Special National Committee Meeting Petition

Whereas the Constitution Party’s National Platform in its section on Character and Moral Conduct states:

John Adams, 2nd President and signer of the Declaration of Independence warned:

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

He also counseled:

"The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

We threaten our very Constitution when we condone immoral conduct by our elected and appointed leaders.

Public respect and esteem toward public officials have fallen to a shameful level. The Constitution Party finds that a cause of this national state of disgrace is the deterioration of personal character among government leaders, exacerbated by the lack of public outcry against immoral conduct by public office holders. Our party leaders and public officials must display exemplary qualities of honesty, integrity, reliability, moral uprightness, fidelity, prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, self-restraint, courage, kindness, and compassion. If they cannot be trusted in private life, neither can they be trusted in public life.

It is imperative that members and nominated candidates representing the Constitution Party and its state affiliates recognize the importance of demonstrating good character in their own lives.

Whereas, the National Platform in its section on the Sanctity of Life begins with the following.

The Declaration of Independence states:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

We affirm the God-given legal personhood of all human beings from fertilization to natural death, without exception. The first duty of the law is to protect innocent life, created in the image of God. No level of civil government may legalize or fund the taking of life without justification. Legalizing the termination of innocent life of the born or unborn, whether by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia or suicide, is a direct violation of their unalienable right to life. As to matters of rape and incest, we empathize with those abused and assert the need to provide immediate protection and care in a safe environment. Instead of the further violence of abortion, the mother and the child should be provided with compassionate care. We find it unconscionable to take the life of an innocent child for the crimes of his father.

Whereas, the following Resolution was passed by unanimous vote of the National Committee of the Constitution Party at its semi-annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas on February 27, 1998:

Whereas, the Preamble to the 1996 Platform of the U.S. Taxpayers Party states (in part) that members of the party “gratefully acknowledge the blessings of the Lord God as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of this Nation…” Said Preamble states further that, “Our Republic is a nation governed by a Constitution, which is rooted in Biblical Law, administered by representatives who are constitutionally elected by the citizens,” and, moreover, “In a Republic governed by constitutional law rooted in Biblical Law, all life, liberty, and property are protected because law rules,” and

Whereas, in the section titled Abortion the 1996 Platform of the U.S. Taxpayers Party states, in part, that, “The pre-born child, whose life begins at conception, is a human being created in God’s image. The first duty of the law is to prevent the shedding of innocent blood. It is, therefore, the duty of all civil government to secure and to safeguard the lives of the pre-born.” This duty is a fundamental requirement for all U.S. Taxpayers Party candidates;

Be it therefore Resolved, The U.S. Taxpayers Party National Committee shall not endorse or distribute, allocate, contribute to or solicit funds for, or support in any way whatsoever, any candidate who does not pledge and act to defend and promote the inviolable right to life of innocent human beings, from the moment of conception to natural death -- without exception.

Whereas, subsequent versions of the platform use the title “Sanctity of Life” instead of “Abortion” but retain and strengthen the language to protect the right to life of the preborn child; and

Whereas, presidential nominee Don Blankenship as admitted to currently cohabiting with a woman not his wife.  He has publicly held her out as a fiancée, but has admitted that they have no intentions of being married; and

Whereas, Blankenship sees this behavior as not morally objectionable and not at odds with the Bible’s moral teaching on sexuality; and

Whereas, Blankenship has publicly stated his compromise to the party’s ethical position on the Sanctity of Life; and

Whereas, Blankenship contends that we should not judge him on these issues and that it is not relevant to the effective pursuit of the stated goal of the Constitution Party; and

Whereas, if the delegates to the National Convention were fully apprised of these and other allegations then it would have significantly impacted the outcome of the vote for the presidential nomination; and

Whereas, the position that we cannot render judgment on Blankenship’s opinions nor hold him accountable to the platform irrespective of the platform’s appeal to the recognized standard of the moral law of God regarding marriage and the sanctity of life is to give way to the ethical relativism prominent in the Republican Party; and

Whereas, the Constitution Party’s Constitution and Bylaws do not address a situation when a candidate nominated by convention clearly violates the platform and policy of the party;

Therefore, we the undersigned National Committeemen petition for a special meeting of the National Committee to be called in seven days and scheduled as soon as possible to review these and other related findings and take decisive action to restore the integrity of the party in line with our National Platform and Resolutions by elevating our vice-presidential nominee Bill Mohr to serve as our presidential nominee.

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