The Unofficial 1998 Democratic Platform by Marc Perkel

The Man with the Vision Thing

There are few people in this world who have "The Vision Thing". I am one of them. I am not someone who regroups old ideas into new packages and adds a few slogans like "family values" and tries to pass it off a visionary. I'm a leader and I come up with fresh courageous ideas that are well thought out and make sense. Right now the only person in the Democratic Party who has vision is President Clinton, and the Republicans haven't had a visionary since Barry Goldwater, who's views are similar to Clinton's.

What makes my platform so interesting? Maybe it's interesting because of who's scared of my ideas. The chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party says of Marc Perkel in an Associated Press interview, "He's clearly out of the mainstream of Democratic Politics. My greatest concern is that the kinds of things that are on his web site. We don't want people to confuse what he's saying as party politics or the party's positions."

Joe Carmichael is a friend of mine and I understand why he says what he says, however, he has not called me to discuss my views and he really doesn't know where I stand. He also underestimates my political savvy and my ability to affect, improve, and to put the Democratic Party back on course to retaking the House and the Senate. Joe is a conservative party insider and I am not an insider. The Democratic Party will probably never tell me where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. I am a wildcard and I therefore make people nervous. So the party's reaction to me is understandable. If I were a Republican, I would scare them even more.

Joe Carmichael is a lawyer and although he's an honest lawyer, he is a member of the Missouri Bar and the Missouri Bar is not in favor of enforcing ethical standards on attorneys. As to his comment that not running any candidate is better than Marc Perkel, I would point out that if the Missouri Courts enforced their own ethics standards, I wouldn't be running for office. So if the Missouri Bar is offended by my candidacy, I would point out that I would not be running if not for The Law Firm of Wear and Sharp. Any pain that Missouri lawyers and judges are experiancing because I am running for Congress can be directly attributed to this law firm. When the Supreme Court of Missouri allows crooked lawyers and incompetent judges to flourish, people like me are going to run for office. I'd rather be programming computers, but I can't allow the courts to undermine the Constitution of the United States and to turn the justice system into a criminal organization to be used as a tool for crooked lawyers to rip off the public. So Joe, I say to you as a friend and a fellow Democrat, let's join together and bring ethics back to the courts and enforce the Rules of Professional Conduct. Then if the Democratic Party doesn't want to run a candidate for Congress, I won't stand in the way.

Although Joe has stated what the Democrats don't stand for, no Democrat has stood up to be the voice of the Democratic Party. President Clinton took the Democratic Party in a new direction, towards reforming welfare and personal responsibility for carrying your own weight. He cut government programs and reduced government spending. He, with the help of the Republicans, passed GATT and NAFTA opening up the world for free trade. Clinton put Democrats back on the political map.

I think Democrats can win this year by identifying with people who are being hassled by the law, the government, and the courts. It's not just criminals anymore, it's everyone. The Government is coming down on honest hard working people and hounding them to death. That's what they're doing to President Clinton and 3 out of 4 voters want it to end. People don't like what's happening to the President and they don't like what's happening to their friends and neighbors. People don't like the fact that it looks like the Government is becoming more intrusive into the personal life of private citizens. At the risk of being accused of ripping off the ideas of the Libertarian party, I think that the public wants the Government out of their lives and that it would be smart for the Democratic Party to identify with the voters on the issues of privacy and the right to be left alone be Uncle Sam.

The public wants the Clinton persecution to stop but the Republicans refuse to do that. They are trying to destroy the President we elected and they don't like it. A majority of Republican voters want the Starr persecution to end. But the Republicans are not going to give the voters what they want. They are trying to win through persecution what they failed to achieve at the ballot box. The only way that the voters are going to get what they want is to vote the Republicans out and let the Democrats shut down the witch hunt. Maybe if we get in power we can investigate illegal funding of Republican elections. Wouldn't that be interesting.

So, it's my belief that the Democrats can take back the Congress this year, but only if they are smart enough. And what smart enough means is addressing the issues that are important to the public. That is what I have outlined here. As someone with a 150+ IQ it is obvious to me what needs to be done. I just hope the rest of my party figures out that I am right about this and it's time for the party to "have the balls" to do what needs to be done. We can't go into the 21st century as the party of Liberals, Lawyers, and Labor.

