All About Debts

Presidential candidates outside of the limelight

Date 3/16/2000 12:00 AM | Topic: News

Many voters may be unaware of just how many choices they have when it comes to electing the next president of the United States. While Al Gore, George W. Bush, Bill Bradley and John McCain have dominated the polls and the media, other candidates are taking a stand on positions they feel are important. Below are brief profiles of a number of these often over-looked candidates. Space inhibits complete overviews of these candidates because of the sheer number of them presented. Each presidential hopeful has a website listed where more information can be obtained. Still unsure which candidate to vote for? Then check out the presidential candidate selector at . After answering questions about various issues, the selector displays the top candidates that fit that particular political persuasion.

Alan Keyes Party Affiliation: Republican
Alan Keyes is a conservative candidate making his second bid for the Republican nomination. He is in favor of reforming public education, reinstating prayer in school and allowing parents to choose which school their children attend. Keyes supports the right to bear arms and is 100% pro-life.

Jello Biafra Party Affiliation: Green Party
Jello Biafra supports radical government reform. The most notable aspects of his platform are abolishing the "War on Drugs," adding a "None of the Above" option to ballots, which would force a new election if majority selects it, and allowing citizens to elect police officers.

Stephen Gaskin Party Affiliation: Green Party
Stephen Gaskin is a self-titled hippie and beatnik. Major planks on his platform include universal health care, decriminalization of marijuana, passing the equal rights amendment for women and the halting of construction and selling of weapons for war.

Howard Phillips Party Affiliation: Constitution Party
Howard Phillips is the Constitution Party nominee for the Presidency. The Constitution Party was founded in 1992 and was formerly known as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party. Phillips wants to replace the current tax system including income taxes, Social Security taxes, estate taxes and inheritance taxes. He is against abortion.

Joe Bellis Party Affiliation: America's Party
Joe Bellis formed the America's Party as a conservative non-theocratic party. He believes abortion is unconstitutional. He feels that education training and the discipline of children should be placed in the domain of the parents, and thus no federal entity should influence any aspect of a child's upbringing. He supports the right to bear arms.

Ralph Nader Party Affiliation: Green Party
Ralph Nader believes in reforming the system of government to allow for more involvement by citizens. Education should be reformed to teach children the importance of democracy and their responsibilities as citizens. Citizens must be able to have full legal standing to challenge the courts on issues of the government acting in wasteful or fraudulent manners.

David McReynolds Party Affiliation: Socialist Party
David McReynolds supports an immediate 50% cut in defense spending and an eventual elimination of all military spending. He wants to institute a maximum wage of four times the minimum wage and provide comprehensive health care for all citizens. McReynolds also wants to stop the policy of emphasizing imprisonment for non-violent crimes.

John Hagelin Party Affiliation: Natural Law PartyJohn Hagelin has a doctorate in physics and was a professor at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Ia., before running for the presidency. He strongly advocates transcendental meditation and hopes to use it as a nationwide practice to decrease stress, and in effect reduce crime, improve morality and eliminate the need for gun control. With this stance Hagelin hopes to remove the necessity for the government to legislate morality.

Joel Kovel Party Affiliation: Green Party
Joel Kovel's platform includes universal health care, reforming ecological standards, cutting military budget by 75% and expanding worker's rights. He favors the replacement of the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and World Bank with democratically chosen organizations which are controlled by the workers instead of the corporations and governments.

Harry Browne Party Affiliation: Libertarian
Harry Browne was the 1996 presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party. He supports the elimination of the federal income tax, the removal of the federal government from education and the cessation of the War on Drugs and drug prohibition. Browne wants to reorganize the defense policy of the United States to support defense instead of offense. Under his plan, the government would hire private contractors to build a missile defense system and the armed forces would remove all American troops from foreign countries.

Patrick J. Buchanan Party Affiliation: Reform Party
Patrick Buchanan is a conservative candidate who left the Republican Party last year to join the Reform Party. On education, he is in favor of school vouchers and giving more power to parents and teachers, not bureaucrats. Buchanan supports the second amendment rights (right to bear arms) for all Americans except felons. He is anti-abortion and anti-homosexual. He also has plans to dismantle many government departments and agencies such as the National Endowment of the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Department of Education.

--

James R. DeVries
Chips Staff Writer

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]