In the 1990s it was known as the US Taxpayers Party. I
remember it well as I examined it in earnest in the period just after my
conversion. Founded by the now deceased Howard Phillips, the party (which has
Theonomist and Reconstructionist roots) advocates a Nativist position with
regard to foreign policy and economics. The goal is hardly related to
anti-belligerence or some kind of rejection of militarism. In fact they want a
'state of the art' military but propose to somehow pay for it in the process of
alienating international resource markets, reducing trade via tariff and
eliminating virtually all taxes. They are truly delusional (as is their
understanding of the Constitution) and yet such a position is not too far off
from that advocated by figures like Jim DeMint of the Heritage Foundation and a
host of other Christian-Right affiliated think tanks and political movements.
Nevertheless, the Constitution Party's main fear is a loss of
National Sovereignty and like the Birchers (JBS) of old this means a
full-frontal assault on the United Nations and all such internationalist
organisations. While I hardly wish to defend the UN, multi-lateral
organisations or globalism, it must be said that Washington's relationship with
these institutions are in its own interest. These relationships do not subjugate
US power. In many cases the reverse is true. They are tools in the arsenal of
US imperialism, a means to manipulate, provide cover and move money.
The Nativist arguments of the Constitution Party provide a
cure for a disease they have misdiagnosed and do not understand. They would
treat gangrene with a healthy dose of Bubonic Plague.
Finally I would also note I found the pamphlet deceptive.
They are not showing their hand and what they're truly about. They obfuscate
their Dominionist assumptions and goals and while touting the Constitution they
fail to announce that they would immediately seek to modify it and effectively
eliminate its historical usage, interpretation and precedent. So much for
Originalism. They are actually rabidly Anti-Constitutional and instead seek to Re-Constitute the United States in a new
image. Many would consider the patriotic claims to but somewhat dubious. In
many ways they hate America and cling to romanticised, redacted and even racist
version of it.
Leaving aside their unbiblical and heretical assumptions, revisionist
understandings of history and judicial precedent they are on a basic level
dishonest and deceitful players. They seek support through sentimentality and
straw-man arguments all the while hiding what they really are. How many are
wooed by the propaganda not realising they are in fact supporting a theocratic
re-casting of the Constitution? Undoubtedly they've softened their rhetoric in
this regard, but that's the genesis of the movement and the institutional
party.
It is therefore appropriate to also be reminded of Howard Phillips
son, Doug Phillips who ran the now defunct Vision Forum and recently went down
in scandal. But long before his fall I noticed the same kind of fraudulent
presentation in their materials. They appealed to tradition, romanticism and
sentimentality all the while hiding the Dominionist and pro-Confederate
ideology. They pulled people in without revealing the Postmillennial and
Theonomic agenda. It was slick and yet wholly dishonest. Amazingly I've seen it
time and again, their ethics play out not just in their ministry and
politicking but in their larger lives.
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