In 1994 the Democratic Party distanced themselves from Clinton and the Democratic voters were offended. It turned out that Democrats liked Clinton and not the Democratic Congress and Democrats stayed home and now we have the party of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in control of both houses. Now that President Clinton has been caught with his pants down with Monica, the Democrats can't figure out what to do. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have their political fingers in the wind looking for a direction. The Democratic Party, without Clinton, does not have a vision or a direction. The void is huge and the silence is deafening.

Thus I, Marc Perkel, Democratic Candidate for Congress now speaks from the void to give the party direction. Any other Democrat is free to refute my positions and my vision for the party. But if you don't like the Perkel Plan, put one forward of your own. I also invite candidates from other parties to review and adopt these positions. If an idea is a good idea, it's a good idea for Republican and Democrats alike. That's a radical idea, isn't it?

The Perkel Plan

Of all the candidates who have ever run for office, no one has published on the internet as many views as I have. You can go to my main index to get detailed information of my writings. Here I will lay out the issues briefly so as to send a short and sweet message as to the issues of the Democratic Party.

• Decriminalize Marriage - The citizens of this country have to be secure in their home and family. The family court systems however have made it a very profitable business to split up families and to allow crooked lawyers to use the authority of the justice system to steal every penny a family has and then some turning law abiding citizens and upstanding members of the community into criminals. We Democrats therefore seek the enforcement of ethical standards on lawyers and judges to prevent judicial abuse and restore justice to the justice system.

  In any advanced society a family must be secure from those who prey upon them. Lawyers who are ethicly compromized are allowed to use the justice system as a tool to destroy families and consume them. We citizens are not food for crooked lawyers and the Democratic Party will not continue to tolerate judicial policies that protect lawyers who lie cheat and steal at the expense of the public. The divorce rate is over 50% in a lage part because of the huge profits in tearing families apart. We Democrats feel the time has come to tell the family courts that they are here to serve the people and not to assist in legalized theft by crooked lawyers.

• Decriminalize Parenthood - There used to be a time when you could spank a child when he/she was bad and needed a good swat to correct antisocial behavior. Now the government wants to micromanage parenthood and will take your kids away from you and put you in jail for raising them in a politically incorrect manner. Kids need to be protected from serious abuse, but only serious abuse. Parents are not perfect and the Government has no business expecting perfection out of parents, especially the Governments changing view of what it considers perfection. It is therefore the position of the Democratic Party to keep the Government out of the private lives of families.

• Decriminalize Sex - The Government has been trying to move further and further into the private lives of consenting adults. People of religion are pushing virgin marriage monogamy as the only politically correct form of sex. Sex is a very personal act and varies widely from one individual to another. Sex is a necessary part of life because without sex, none of us would be here. Many Americans think that what President Clinton did with Monica Lewinski was wrong. President Clinton himself thinks what he did with Monica Lewinski was wrong. Nonetheless, it is the position of the Democratic Party that sex between consenting adults is none of the Government's damn business and that a person has a right to privacy in their choices of sexual behavior. If the Government can put the President on trial for his sexual behavior, they can put any of us on trial for our sexual behavior. And any government who has the power to tell you who you can have sex with has the power to tell you where you can go to church. Freedom and privacy means freedom and privacy for everyone.

• Decriminalize Poverty - More and more Americans are falling through the cracks in society and as they do they are finding they are becoming criminals. People will do what they have to do to survive. In all societies throughout history we have seen that women + poverty = prostitution. If a woman is selling herself to feed her kids, how is putting her in jail going to feed her kids? And does it make sense to incarcerate someone for 10 times the cost of social programs to help these women rise out of poverty? This is just one of many examples where we seem to be willing to spend lots of money on prisons and law enforcement while ignoring the cause of the problem.

  Not everything that is "bad" can be eliminated or reduced by making it illegal and putting people in jail. If the Government, for example, wants to reduce prostitution, then they will have better success by spending the money they presently spend on jails and law enforcenent on drug rehabilition, day care, and job training. That would leave prostitution to those women who are doing it because they want to, not because they have to. And what consenting adults do is none of the Government's business.

