Farmer-Labor Party

Farmer-Labor Party

No I am not talking about the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota; I am talking about a fantasy party that is based on what I see as solid political reasoning.

So the name gives a lot away, obviously, just think about those two words for a minute. Farmer, when you think of that you is obviously thinking of a farmer and rural communities. Labor, you are probably thinking of factory workers and urban cities. If you did you would be correct. There are two key components of a robust national economy in my eyes, and I think many economists would agree, that an economy based on agriculture and manufacturing is a healthy and robust economy that lays a solid foundation for exponential growth.

The fantasized ‘Farmer-Labor Party’ would be a political party that is by farmers and laborers FOR farmers and laborers. So let’s begin to pick it apart, and then all flamers can flame on!

Farmers: So obviously the political ideology that concentrates on farmers is Agrarianism.
“Agrarianism is a social and political philosophy which stresses a rural or semi-rural lifestyle, most especially agricultural pursuits such as farming or ranching. Proponents claim that it leads to a fuller, happier, cleaner, and more sustainable way of life for both individuals and society as a whole.”

So this means that it would have characteristics that focus directly on the farmers and ranchers. It would be for their benefit.

Laborers: Most often the political ideology that concentrates on laborers is Social democracy.
“Socialism, general term for the political and economic theory that advocates a system of collective or government ownership and management of the means of production and distribution of goods.”

So this means that it would have characteristics that focus directly on the laborers. It would be for their benefit.




Here are some of the political goals of this fantasy party.

- Install a form of direct democracy with local, state, and national referendums to involve the citizens in the legislative process.
- Replace free trade with fair trade and tariffs.
- Legalize marijuana, prostitution, online gambling, euthanasia, and homosexual marriage.
- Create a national debate on lowering the age of suffrage to 16 from 18 which would include; Drinking rights, smoking rights, sex rights, driving rights, marriage rights, homeownership rights, rental rights, voting rights and all other adult rights.
- Free pre-k education and college education for all citizens.
- All corporations will become democratic with all workers having voting rights on the leadership and decisions of the company.
- Eliminate government regulations on business and allow labor unions to regulate business with government being the moderator.
- Eliminate the minimum wage and allow it to be debated between the employee, business and labor union.
- Create a national maximum size that any corporation or bank is allowed to be.
- Stop all farmer subsidies that go to corporate farms. Enlarge the system and provide more incentives and subsidies to farmers.
- Allow farmers to choose the option of nationalizing their farm which would allow their goods to only be sold in the USA. The farmer will give the goods to the government which sells the food to stores at a minimal profit price and gives the farmer(s) a guaranteed pay.
- Place strict laws on the size of chain stores which harm farmers’ interests. Encourage more sales at local farmers markets by eliminating the sales tax on all goods bought at the local level.
- Create an immediate public plan to rebuild our natural lands, transportation, highways, railways, airways, waterways, and public buildings.
- Require all unemployed citizens to either return to college or search for a job while you do community service and government assists you in finding work.
- Allow guaranteed paid maternity leave of 6 months and 3 months non-paid leave; allow guaranteed paid paternity leave of 3 months and 3 months of non-paid leave.
- Give all parents $3,000 for the child’s first year of life and $2,000 for the second year.
- Encourage small business by creating a local referendum on corporate institutions moving to the area.
- Guarantee all workers 6 weeks of paid vacation time; excluding paid holidays.
- Create a national Sales tax of 20% on all non-local goods.
- Make the progressive tax even steeper by making it 0 - 50% with no tax deductions. Install a more progressive corporate tax from 20 – 50%. Install a flat payroll tax of 10%.
- Create a national gasoline tax of 50%.
- Install a progressive payment rate on all fines for illegal activities.
- Remove all laws on the media.
- Create a harsher punishment for all corruption charges by installing a minimum 25 year sentence.
- Enhance affirmative action by requiring all companies, excluding small business’, in a county to have an equal percentage of employees compared to the demographics of the county.
- Create an isolationist foreign policy based on simply protecting the US territory.
- Remove all foreign military bases, reduce the military budget to $150,000,000,000, and exit NATO and all other international organizations except the UN.
- Eliminate the military and enhance the powers of the National Guard. They will become our military that simply protects our territory.
- Eliminate several executive departments such as; Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice.
- Cut all congressional pay to $50,000 per year. Pay increases can only come through 3 ways.
1. Low unemployment rate,
2. Low inflation rate,
3. and high GDP growth.
- Abolish all for-profit corporate lobbying on the government. Establish a law that states any acceptance of money from for-profit companies will call for immediate campaign termination.
- Establish a law that states 10% of all taxes collected must be used on paying the deficit. If a deficit is run all congressional employees will lose any pay raises and the enlargement of deficit must be reversed the following year.
- Create a national law that allows several currencies to be used inside the United States besides the dollar. The allowance of foreign currencies will be a state issue and will require a public referendum on which currency to allow, if any. Allow gold to be used as a currency alongside the US dollar in all states without a referendum.
- Make it law that the US dollar must be backed by gold. We are not allowed to print more money than we have in gold reserves.
- Create a national law that forces the government to allow all Above Top Secret documents to be shown in only 15 years.
- Create a national healthcare service, similar to the UK’s.
- Unanimously agree to and follow all ‘Privacy International’ rules. Ban all public cameras, wiretapping, surveillance, internet records saving, cruel punishment; force Google Earth to receive a signed confirmation before they can publicize your property. Ban all body scanners in airports and all other privacy violations.
- Create a law that bans censorship of television, radio and internet.


These are the stances the party would take. If you would like to add anything or attack anything you dislike please do.

www.referencecenter.com...

www.referencecenter.com...

