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What is your party’s position on how to prevent the numerous deadlocks on choosing Senators that plagued state legislatures prior to 1913?

Also, what is your party’s position regarding the Federal Reserve and the Gold Standard?

The more times, and the longer each part of government is hamstrung by it's own greed, the better it is for those of us who have to pay the bills.

I would much rather have a bunch of thrashing, ineffective parochial boobs than the coolly efficient criminal enterprise, functioning under cover of law, that we have now.

Personally, I think those deadlocks were overblown and used as an excuse to gut true federalism. I don't claim to be an historical expert on the history of that time, but that's the conclusion I reached from the reading I did about it. They threw the republican baby out with the partisan bathwater, you might say.

As to the other matters, we are still developing our policies. Our platform does not as yet address them in detail.

We wanted to lay down the non-negotiables first:

Preface
America's Independent Party has as its goal the return of our nation to a set of foundational principles. We call them "America's Principles." The word "principle" comes from a Latin root that means "first things." America's Principles are the "first things" that our country should consider in all of our domestic and foreign policies.
America's Independent Party recognizes that these "first things" are clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
However, we also believe that there is room for debate over prudential policy matters within certain parameters of fundamental American political thought and a framework of ordered liberty. We seek a return to an approach to government that facilitates that respectful and necessary debate, but that never compromises the moral premises that made this country great.

We are working to pull together the best minds in America to not just complain about the current mess, but to develop a workable, practical alternative.

From the long debates and discussions that have already taken place so far, several things have reached what amount to a consensus:

1. The Federal Reserve has to go, and must be replaced with a system in which power is dispersed, one that is controlled by the citizenry at the local level. If the banks are failing, let them fail. The dinosaurs need to die. They're a defunct model. The new model should be one that mirrors the structure of the internet. Loosely linked. Dispersed power. Controlled by the users.

2. All real economics starts at the household and village level. The very word economics has this concept at the root of its very meaning.

3. All real wealth comes from the productivity of the land and the sea, from what we can mine from the ground, from the processes of turning those resources into useful products, and from those who provide useful services.

If I wasn't so tired I could lay out a few more of the fundamental assumptions that have arisen from our discussions as we develop our policy papers and national issues affiliates that deal in these important areas. The latest affiliate being developed along these line, by the way, is called "AIP Real Economics." I have high hopes for it.

Frankly, we have not had many discussions of the gold standard as yet. I'd be happy to hear your opinions in this matter. But, I'm certainly no fan of fractional reserve banking. It's a system predicated on debt...lending money into existence. One of the problems with that is that they lend the principal into existence, but not the interest that must be paid. This creates one certain outcome: someone is ultimately going to go broke. It's an inevitablity.

Anyhow, if I got anything wrong here, I apologize. Like I said, I'm wiped out tired. It was a stretch to find the mental energy just to type this.

In closing, I'm willing to listen. If you have ideas about how AIP can have the strongest, most sensible, most effective economic positions possible, we'd love your input.

We have several national conference calls per week that last several hours each with folks from all over the country. These matters, among many others, are topics for discussion. Join us some time.