The Reform Party – What Went Wrong An Why
Part 1 – © 2009 Independent News Services – Written by: Steven Thompson “A piece of American history you won’t find in any High-School or College text book”
The political saga began in 1992 following an interview between Larry King and H. Ross Perot. Prior to this interview, few in the Pacific Northwest had ever heard of Ross Perot. The more I heard of Perot the more interested I became.
As Perot’s popularity became unavoidable, I started receiving telephone calls from friends up and down the west coast. “Hey, have you heard about Perot and his group, United We Stand America?”
Soon after, I asked around town and learned about the Perot For President campaign office that had opened on North Division Street in Spokane. The place was buzzing with people to include the Washington State Director of UWSA, Mrs. Connie Smith. It didn’t take long for me to sign up, pay my membership dues and walk away with my Perot For President bumper sticker and campaign sign.
This was way too cool. As with most folks you talk to, two-party politics had become boring, “ain’t a dimes worth of difference” most would say. I couldn’t disagree. Perot was talking about real issues and he’d go on national television with placards that showed simple to understand charts and graphs.
Since this piece is a brief history of the Reform Party, I’ll now move to 1993 but, before doing so, I’ll simply state that H. Ross Perot pulled 24% of the Washington State vote in the 1992 general election. I’ll further state that Perot was invited and successfully participated in the televised 1992 Presidential Debates between the incumbent George Bush Sr. and the former Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton.
In 1993, Larry King Live once again hosted Ross Perot. This interview however included the participation of newly elected Vice-President Al Gore. The topic of debate was the much discussed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This is when the phrase “Giant Sucking Sound” became a well know term coined by Ross Perot. The phrase was meant as a graphical expression for good paying American jobs moving to Mexico.
Vice-President Gore argued in favor of NAFTA while Perot was strongly making his case against it. To help sell NAFTA, Gore stated what would become one of the biggest lies of his political history, “We’ll give NAFTA six months and if it doesn’t work we’ll pull out.” The pitch Gore made was that NAFTA would be a win-win for both the U.S. and Mexican workers. Looking back, there’s still no thriving middle-class in Mexico consuming U.S. made products as Gore had promised. The Mexican people who work in these factories live in cardboard shacks, many are without running water just as they did prior to NAFTA.
The true benefactors of any recent U.S. foreign trade policy has been investors on Wall Street and Big Box stores like Wal-Mart who have made a fortune selling cheaply made foreign products to a struggling and greatly weaker U.S. middle-class and poor. Let’s all agree that Americas elite rarely shop at cut rate stores like Wal-Mart.
Looking back, Vice-President Gore had also stated that the U.S. was converting from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy. NAFTA became standard trade policy over seventeen years ago. During this time, the American middle-class has fallen further towards the poverty line even though a large number of U.S. households have two working members. In 2009, service based jobs are being sent offshore. So, Mr. Gore, what form of economy do we have today? Fraud-Based perhaps?
In 1994, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Thomas Foley(D) was also my 5th Congressional District representative. The majority of the big issues that Perot spoke of in 1992 were now found in what was being billed as the ‘Contract For America’. Anytime the mainstream press spoke of the contract it always referred to it as a document written and engineered by then Congressman Newt Gingrich. However, for those of us who were paying attention, we knew full well where the contract came from (Perot), we also knew why the Republican party all of a sudden decided to embraced it.
Without the Perot vote, the 1994 Republican revolution wouldn’t happen. The Republicans ran a large number of unknowns that included George Nethercutt. Across America these candidates spoke of a new contract that would include issues such as term limits so America could once and for all rid itself of tax and spend incumbents who’d been in Congress for so long that they’d lost touch with reality back home. George Nethercutt stated that he’d serve three terms then return back home if we voted for him and toss out the sitting House Speaker.
How could the Independent voter in Washington’s 5th congressional district not believe what Mr. Nethercutt was saying? After all, Ross Perot himself flew into Spokane and gave a much publicized stump speech encouraging all of his supporters from 1992 to believe in the Contract For America. As a side note. Ed Rollins, a GOP consultant was hired by Perot in 1992 to manage his campaign. In 1994, Ed Rollins was in Spokane working to defeat Tom Foley. In a May 11, 2009 television appearance on CNN, Rollins stated, “The Republican party is in the wilderness.” This is a major understatement. The truth? Due to excessive lying, fraud and deception, the Republican party is in the toilet where it’s belonged since 1994.
