1976 Prohibition Party Platform

  Recognizing Almighty God as the source of all government. .... (sic) With earnest dedication to the principles of righteousness, we will seek to serve the needs and to preserve the rights, prerogatives and the basic freedoms of the people of the United States of America.
  To this end, we propose the following program:

Constitutional Government

  We affirm our loyalty to the Constitution of the United States and express our confidence in that document as the basic law of the land. We will resist all attempts to violate it, whether by legislation, by means of evasion, or through judicial interpretation. We support our system of representative government with its plan of checks and balances. We support appropriate Constitutional changes to restrict the ever-expanding power of the federal judiciary as a non-elected legislative branch.

Communism - Totalitarianism

  Communism is aggressively and unalterably opposed to our Constitutional government and seeks to infiltrate and overthrow our present form of government, by violence if necessary. We oppose Communism both as an economic program and as a governmental system.
  We also oppose all other totalitarian philosophies and forms of government.

Governmental Economy and Taxation

  We believe that unwise fiscal policies of our government are the chief cause of the serious economic plight in which our nation finds itself.
 
To combat inflation, lighten our tax load and insure fiscal responsibility we propose:

  1. A sharp cut in government expenditures thru the elimination of waste and unwise programs.
  2. A decrease in the tax load particularly for middle-income taxpayers.
  3. A Constitutional limit on the spending and taxing powers of Congress except in time of war declared by Congress in accordance with the Constitution.
  4. Legislation which requires a balanced budget except in time of war declared by Congress.
  5. Governmental withdrawal from competition with private enterprise and the sale of such government-owned businesses and properties. Proceeds from such sales should be applied to the reduction of the national debt.
  6. A systematic reduction of the national debt, the interest on which now costs the American taxpayer many billions of dollars each year.

Foreign Affairs

  We favor a foreign policy whose objectives are the preservation of American freedom and the encouragement of those governments and nations which grant a large measure of freedom to their citizens.
  No foreign government has an inherent right to financial aid at the expense of American taxpayers. Any foreign aid should be granted only to nations friendly to the United States and whose governments are not corrupt nor aggressors against other nations. Most aid should be in the form of loans at current commercial rates of interest. Such loans will enable recipient nations to maintain their self-respect. No aid of any kind should go to nations which have reneged on past loan agreements.
 
The United States has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations unless those nations are committing acts which are hostile to our nation.

A Free Economy

  We oppose burdensome restraints on our free enterprise system, detailed regulations of our economic life and federal interference with individual initiative. We believe that free enterprise is threatened by: (1) Excessive governmental regulation, (2) Growth of public or private monopoly and (3) Unethical practices of unscrupulous groups.
 
We will encourage independent, non-monopolistic business enterprises which serve genuine consumer needs and which operate with a sense of responsibility to the public. We will act to prevent both monopoly and excessive governmental regulation and to protect adequately the consuming public from irresponsible or deceptive business practices.

Labor and Industry

  Both management and labor must be held responsible for their economic behavior. Neither can be permitted to dominate at the expense of the other or of the common good. Anti-trust laws must be applied to all monopolies, whether of business or of labor. We will enforce stringently the laws forbidding strikes by federal government employees.
 
A person's right to work for an employer willing to hire him and his right to join or not join a labor union without affecting his employment must be protected. Employers and employees must be free to bargain and contract without governmental interference. Violence or coercion, by management or labor, must be prohibited.

States Rights

  Our Founding Fathers recognized the importance of both individual and states rights, and determined to preserve them by making the bill of rights an integral part of our Constitution.
 
We specifically reject any system of so-called 'regional government' which impose new units of government composed of non-elected officials between the states and the federal government and between the states and county and local government units. We pledge ourselves to action that will preserve, and where necessary restore, the legitimate Constitutional rights guaranteed to the several states.

Individual Rights

  All American citizens, regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin are entitled to equality of treatment under the provisions of our Constitution and under the laws of our land. We oppose the use of violence, anarchistic or arbitrary pressure tactics as a means of seeking to resolve tensions and divergencies of opinion among our citizens.
 
We oppose those proposals, including forced busing, which are seriously harming many public schools today, in the name of integration. We oppose all discriminatory measures such as quotas in employment or housing which discriminate against the majority as strongly as we oppose discriminatory measures against minority groups.

Public Morality

  We deplore the low level of public morality culminating in the shocking revelations of crime and of political and economic corruption which have characterized recent years.
 
We will break the unholy alliance which has made these things possible. We will strengthen and enforce laws against gambling, narcotics and commercialized vice, emphasize the basic importance of spiritual and moral values to the development of growth of an enduring nation, (sic) and maintain the integrity of our system of government by careful law enforcement and loyal support of our Constitution.

Right-to-Life

  The God-given right to life should not be arbitrarily denied by governmental action. The massive destruction of unborn infants by some state abortion-on-demand laws is morally indefensible. We support a Constitutional Amendment to protect the unborn by prohibiting abortion except in those very rare cases where the life of the mother is seriously endangered.
 
We oppose any legislation which would allow, encourage or authorize the practice of euthanasia (so-called mercy killing). We hold that life is the gift of God and that it is the responsibility of government to protect life — not to abort or shorten it.

Military Preparedness

  Believing that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty we declare for a sound program of military preparedness. While praying for peace we cannot place our freedom in peril by ignoring potential threats to our nation. We will work hard to protect the taxpayer by eliminating the unnecessary waste and duplication in military programs.
 
We are gratified that, at last, our government has adopted the concept of a peacetime voluntary armed forces which was first advocated by the Prohibition Party.