  Likewise, drug addiction is a medical problem that requires a medical solution. Decriminalizing drugs doesn't mean that you'll be able to buy Cocain at Get n' Go. It means that a doctor can perscribe Cocaine to a drug addict in connection with a drug treatment program. A Cocaine addict would then be able to live like someone who was hooked on Valium or Alcohol.

  Decriminalizing drugs does not send the message that drug addiction is OK. It sends the message that we as a society are committed to treating medical conditions and getting people back into society as normal tax paying members of society. Instead of telling kids that if you do drugs you are going to jail, we are telling kids that if you do drugs you are going to the hospital. Kids are more afraid of going to the hospital going to jail.

  As Democrats we realize that jail is not the solution for every problem and that we have to abandon our desire for vengence and look towards solutions to the problems of society that actually work. In fact, the concept of solutions that actually works has to be the cornerstone of any legislation that is written. We as Democrats realize that we are not going to solve poverty by persecuting the poor and unfortunate and putting people in jail because they are down on thier luck. Democrats are the party of people who have a heart as opposed to thos who don't have a heart, Democrats feel your pain as opposed to those who don't feel your pain, and Democrats put morality over moralizing. We Democrats believe in solutions instead of judgement.

• Judicial Self Regulation must end - The framers of the United States Constitution contemplated a balance of power and a checks and balance system whereby each branch of government has its thumb on each of the other branches. The judicial branch has opted out of the checks and balance system in violation of the Constitution. Since it is the job of the courts to uphold and interpret the constitution, this decision to self regulate becomes treason to the constitution. America does need to have an independent judiciary to make the tough judicial decisions to uphold the rights and freedoms of all our citizens. But we also need an honest and ethical court system where standards of honesty and integrity are considered to be a sacred trust.

  Because of self regulation, the judicial system has become a den of thieves for crooked lawyers and crooked judges who view the public as prey. The courts have lost the ability to enforce their own rules upon themselves and the rules of professional conduct are there only to create the illusion of ethical standards. The Democratic Party therefore declares that self regulation of the judicial system must end and that the Rules of Professional Conduct are to be strictly enforced. We Democrats believe that the rights of the people come before the profits of lawyers and that the courts are to serve the needs of the people rather than the self interests of the Bar.

  The courts are so arrogant that a county judge has more immunity that the President of the United States. I'm sure a county judge feels he's more important than the President, but I don't. The United State Supreme Court received over 7000 cases this year. My case was one of them. They only heard 33 cases. Are we to believe that out of 7000 cases filed that only 33 cases have merit? The United States Supreme Court has decided on its own that it is no longer going to do the people's work nor hear the people's cases. We Democrats say to the Supreme Court, this is Treason to the Constitution to only hear 33 cases. You work for us. Do your job!

• Civil Forfeiture is Unconstitutional - Under the guise of "fighting drugs" the United States Supreme Court has allowed the government to seize the property of Americans without due process of law. That means, for example, that if the Government thinks that you are growing Pot on your farm, they can take your farm away from you without having and evidence nor charging anyone with a crime. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows this is as wrong as you can get. We Democrats joined with the Republican Party to reform the IRS and end the presumption of guilt when facing the taxman. Like the presumption of guilt, civil forfeiture flies in the face of freedom, democracy, and due process of law. It is repugnant to the ideal Americans stand for. It is therefore the position of the Democratic Party to oppose this Government tyranny and put an end to civil forfeiture. We invite the Republicans to join us in this cause and to share the glory.

• Freedom from Government Harrassment - It seems that government is everywhere and always wanting to mess with you. Government keep enacting new laws and regulations that just make life difficult and serve no useful purpose. Government is an institution that is there only to serve the people, not rule them. But there are all kinds of stupid laws and forms and proceedures that irritate citizens. One example of this is the Post Office. There is nothing you can do to get the Post Office to continue to forward your mail for more than one year. One year is not long enough. They now have computers and it's less trouble and costs the post office less money to forward the mail than to return it to the sender. They say it is "their policy". Well their policy doesn't serve the needs of America and as their boss I'm telling them to change their policy and serve the people. It is therefore the goal of the Democratic Party to make the Government as user frieldly and painless as possible and to make the post office forward mail for more than one year.

