, today's Republicans are in zerrissenheit, the state of "torn aparted-ness”, rent between family- value ideologues and fiscal conservatives. And therein lies this opportunity to create a new, potentially powerful political party -- The Common Sense Party.

The Common Sense Party will appeal to and serve the interests of urban, educated people (especially women) and those already in or aspiring to the upper middle class. The party's mission will be to improve America by focusing on solutions to its problems and realization of its new potentialities. The party's values are Civility, Knowledge, and Pragmatism; it will eschew mindless ideology and seek workable consensus.

The party will be formed and energized by moderate Republican dissenters, especially mayors and governors; independents like Michael Bloomberg; and business and financial leaders bolstered by celebrities. It will focus on the Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and California.

Over two presidential election cycles, it will secure the White House, enjoy a working swing bloc in the Senate, and be challenging for the plurality of the House.

How are pragmatism and knowledge reflected in its platform? The Common Sense Party intends:
In Foreign Policy
~To progressively reduce foreign arms sales to zero

• Counter balancing with subsidized sale of peaceful development ware, e.g., water treatment plants, hospitals and clinics, schools, irrigation equipment, emission control and scrubber equipment

~To support abroad the rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of assembly, and equal opportunities for women

• Subordinating a focus on elections; freedoms come first

~To revoke the Bush doctrine of preemptive war

~To progressively seek diplomatic engagement with hostile states

~To increase State Dept. funding to progressively larger % of Defense Dept. funding

In Defense
~To progressively reduce the defense establishment to under 3% of GDP

~To follow Joint Chiefs weapons requests

• Eliminating Congressional weapons overrides of JC

~To acknowledge natural spheres of influence

• reducing NATO presence
• reducing overseas troop commitments
• Forcing European Community, NATO, So. Korea and Japan to take on more of their own defense
• Strengthening our response capabilities and reaffirming mutual defense commitments in Europe and Asia, but as second responder rather than first-line presence

In Intelligence
~To dismantle the bloated national intelligence bureaucracy

• Removing CIA from offensive, covert military actions, e.g., drone attacks, and focusing on foreign Intel
• Assigning to DOD all military, special forces and covert operations
• Assigning the FBI all domestic Intel
• Renouncing “war on terror” language and treating terrorism as a criminal conspiracy
• Quantifying and reducing the intelligence contractor community
• Dismantling the Dept. of Homeland Security
• Assigning National Security Advisor the task of consolidating CIA, Pentagon and FBI information for Executive Branch digestion

In Budgets, Debt and Deficits
~To reduce entitlement load

• Increasing cap on payroll tax, and apply means test to sustain Social Security net
• Funding Medicaid until incomes rise and the demographic bulge passes, reducing citizens’ reliance
• Continuing to expand medical insurance access
• Supporting home care, home health care, and efforts to reduce hospital admission recidivism

~To progressively reduce agriculture subsidies to zero

•  Relying on market dynamics
• Using food exports as commerce and as foreign policy mechanisms

~To merge the departments of Labor and Commerce

~To eliminate foreign registered-US based corporate tax advantages

~To end depletion allowance and special income treatments, e.g., carried interest

~To adopt a carbon tax

~To veto tax “bills of attainder”

~To increase infrastructure spending to create entry level and trade employment opportunities

~To study and determine whether value added tax coupled with upper income taxation would fairly generate revenues while simplifying tax collection and filing

~To set a national goal of reducing income inequality to 1960’s levels

• Strengthening the progressive tax system
• Reestablishing upper rates at Reagan-era levels
• Developing an immigration work permit program and pathway to citizenship
• Promulgating the Dream Act 
• To achieve balanced federal budgets by 2024

In Environment
~To enforce EPA responsibility for CO2 emissions

~To develop social and externality cost accounting and incorporate it in industrial and utility permitting processes

~To adopt progressive excise tax on gasoline to balance increased mpg performance

• Using gasoline excise taxes to fund development of mass transit and emission reduction options

~To restore traditional funding for National Parks and establish a new version of Civilian Conservation Corps

In Education
~To fund research and development of programs to reduce male high school dropout rates and prepare and motivate males to enter college

~To fund and reward community college/industry joint ventures to develop needed high-wage skilled labor

~To revoke “no child left behind” and other Federal mandates

• leaving standards, achievement testing, and teacher evaluation to states and localities

~To reduce the Dept. of Education staffing and budget

In Civil Society
~To reduce prevalence and accessibility of weapons, especially of hand guns

• Promoting that guns make all less safe, not more
• Banning sale and use of high capacity magazines
• Mandating universal background checks on gun purchasers
• Banning public sale of body armor and highly lethal ammunition
• Imposing high excise taxes on ammunition, using funds for gun education programs

~To adopt a universal service regimen at age 18

• Option: two years in military, with college subsidy after service
• Or one year in neo-CCC or other qualified social services
• Or two years social service after college

~To eliminate Federal Government intrusion into matters of sex, marriage, abortion and recreational drug use

• Leaving social regulations entirely to states
• Delegating gun sales control to states and localities so long as consistent with 2nd Amendment

~To intensify anti-trust monitoring and aggressively represent consumer interest in mergers and acquisitions

~To reduce incarcerations by funding drug treatment programs and sentencing guidlines

~To increase funding for FDA and USDA inspection and monitoring

In Governance
~To test levels of government funding of elections with a view to equalizing access

• Studying provision of free air time to candidates as a provision of broadcasting license
• while encouraging premium pricing for PACs

~To sell lobbyist registrations, in effect a lobby license, to fund election support

~To attack and remove obstacles to voting

~At state level, to work to reduce “safe seat” districting

~To limit campaign donations to constituents only

~To close the 501(c)(4) loophole providing anonymity to PAC contributors

~To prohibit public service unions from political donations to officials of organizations with which they negotiate labor agreements and contracts

~To make unionized public services open shops



My son, Steve, observes that civility is a currency, i.e., a medium of exchange; the more you spend it, he says, the easier and more valuable exchanges become