[edit on 4/24/10 by Misoir]

[edit on 4/24/10 by Misoir]

You, good sir, have just described the Populist party, during the times of Theodore Roosevelt. They held the exact same beliefs that you have just laid out. I do not think that the Gov't should run solely on labor, otherwise their are alot of problems, however, I do support the middle class, and worker's rights.

You, good sir, have just described the Populist party, during the times of Theodore Roosevelt. They held the exact same beliefs that you have just laid out. I do not think that the Gov't should run solely on labor, otherwise their are alot of problems, however, I do support the middle class, and worker's rights.

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
You, good sir, have just described the Populist party, during the times of Theodore Roosevelt. They held the exact same beliefs that you have just laid out. I do not think that the Gov't should run solely on labor, otherwise their are alot of problems, however, I do support the middle class, and worker's rights.

I think we should rely a lot less on government since many of them are just looking for the easiest way to make cash. We should rely more on citizens power and workers organizing, working people cannot be bought off easily like politicians.

Hmmm... Populist Party? I really like Robert M. La Follette, Sr. I also liked Eugene V. Debbs, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The era of my type of politics has passed I guess. I'm 100 years too late.

I guess this mostly fits in line with Teddy Roosevelts' Progressive Party.

Based on your platform, the workers on my farm can tell me how to run my farm.... NO THANK YOU.

Farmers by their very nature, are Capitalist...we produce to meet the needs of a market at a fair price...price goes down, we produce something else...that is why in NC, so many are no longer in tobbacco and now raise goats, livestock, horses, high demand commodities like strawberries.

Me give my produce to the government and they determine a "fair" price for goods and services provided...HELL NO.

I don't think as a farmer I want to be part of your Farmer-Laborer Party. No Thank You.

I have a question about this.

Would women about to give birth have to join the "labor" party?

reply to post by Misoir


Nice post but I'm from Minnesota so I've researched the actual Farmer-Labor party -- not your fantasy.

Want to know why it didn't work? Maybe you do? Maybe not? haha.

HERE YOU GO!! drum roll....

FDR of the Democrat Party set up Hubert H. Humphrey to QUASH the Farmer-Labor party.

This was helped by the Communists but essentially the Democrats successfully split the Farmer-Labor Party -- breaking it up.

So the Democrats are a Big Business party. Again it's true there are some radical Commie unionists who love nothing better than strong-arm thuggery against some populist progressive coalition. But mainly those people just get in the way preventing the real populists from taking on the BIG BUSINESS DEMOCRATS.

BIG BUSINESS DEMOCRATS do what -- align with big business distribution of food -- like ConAgra or Cargill -- sure they're mainly Freemasonic and Republican -- but still they buy off the Democrats as well.

So then you got the "Food for Peace" program which made Food a Weapon against the Commies -- and Humphrey -- the liberal!!! -- was the main promoter of the

National Security Act -- to put political dissidents into concentration camps!!! Yep progressive populists and their Commie brothers who make them look bad.

On the other hand straight off the farm types are not the biggest union supports -- nope straight off the family farm and into the city are desperate for jobs and the first to break union strike lines!!!

So you got a double whammy there -- first the Commie thugs looking for strong arm top down stupidity and then you got the bottom up idiots -- the cow turd shovelers desperate for a job.

None are to blame really but they both make easy picking for the Big Business Democrats.

Yeah so then the Republican Nixon was the biggest promoter of the Democrat Humphrey's Cargill Food for Peace deal -- FOOD AS A WEAPON against the Commies. This means that Cargill controls the food supply for 100 other countries !! Food is more powerful than oil!! If you can dump food then you can wipe out the local food economy! If you get the local dictator hooked on free food then he has to use his profits to buy U.S. weapons -- which he's more than willing to do! Double Whammy!

Local dictator creates genocide but keeps out the Commies!! Works for a while until those local dictators get too independent (Noreiga, Saddam, Bin Laden, etc.) This happened in Somalia, Indonesia, South Korea, on and on -- destroyed the local food supply and presto --

NWO -- brought to you by the LIBERAL MINNESOTA DEMOCRATS.

Wellstone started to get hip to this liberal scam when he went to Colombia and realized the CIA was killing off the farmers while dealing drugs at the same time. So he got:

WELLSTONED.

Here's the book you want to read on the subject of the Farmer-Labor party:

www.jstor.org...

trollblog.wordpress.com...

One author (James Youngdale) divided populists into “Tory populists” (angry white people), radical populists, and “radical neo-mercantilists”, which is the area overlap. Radical neo-mercantilists wanted government interference with the free market on behalf of the commoners, the way conservative neo-mercantilists (Alexander Hamilton) wanted government interference in favor of big business. In any case, my piece is mostly about the absence of populism among the Democrats, as manifest in the party’s servile response to the present financial collapse. Whatever I said about actual historical populists was just to defend them against Hofstadter and his ilk, and to partly explain how the Democrats became so servile.

blog.lib.umn.edu...

The Farmer-Labor Party merged with the Democratic Party in 1944, and by 1948 Hubert Humphrey and his lieutenants had purged Jim and other Farmer-Labor leaders from the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. After 1948 the DFL leaders would permit no criticism of corporate capitalism. And they would work to repress all memories of that critique. Sadly Jim had personally experienced a paradigm revolution in which the democratic political culture that he had participated in had been defeated, and the victorious voices of corporate capitalism sang the song of a political culture of beautiful consensus—a song in which there was no hierarchy, no power, no poverty. Jim’s scholarship fought against this fantasy, this big lie.

[edit on 24-4-2010 by drew hempel]

[edit on 24-4-2010 by drew hempel]

[edit on 24-4-2010 by drew hempel]

Sure, I'll join it, if you get enough power to kick out the current chiefs we might as well start now. Good luck