House Speaker Tom Foley did little to confront what the Republicans were doing. I remember attending a well publicized debate between Speaker Foley and his Republican challenger. The event was held in the auditorium at North Central High School. The place was packed with Republicans and Independents. If there were any Democrats in attendance they were greatly outnumbered. The place was buzzing with energy while we waited, and waited, and waited for the debate to begin. Finally, almost an hour behind schedule, the lights went down over the audience and the curtains flew open. I couldn’t believe what I saw next. There were two podiums, a few feet apart and only one candidate, George Nethercutt.
Not wanting to disappoint what were hundreds of voters who’d taken the time to attended the event. The moderator went on with the show and Mr. Nethercutt would answer the questions and then poke fun at Speaker Foley by turning to the empty podium and ask the no show what he thought! This of course brought cheers and laughter from a friendly crowd and more or less sealed the deal for those Independents who were in attendance.
Was House Speaker Thomas Foley conceding the election? Or, did Speaker Foley think in his own mind, and that of his campaign handlers, that he had the 1994 re-election won and didn’t need to participate in this very well attended debate?
From mid-summer to the November 1994 general election, De-Foley-Ate buttons and campaign signs were everywhere. Nethercutt didn’t miss a beat and made sure to sell the Contract For America everywhere he went.
The day after the November election, House Speaker Thomas Foley knew he’d lost and the 5th. Congressional district had a new rookie congressman who was going to serve a maximum of three two-year terms and, begin the process of reforming the federal government as mandated in the Contract For America. As a side note, Nethercutt broke his promise by serving a fourth term. He then took a K-Street lobbyist job in DC and to my knowledge has never moved back to Spokane. In 1994, George Nethercutt lied through his teeth and was 8-years later rewarded by K-Street con artists for doing so.
As weeks turned into months with the newly elected Republican Congress and new House Speaker Newt Gingrich in power, the much publicized Contract was becoming more and more of a liability. As we should of guessed, Republicans started to back peddle, the contract took on more of the appearance of being a non-binding concept. America was back to ‘business as usual’. A once active local Republican activist, Mr. Clark Hager has recently admitted that the Gingrich contract was nothing but a political ploy.
The mainstream press didn’t seem to care much about the Republican promises being broken. Conservative talk show hosts were now turning against the issue of term limits for members of Congress now that they were in complete control. When Independents called into these talk shows to pressure the Republicans into keeping their word, they were quickly cutoff and referred to as ignorant perotista’s. Talk radio shows once hosted by any Independent host quickly disappeared. The entire talk radio media was now nothing but a pile of worthless GOP cheerleaders pretending that Americas body politic is comprised of nothing but Liberals and Conservatives.
I cannot speak for all Independents, but personally, I felt like I’d been duped once again by a political organization that our federal government and mainstream press hold in high regard. H. Ross Perot must of felt betrayed as well. The 1996 presidential election was right around the corner and the urge to run again became stronger as each day passed.
By this time, I’d become fully convinced that I could never again trust or even consider the possibility of becoming a Republican. In my opinion, a person of honor, worthy of being placed in a position of power, sworn to protect and defend Americas Constitution, must at all times remain true to his word and principles. The GOP had proven time and again to be neither true to its word or principles. Why, in 2009, the mainstream press continues to place any stock in people like Ed Rollins is beyond me. These people have made a fortune by practicing their art of deception for a mainstream press that must in itself find little value in reporting the real truth and nothing but.
Do either of the two dominate political parties that our federal government and mainstream press hold in such high regard have any legitimate reason to dominate Americas body politic? My confidence in government was completely shattered. Those around me would say, ‘get over it, that’s the game of politics’, but to me, running our cities, counties, states and country isn’t a game, it’s serious business. We have rights, liberties and freedom to protect. When our kids are recruited, trained, armed and shipped around the world, it’s our, ‘The Peoples’ duty to ensure that they’re serving Americas best interests, not Wall Street or Big Oil.
During the time leading up to the 1996 election season, I became involved with a small group in Seattle who represented the Patriot Party. This organization adopted principles that I fully agreed with and before to long I joined. By early spring, 1996, rumors began to circulate that Perot was going to once again run for President. The early indications coming from most of the mainstream press didn’t sound very positive. Perot was being described as ‘the little nut case from Texas who doesn’t have a rats ass chance of winning’. So much for objectivity. Now, let’s remember that Perot was the true author of the much praised and reported upon Contract for America just two years prior and, the press didn’t mind reporting on Perot when he campaigned for Republicans.
