National Party Platforms on Transportation and Energy – Constitution Party

Continuing the series on party platforms on transportation and energy, we come to the Constitution Party.

They do not have a section on transportation issues, much like the Libertarians. They do have an energy section:

Energy

James Madison said: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.” (Federalist Papers #45) The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution , nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people (Amendment X).

We call attention to the continuing need of these United States for a sufficient supply of energy for national security and for the immediate adoption of a policy of free market solutions to achieve energy independence for these United States. We call for abolishing the Department of Energy.

Private property rights should be respected, and the federal government should not interfere with the development of potential energy sources, including natural gas, hydroelectric power, solar energy, wind generators, and nuclear energy.

Pretty simple when you get down to it. Abolish the Department of Energy (much like the old Republicans, and no government interference. Pretty much a libertarian/free-market approach to energy.

I wish they would have something on transportation issues, but including everything risks having an unwieldy platform. It’s still an important federalist issue that would need to be addressed by any major candidate.

Stephen Spruiell on Energy & Environment on National Review Online

Stephen Spruiell on Energy & Environment on National Review Online

Sigh… is there any more reason to realize that Republicans made a huge mistake in nominating John McCain?  They’re going through all of these problems trying to square the platform with the candidate.  Of course, in a rational electoral system, the candidate would reflect the base and not have to be grafted together like “trying to write a lawsuit against yourself.”

But as a result, Republicans have now gone along with the environmental movement in calling all this “climate change” instead of “global warming.”  Which is a tautology, or some kind of logical infallacy, since CLIMATE IS ALWAYS CHANGING. Somehow, this society has become so narcissitic that the current climate SHOULD be the only climate on Earth for as long as humans remain here.  Try telling that to the people of North Africa, who have been screwed the past 1000 years or so with advancing desert conditions, which cannot be explained away in the past 50 years of industrial development.

So in continuing with my plan to review all of the party platforms, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like what I see in the Republican platform when it is formally adopted next week.

National Party Platforms on Transportation and Energy – Libertarian Party

In a multi-part series, I am going to find and post the party platforms for all of the national political parties, concerning transportation and energy. Today I’ll start with the Libertarian Party.

2008 Platform

Nothing on transportation. On energy, they have this to say:

2.3 Energy and Resources

While energy is needed to fuel a modern society, government should not be subsidizing any particular form of energy. We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.

Short and to the point. But this has it’s good points and its bad. You can boil down the Libertarian platform to “free markets good, government intervention bad”. Which is pretty much what they did this year. Even to the point, that they don’t even have a stated position on transportation.

Of course, it isn’t to say that they’ve never had a position on transportation. They even had a position on public utilities once upon a time. That’s something only a policy wonk would love, but framed the right way, the Libertarians could even put this in a winning message:

“You know why you pay $80 a month for 200 cable channels you don’t watch. Government policies don’t allow you to pick and choose the channels you want to watch, even though the technology is available. You can choose an individual plan for your cell phone, but the government forces everyone to have a one-size fits all plan for cable. It’s time to take cable out of the hands of bureaucrats and lobbyists and back where it belongs, the customer.”

So as an idea of where Libertarians stand on more complex issues, below is the 2004 Libertarian Party platform on some key issues.