An interesting side-light in the saga of Joe the Plumber was that he was a registered member of the Natural Law Party.\u00c2\u00a0 Media reports have gotten some things about this political wrong, namely its continued existence — the national party\u00c2\u00a0dissolved in 2004, though they did set up a shadow government and allowed for the continued existence of state parties.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The state parties\u00c2\u00a0have all probably dried up by now as their use for\u00c2\u00a0vehicle for vanity political campaigns sputter away in the face of fraction of a percentage election results, but I would have to run through the “politics1” page on minor parties to see if the Natural Law party still has some foothold anywhere.<\/p>\n
(And a quick check shows that it does not any longer exist in electoral politics.\u00c2\u00a0 Idaho was the last strong-hold.)<\/p>\n
Would I want to be identified with the Natural Law Party?\u00c2\u00a0 Would you want to be identified with the Natural Law Party?\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know — it\u00c2\u00a0probably shouldn’t be held against you.\u00c2\u00a0 The focal point of the Natural Law Party, and its ultimate reason for being, was a belief in Transcendental Meditation under the auspices of the\u00c2\u00a0 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Moreso, from old wikipedia:\u00c2\u00a0 that the development of consciousness, in particular through the practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program including Yogic Flying, can enhance individual capability to resolve societal problems, and (2) that the practice of these techniques by a critical mass of the population, or else their group practice, in particular the group practice of Yogi Flying, results in overall improvements in society, including reduced crime, accidents and hospital admissions and improvements in prosperity, security and quality of life.<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 From this basic kernal the party can branch out and ornament its philosophy with some ecompass various liberal policy goals of an activist government and a peaceful political stance visa vie the world at large.\u00c2\u00a0 The “basic kernal” of Transcendetnal Meditation was always hiding behind the stated philosophy of “solving the world’s problems in an inter-connected” manner.\u00c2\u00a0 John Hagelin was the perpetual presidential candidate (in 2000 waging a\u00c2\u00a0battle against Pat Buchanan to control the Reform Party’s ballot access), until 2004 when they endorsed Dennis Kucinich for president.\u00c2\u00a0 I recall interviews with Kucinich where he was asked to address the members of his political following who got together in groups at the end of his speeches to practice some Yogic Flying — he demurred.\u00c2\u00a0 He also explained once how he was going to be elected president with a vast coalition of Democrats, “Reagan Democrats” who had been voting Republican, Green Party members, and Natural Law Party members.\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently including Joe Plumber.<\/p>\n My problem with Joe Plumber, therefor, does not really concern much his Aspirational politics where he believes (mistakenly) that he’s\u00c2\u00a0about to be taxed\u00c2\u00a0out the gorde\u00c2\u00a0as he is on the cusp of\u00c2\u00a0buying a $250,000 business, his\u00c2\u00a0lack of understanding of tax policy — people can vote for something that is not their immediate self-interest and for what they consider a larger interest –\u00c2\u00a0the only issue there is it would be nice if they know that.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor is it much of a concern that he is not a licensed plumber,\u00c2\u00a0and the immediate conspiracy theory that he was related to a member of the Keating family rang as immediately false.\u00c2\u00a0 No.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem is the inconsistency with someone who can spout out a litany of rather conservative opinions:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Social Security\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 I have parents.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need another set of parents called the government.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me take my money and invest it how I please.\u00c2\u00a0 Social Security, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never believed in, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it, hate that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forced on me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Also he’s tired of Americans apologizing for this greatest of nations, and dissing on the flag, and wants immigrants to get in line.)<\/p>\n … with someone who registered, unknowingly he states, with a political party that can eagerly endorse Dennis Kucinich.\u00c2\u00a0 You can be one or the other or you can be one and then the other, but you can not be both.\u00c2\u00a0 That does not square.\u00c2\u00a0 But everyone has their demons in the closet, I suppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting side-light in the saga of Joe the Plumber was that he was a registered member of the Natural Law Party.\u00c2\u00a0 Media reports have gotten some things about this political wrong, namely its continued existence — the national party\u00c2\u00a0dissolved in 2004, though they did set up a shadow government and allowed for the continued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sorry that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Iraq. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve liberated another country.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, you know, freedom. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if you guys are Christians or not, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like someone coming to Jesus and becoming saved.\u00c2\u00a0 These guys have freedom. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Has it kept us safe? Absolutely.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe in that 100 percent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n