The Perot for President machine of 1992 had been duped by the Republican Party in 1994. We weren’t stupid then, we were merely persuaded into believing the GOP. When Perot attempted to re-energize his 1992 ground forces he quickly learned that we now wanted something more than his desire to become President. We wanted an Independent political party that would grow and build into a major Independent political force. We wanted to develop and nurture our political flavor of honesty, ethics and integrity. We also wanted to run and win Local, State and Congressional races.
After several meetings between Perot and various former state UWSA leaders and leaders of small Independent parties such as the Patriot Party, Perot agreed to run and support the newly formed Reform Party of the United States of America (RPUSA).
Independent voters once again had legitimate reasons to be energized. It was time to get to work. The Reform Party needed to quickly come together, adopt our Principles of Reform and our party platform. One would think that the mainstream press would be greatly interested in what we were doing, but they weren’t. The press was more interested in promoting the values, or lack thereof, of the two major party candidates, Bill Clinton(D) and Bob Dole(R).
In 1996, H. Ross Perot filed to run as a Reform Party candidate. A major difference between the 1996 and 1992 election was the fact that Perot didn’t have what appeared to be an unlimited source of revenue (mostly his own). Ross Perot won 20% of the national vote in 1992 and qualified for Federal Election Commission funding. However, if he chose to accept it, he’d be limited on what he could spend from his own massive pocketbook. At some point, national leaders and Perot decided to accept the federal funding. This decision would later prove to be the wrong choice.
The first mission of the Reform Party was to go through the complicated process of getting Perot on the ballot in all 50 states. We’d gone through the very same awkward process four years earlier. This time, the task would be much easier and less expensive. Ballot access for a Presidential candidate can be a very daunting task. Every state has it’s own rules and procedures. In some states it’s a very simple process while in other states the tasks can be far from simple. For an unwelcome Independent candidate, legal expenses are often incurred just to get through all the political hoops and legal red tape. The Republicans and Democrats, with full bi-partisan support, do everything in their power to fend off any outside competition. Most Republican and Democrat incumbents, along with the mainstream press, will be quick to point out that the two-party system works perfectly and is without flaw. Any American with a shred of intelligence knows that the two-party system is far from perfect, it always works for the haves, this would include the corporate controlled press and, it occasionally tosses out a peanut or two (all to often broken promises) for the have-not’s.
As the Reform candidate moved forward, the press was chomping at the bit. Instead of being the objective political watchdog that reports on what happened and why, the press seemed hell bent on not simply reporting the news, but breaking the news. Ross Perot’s first obstacle, as the front running candidate of the newly formed Reform Party was winning the party’s nomination. Former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm had also decided to run. Ballots were sent out via registered mail to any and all Reform Party members who’d joined the party prior to the primary deadline. The ballots were sent and received by an independent private company hired by the party. The results of the mail in primary vote were disclosed at the Reform Party national nominating convention. As expected, Ross Perot and his newly named running mate, Dr. Pat Choate won the nomination. As with all primary elections, losers walk away dejected, nobody enjoys losing an election. The mainstream press, wanting to discredit Perot, made front page news out of the negative comments made by Dick Lamm. However, any legitimate news coming from the Reform Party rarely made the back page throughout the entire 1996 campaign. An independent, totally objective press would of wanted to cover our principles of reform and our newly adopted platform. Instead of educating the American public on who we were and why, the press was mostly interested in slanting the news by reminding the public of mishaps that happened four years prior. The Reform Party was a major threat to status quo government. Big money behind the DNC, RNC, Wall Street and K-Street were out to discredit us any way possible. When the press wasn’t in attack mode they simply ignored us, as if we didn’t exist.
Pat Choate was a man to be reckoned with. Choate was an experienced economist, but not the typical beltway, bend-over friendly type. In fact, Dr. Pat Choate was the opposite. One of the books Dr. Choate was best known for writing was titled, Agents Of Influence. This book exposed the corruption and power held by the unelected K-Street lobby. Perot and Choate were serious candidates that sent absolute fear throughout the nations capital and beyond. The Reform Party was equally serious. We knew what was really going on (FRAUD) within our federal government and as today, weren’t impressed. If the true messages of our candidates were able to reach the masses via a 100% unbiased and objective press, Perot/Choate had a real shot at winning the 1996 Presidential election.