National Sovereignty

  We declare our belief in national sovereignty and oppose surrender of this sovereignty to any international organization.

Welfare

  The Prohibition Party has always pioneered in social reform. We favor the rendering of help to the handicapped, the aged, the chronically ill and those families without a breadwinner.
 
The undeserving must be removed from the rolls and emphasis must be placed on helping more welfare recipients become self-supporting or a taxpayers revolt may well result in the death of the entire welfare program.
 
We reject the idea of a guaranteed annual income. Such a program would further swell the welfare ranks and stifle initiative among those with incomes slightly above the welfare level.
 
The government practice of providing birth-control devices to minors without consent of their parents is one which encourages immorality and must be ended.

Marriage and Divorce

  Ordained of God, the home is a sacred institution which must be protected and preserved. We favor the enactment of uniform marriage and divorce laws by the several states as an aid to building strong and enduring homes.

Church and State

  We support the Constitutional Principle of Separation of Church and State and oppose any attempt to weaken or subvert this fundamental principle. We support tax exemption for non-profit religious institutions including church publishing houses but we favor full taxation of all income received by religious organizations from operations which compete with private tax-paying businesses. We oppose the appropriation of any public money for private religious or sectarian purposes.

Religious Liberty

  We believe in the freedom of the individual to worship, to fellowship with others of similar faith, to evangelize, to educate and to establish religious institutions as his conscience dictates. We oppose efforts to restrict freedom of religious broadcasting and the establishment of new churches. The Internal Revenue Service must be prohibited from using its power to control tax exemption to discriminate against any religious body as it has done in the past. Our government should oppose religious persecution anywhere in the world and refuse to extend any aid to nations which practice such persecution.

Ballot Law Reform

  In most states Republicans and Democrats have enacted election laws designed to either prevent other political parties from gaining access to the ballot or require them to spend all their meagre resources to do so. They fear competition which will give voters an alternative to their bankrupt policies.
 
We demand passage of state laws which will end this two-party monopoly of the electoral system and give to all legitimate political parties and to Independents their Constitutional rights. Such rights should not extend to those who are dedicated to the overthrow of our governmental system by means of subversion or the use of physical force.

Education

  Under the Tenth Amendment, public education is clearly to be under the control of the states and the people. We therefore oppose all direct federal aid to education and to federal interference in education matters, whether such interference comes from the executive, legislative or judicial branches of the federal government. Each state should support and control its own educational program.

Social Security

  We endorse the principle of an actuarially sound Social Security program. The present system is NOT actuarially sound and is destructive of individual initiative and freedom. We propose to reform the system by:

  1. Allowing workers the option of placing their payments and those of their employers into private insurance and retirement plans.
  2. Establishing a sound actuarial basis for taxes and payments which will be fairer to taxpayers and recipients and will eliminate the need for ever-increasing tax-rates to sustain the system.
  3. The removal of any penalty for those who continue to work after becoming eligible for Social Security retirement payments.
  4. A built-in system of adjusting Social Security payments as inflation requires without making such increases a political consideration.

Agriculture and Environment

  The production and distribution of agricultural products is of vital importance to our economy. Those engaged in agricultural pursuits, like other American citizens, should be free from authoritarian control and coercion. Likewise, consumers should not be subjected to artificially contrived higher food prices. We therefore propose a sane and sensible return to free market program with the elimination of all governmental controls and subsidies.

Public Health

  We favor the continuance of the legal bans against such harmful drugs as marijuana, LSD and heroin. Since tobacco has been identified as the prime cause of lung cancer and many other health problems we oppose promotional advertizing and government subsidies for tobacco products.
 
We advocate new laws to adequately protect citizens against unjust incarceration in mental institutions. We oppose those programs of mass medication which violate individual rights.
 
We favor strong governmental anti-pollution programs since clean air and pure water supply are benefits which should be available to all citizens.
 
We oppose socialized medicine and urge an end to federal interference in the operation of hospitals, nursing homes and other medical care facilities.

The Alcohol Problem

  Beverage alcohol is today the chief cause of poverty, broken homes, juvenile delinquency, vice, crime, political corruption, wasted manpower, and highway accidents. By conservative estimates more than 20,000,000 Americans are now alcoholics or problem drinkers.
 
Contrary to the promises made when Prohibition was repealed, bootlegging is today a growing business. The liquor traffic itself estimates that one-third of all alcoholic beverages consumed in America today is illegally produced and sold. An estimated 400,000 Americans die yearly because of highway death, homicides, and health problems which can be traced directly to beverage alcohol.
 
The liquor traffic is linked with and supports a nationwide network of gambling, vice and crime. It also dominates the Republican and Democrat parties and, thru them, much of the governmental and political life of our nation. This is one of the major reasons for the inability of either party to operate on a morally sound basis.
 
The Prohibition Party alone offers a program to deal with this greatest of all social ills. We pledge ourselves to a program of publicity, education, legislation and administration, leading to the elimination of the liquor traffic. We will repeal all laws which legalize the traffic and rigorously enforce new laws which will prohibit the manufacutre, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Challenge

  Voters who are concerned about the wide-spread corruption and erosion of our freedoms accompanied by a new low level of morality in government will NOT see a solution to those problems if they continue to give their support to the two parties which generated those problems. The Prohibition Party, with a clean record of over one-hundred years of service to America, invites the support of all who believe in the foregoing program of good government.
 
Our bi-centennial observance can mark a turning point in America's history if enough voters will support the one party dedicated to the basic principles upon which this nation was founded.

note:  The 1975 nominating convention voted 15-14 against capital punishment, but this position was not included in the platform.  Source:  Lee Kennicutt, personal communication

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