The Constitution Party's Prolonged Journey in the Political Wilderness by Mark Dankof

It was with a combination of sadness and dyspepsia that I read two columns today dealing with recent events of controversy in the Constitution Party. The first was Al Cronkrite's piece for Ether Zone entitled Political Malfeasance. The second was Paul deParrie's tome for Covenant News entitled The Constitution Party Goes Pro-Abort.

Both articles deal with tumult within the Constitution Party on the subject of abortion, especially as it relates to alleged deviation from the national platform on the part of the Constitution Party of Nevada. Cronkrite and deParrie inform readers today that the Nevada party, under Mormon influence, has decided to allow for exceptions to the pro-life position of the national party when rape and incest are involved. These news reports also indicate that Howard Phillips, the founder of the Constitution Party, has in some sense acquiesced in this ideological deviation to avoid losing the Nevada State Constitution Party, one of the most vibrant state affiliates the national organization has.

Most of my readers at BATR and Old Right Topic News are aware of my own past in the Constitution Party, having been their candidate for the United States Senate in Delaware in 2000 against the late William Roth (R.-DE) and the eventually victorious Thomas Carper (D.-DE). I still count Howard Phillips and Michael Peroutka, the Presidential candidate of the Party in 2004, as personal friends. I hope this feeling is mutual after my present observations today become public through BATR's Columnist Guild.

Let me simply say this: I am a pro-life Christian pastor, whose own position on the subject mirrors what has been the national position of the Constitution Party up to the present time. That has not changed.

At the same time, I must also say that the Constitution Party remains as a mere blip-on-the-radar screen in national American politics because of the public perception that the organization is a Johnny-One-Note conclave where abortion and school prayer seem to constantly dominate the political landscape and discourse of the Party to the virtual exclusion of anything else. Frankly, I believe that perception is accurate and justified.

My conclusion in this regard is a number of years old. In May of 2004, Michael Peroutka invited me to address his Maryland State Constitution Party National Convention on my take on the 2004 elections and what the Party needed to do to have a short and long term impact on the American political, economic, and cultural scene. I framed my own observations and recommended game plan as something entitled The Trinity Strategy. Read the text of my address in Maryland in 2004. Compare it to the Peroutka Presidential campaign conducted later that same year, and to today's published news accounts by Cronkrite and deParrie in Ether Zone and Covenant News. I think you will see why I feel the way I do about the Constitution Party's future as a viable national political entity in electoral politics in the United States. In my judgment, its endgame is the perpetual political abyss.

Let's face it. At a time when the United States is languishing in a no-win war of counter-insurgency in Iraq; getting ready for a nuclear military preemption of Iran which may well launch World War III; providing amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens; running budget and foreign trade deficits of astronomical proportions; continuing its governmental destruction of a once-vaunted manufacturing economy; signing off on globalist/New World Order trade treaties like NAFTA, GATT, and FTAA; and moving in the direction of a USA Patriot Act empowered Police State, what is the Constitution Party doing to provide average Americans with a vital 3rd party option?

The sickening news reported out of Nevada seems crystal clear in its answer: Absolutely nothing, which is why the Party will continue to languish as a national political option continuing to receive less than 1% of the national vote in Presidential election years.

It is a tragedy of monumental proportions. It causes me great pain to finally pen some public thoughts on what has happened. I do so with continued regard and love for my peers in paleo-conservative political activism who continue to toil within the vineyard of this Party which once had such great promise. And while it can be argued that the right road and initiative can still be regained, I share the position of SARTRE at BATR:

The American Republic is gone; the New World Order a distressing, but inevitable reality; the electoral political game an exercise in complete futility.

History, in my view, will soon vindicate my Editor.