As the campaign moved ever closer to election day, the Presidential Debates were about to happen. In 1992, Ross Perot was invited to participate in the Presidential debates organized and sponsored by the non-partisan League of Women Voters. In the 1992 debates, Perot’s numbers shot up as many who’d watched thought he won. The fear of Perot and the Reform Party had the establishment playing defense. The best way to eliminate outside competition from spoiling the outcome is to not invite them. Since the League of Women Voters was non-partisan, the partisans had to figure out a way of removing control of the debates from the League of Women Voters and give this control to Republican and Democrat hacks. Congress was quick to oblige by creating a new commission for this sole purpose. The members of the Commission On Presidential Debates are not elected by the people, nor are they non-partisan.
When the news hit the street that Perot/Choate wouldn’t be invited to participate in the 1996 Presidential debates we were shocked. Perot received one out of every five votes in the general election of 1992. One of three votes in 1996 would create a dead heat and, had our message, party, and candidates received the same objectivity as Clinton and Dole, Perot/Choate could of easily outperformed 1992 results. For all intent and purpose, the 1996 Presidential election was over before election day. Perot/Choate received thirty million dollars from the Presidential Election Fund (this is revenue collected by checking the Presidential Fund box on your 1040 tax return) and were deprived of their constitutional right of equal participation in a free, uncorrupted Presidential election.
Thirty-million dollars of taxpayer money was wasted by the American press who misrepresented the actual facts of what should of been a historical Presidential campaign. Their collective lust for power has all but destroyed any real integrity in our sacred political process. It’s hard to believe how the U.S. federal government can be so committed in the process of using military force to install democracy in other countries while at the same time, restricting the practice of true democracy at home. Where’s our political watchdog? The Associated Press, Reuters, ABC, CBS, CNN (with the exception of Larry King and Lou Dobbs), PBS (with the exception of Bill Moyers and at times Charlie Rose), NBC, MSNBC, FOX, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and many others, when you pull the taxpayer supplied satin sheets all the way down you’ll find them in bed with the two-party/K-Street/Wall Street corrupter’s who for their own collective greed will trample on the citizens right to self-governance. I pity anyone who continues to believe that this FRAUD is true democracy.
In 2009, is it any real surprise why the purveyors of propaganda are in dire financial trouble? They’ve made their fortunes lying to the consumers of their product. Could any other non-trustworthy business survive when their consumers finally catch on? Have Presidential elections since 1992 been stolen from the people? Yes, we have the choice of voting for Mutt or Jeff but, what’s the real difference between Mutt and Jeff? If Mutt and Jeff ran together on the same ticket would anybody notice?
Part 2 – will be published in the very near future, as soon as I get my blood pressure back under control.
Are you having trouble believing what I’ve said about the media? If yes, ask the Boston Globe why the following wasn’t published on their website at www.boston.com… The piece was written on Friday, May 8, 2009 in response to this story: politicalintelligence
My comment should have been placed as comment #21. The site accepted the comment but didn’t post it. Do yourself a big favor, ask the Boston Globe why they chose to censor my opinion on how they can save their future in light of their past?
CENSORED COMMENT
“Newspapers wouldn’t be up against the wall if they were 100% objective in their reporting.
Publishers need to fully understand that the people have many sources for news. They must also understand that the people are waking up to the mass propaganda that’s been portrayed as news for many decades.
A case in point, back in the mid 1990’s a new political party was being formed across America. The party resonated with millions of voters. The mainstream press and the Republican party did everything they could to destroy the credibility of this party.
Congress went as far as stripping the presidential debate process away from the non-partisan League Of Women Voters and gave it to a partisan debate commission that has all but guaranteed that Independent voices will never again see the presidential debate stage.
Another case in point, the 106th congress deregulated the banking, insurance and investment securities trades via S-900. Lobbyist soon flocked to the State of Georgia to kill state regulations on predatory lending. North Carolina and Iowa sent AG’s to meet with Bush administration officials requesting that the states be able to protect their people from predatory lenders. The entire landscape was rigged to prey upon the nations poor and middle-class.
Who in the media is raisin’ hell and taking names? Who in the media is demanding a complete and full Pecora Trial to hold all who were involved accountable?
If you really want to save your newspaper, try doing your job. Forget about Liberal and Conservative. Republican and Democrat. Nobody cares. I want, “Liberty and Justice For All.” If we’re not interested in holding everyone accountable for the massive control fraud that created our economic meltdown. Then let’s be consistent by freeing Bernie Madoff.
If newspapers die it’s because newspaper publishers allowed it to happen”.
Steven Thompson
Independent News Services
http://www.freedomfromthepress.net
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