• Ken Starr must Die! - President Clinton broke the law when he allowed Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate him. Clinton was naive when he thought that they would have a fair investigation and exonerate him on the Whitewater deal. He allowed the Government to investigate him to prove his innocence. That was wrong. In allowing the Government to investigate an individual without a crime is unconstitutional. This set a very bad legal precedent where the government can investigate people looking for a crime. With enough resources involved, the Government can criminalize every single person in this country. And that is what is happening here with President Clinton.

  We the voting electorate of the United States twice elected Clinton knowing that he had affairs. That is our choice as voters. It's not that we like his sexual choices, it's that we consider saving the country a billion dollars a day more important. America has made it's choice as President. If the Republicans think that family values are important then they should have run a candidate who didn't have a history of cheating on his wife. But the Republican Party chose Bob Dole who ran off and abandoned his family. Our President isn't perfect, but he's still married to the same woman. The point is that Ken Starr is not a special prosecutor, he's a special persecutor, and he's trying to undermine the constitution of the United States and thwart the will of the voters. This is a democracy. Get used to it.

  Ken Starr is a judicial insider and therefore can break the rule of law with impunity. The Courts let him leak grand jury testimony in violation of federal law. Starr can simultaneously represent Big Tobacco and work for the government to persecute the enemies of the nicotine cartel. Ken Starr is doing to the Constitution what Clinton did to Monica Lewinski. It just shows what sorry state the courts are in.

  I say therefore to the voting public, if you want two more years of Ken Starr then leave the Republicans in power. If you want this to come to an end and you think enough is enough and want the Congress to do their job and run the country, then return the Congress back to the control of the Democratic Party and we'll do the people's business.

• Pay of the National Debt First - Democrats against high taxes, but we reluctantly supported the 1993 tax hike because we needed to take responsibility and balance the budget and pay off the national debt. It was a tough choice and it cost us a lot of seats in the House and Senate, but we had to stop the Reagan/Bush deficit and it was the responsible thing to do. We can not leave this burden to the next generation.

  Now the budget is balanced and we have a surplus. Times are good, and when there's extra money, there's only one responsible thing to do, and that's pay down the national debt. We supported the tax increases so that we could get to this point and we are going to feel cheated if we don't shore up social security and pay off the debt. After we pay off the debt, then and only then should we cut taxes or raise spending.

  We don't like taxes any more than anyone else but if we don't pay off the debt we'll be paying a lot more taxes in the long run. A big tax cut now is very short sighted and it's what got us into trouble in the 1980s. We can aford to be irresponsible just because it's an election year. We Democrats say pay the debt off first, then cut taxes.

  

• We support President Clinton - President Clinton is one of the finest presidents this country has ever had. We Democrats are proud to support the President and we stand by him and his family in their hour of need. As President Clinton has taken care of America and kept his promise to balance the budget, we Democrats stand by him and thank him for his courage and leadership and vision that has brought this nation from the brink of financial ruin to the most prosperous nation on the planet. As you have been with us, Mr. President, we are behind you.

  We Democrats understand that no one is perfect and that we all have made mistakes. We do not support the idea that husbands should cheat on their wives. However, we recognize that no one is without sin and those presidents who have had affairs, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, were just as good as president as those who didn't have affairs, Truman, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Our thoughts are with the Clinton's in their hour of despair and it is our hope that the preservation of your marriage and your family sets an example for families staying together and forgiveness will balance the karmic debt of your indiscretions.

It is not presumptous for me to speak on behalf of all Democrats because I feel that some one has to. Any Democrat who doesn't identify with this platform can call me names and distance themselves from me and my ideas. If you feel I'm wrong then say so. I also invite the Republicans and the Libertarians to embrace these principles and I call on the electorate to speak out. I am a person who believes in reality, the way it really is. We as citizens complain when politicians lie to the public. However, we seem to expect politicians to lie to us. We elect the persons who tell us what we want to hear, so that's what they do. I'm telling it to you the way it is.