"Contract from America"

[ENikolai]

The Tea Party movement has released it's statement of principles, called "The Contract from America". I was initially very skeptical about it, but turned out positively surprised. There is in fact not a single reference to religion in this contract, nor is there any advocacy of socially conservative policies. The contract is 100 % focused on individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom. A very positive development if you ask me.

Read the contract here

I'd be very interested in reading a thorough Objectivist analysis of the contract.

Edited April 14, 2010 by ENikolai

[DavidOdden]

Sounds good; I just wonder about the fact that apparently about half of the plank proposals are not actually very strongly supported by their members (if "member" is the right concept).

[khaight]

Sounds good; I just wonder about the fact that apparently about half of the plank proposals are not actually very strongly supported by their members (if "member" is the right concept).

They had a longer list of twenty-two or twenty-three planks. People were allowed to pick 10 of them. So you can't necessarily conclude that just because only 56% voted for plank X, the other 44% would oppose it. It just means they ranked it lower than the 10 planks they did vote for.

The good thing about the Contract is that it eschews the religionist agenda, focusing primarily on issues of economic liberty and fiscal responsibility. The bad thing about the Contract is its lack of integrating vision. It's a grab bag of concrete policy positions, some better than others -- has a 'Blue Ribbon Commision' ever accomplished anything? -- and the attempt in the preamble to tie it together is vague and unconvincing. How difficult would it be to have a simple statement along the lines of "The proper function of government is the protection of the individual rights of the citizens. Our government has lost sight of this purpose. As the first steps towards restoring government to it proper limits, we support the following proposals: ..." followed by the planks. That would provide the main thing sorely lacking from the document as written -- an integrating context that would point the way towards the next contract, and the one after that, and the one after that.

That said, it's probably better than nothing, and I did vote on it myself.

[Jake_Ellison]

I like it. There's nothing bad in it, that would cause good candidates to reject it. (meaning it doesn't force any politician who agrees to it to then do something wrong, like restrict immigration or some other rights, while in office)