Natural Law Party Platform

Introduction

Government Supported by Natural Law:
A New Approach to National Administration

The Natural Law Party holds that natural law is the solution to problems. Government can solve problems at their basis through scientifically proven programs to bring every citizen, and the entire nation, into accord with natural law. By accessing the full range of nature's intelligence and harnessing its power, individuals and nations can govern themselves with the same perfection in administration displayed throughout nature.

THE PROBLEM

The Federal Government is besieged by problems-and legislation has proven inadequate to eliminate them. The American pandemic of crime, random violence and drug abuse, disintegrating families, poverty, and staggering health costs has not responded to even the toughest legislation. Why?

Recent congressional initiatives to improve the quality of life in America have focused primarily on financial approaches-for example, shifting fiscal responsibility for the social "safety net" from the Federal Government to the states. But balancing the budget, reforming the tax structure, and addressing economic inequities will not stop Americans from falling ill, abusing drugs, or committing crimes (see our Health and Crime sections).

The debates over these bills have raised questions about the underlying cause of problems. In the search for answers, one theme increasingly heard is that the problem lies within-that all our problems are symptomatic of a deeper crisis of moral and spiritual values ^[1]. Yet no clear path to addressing this crisis has emerged.

To strengthen the moral and ethical fabric of our society, we need to look even deeper than the family structure and address the underlying cause of both family and social breakdown. We need to identify the fundamental cause of our problems and attack the problem at its source. Otherwise, more stringent welfare and child support rules will not by themselves instill stronger family values, eliminate teen pregnancy, restore a thriving work ethic, and encourage charity and volunteerism.

NATIONAL LAW AND NATURAL LAW

From the deepest perspective, our national problems have one underlying cause-violation of natural law ^[2].

Natural law is the orderly principles-the laws of nature-that govern the functioning of nature everywhere, from atoms to ecosystems to galaxies. Over the past several centuries, modern science has identified many of these laws governing physical, biological, ecological, and social systems. Natural law is inherently "life-supporting": it supports the life and evolution of innumerable species ^[3].

Natural law is not a new idea in American government. Our founding fathers believed that the rights of every American citizen to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are based on immutable laws of nature. They felt that, through knowledge of natural law, both science and government would promote the goals of freedom and happiness of the people ^[4].

Human behaviors that promote life, liberty, and happiness are in harmony with natural law. When people live in harmony with natural law, they don't make mistakes-they spontaneously uphold higher values, and they enjoy naturally good health and a life free from problems ^[5]. However, the knowledge of natural law uncovered by modern science-and disseminated through our educational system-has been insufficient to enable citizens to live and act in accord with the laws of nature. Thus, the whole population is constantly violating natural law, causing problems for themselves and their communities.

"Violation of natural law" is action that fails to take natural advantage of the laws of nature, or that stimulates them in ways that cause negative repercussions. Smoking is an example of behavior that runs counter to the natural laws that support good physical health.

Violation of natural law causes stress. Stress has consequences for both mental and physical health; the majority of all disease is said to be stress related ^[6]. Stress causes a complex psychophysiological chain reaction in the human body. Chronic, acute stress leads to an out-of-balance biochemistry that has also been linked with anxiety, fear, anger, impulsive violent behavior, and substance abuse ^[7].

Moreover, the combined stress of all the individuals in society builds up and creates a dangerous, criminal atmosphere in the whole community. This epidemic of stress has rent our social fabric and threatens the lives of Americans everywhere.

The government reflects this social disorder. Government is a mirror of the nation. When the country is full of stress and crime, this chaotic atmosphere has a debilitating effect on the performance of government ^[2].

To deal with all the problems engendered by social stress, government responds with laws, regulations, and costly social programs designed to protect us from ourselves. Most of the activities of our government-and most of our tax dollars-are spent compensating for the violations of natural law by the population. The laws and programs, however, can't solve the problems.

We can have a smaller, more efficient and effective government, one that is capable of solving problems. Such a government would function in alliance with natural law.

THE SOLUTION

The best government is "nature's government"-natural law, which governs the universe with perfect order and without a problem. Nations can govern themselves with this same perfection in administration.

The most effective way governments can deal with problems is to prevent them in the first place-by enabling people to stop violating natural law. How? Not through legislation, but through education that brings the life of every citizen, and the nation as a whole, into harmony with natural law.

How does one learn to think and act in accord with natural law? Understanding specific laws of nature (for example, learning about the health risks of smoking) is helpful. But the laws of nature are too vast and complex to be fully comprehended intellectually. And intellectual understanding alone is not enough to guarantee life in accord with natural law. A new kind of education is needed that will enable every citizen to live-and every government to function-spontaneously in harmony with natural law.

The most modern and most ancient understandings of natural law describe a universal level of nature's intelligence underlying all forms and phenomena in the universe, including the human mind and body. Modern physics has glimpsed this unified source of all the laws of nature. The oldest tradition of knowledge of natural law, the Vedic tradition of India, describes this universal level of nature's intelligence and states that it can be located-and accessed-at the deepest level of the human mind, at the level of pure consciousness ^[2].

For thought and action to be in tune with natural law, it is necessary to experience and develop pure consciousness. This is not the commonly understood idea of "consciousness-raising"-becoming more sensitive to or knowledgeable about issues. Pure consciousness is the fundamental level of awareness, the basis of all thinking and behavior. It is the deepest level of natural law in the individual, which is identical with the deepest level of natural law that administers the entire universe. Developing consciousness means connecting individual life with this holistic value of natural law-with nature's government.

1. To bring the life of individuals into accord with natural law, education must provide a technique to give them direct access to the holistic value of natural law in pure consciousness.

One such technique identified by science is the Transcendental Meditation program of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Transcendental Meditation technique (which originates in the Vedic tradition) is a simple, natural, effortless procedure that allows the conscious mind to settle down and directly experience pure consciousness-the simplest form of human awareness, where consciousness is open to itself.This experience creates a unique state of restful alertness in mind and body, which dissolves accumulated stress and fatigue while developing the individual's latent creative potential and ability to think and act in tune with natural law.

Extensive scientific research has documented the many positive effects of bringing individual consciousness into harmony with natural law. More than 600 studies, conducted at over 200 independent universities and research institutions, have shown that these techniques increase individual intelligence and creativity, reduce stress and stress-related behavior such as anxiety, hostility, and aggression, and improve mental and physical health ^[8].

The research shows that as individuals practice this technique and gain intimate familiarity with the holistic value of natural law in their own consciousness, they spontaneously begin to think and act more in harmony with the laws of nature that support health and well-being for themselves and their social environment. They are less inclined to violate these natural laws. Relevant findings include improved health and reduced health care costs ^[9], decreased drug, alcohol, and tobacco abuse ^[10], decreased criminal recidivism ^[11], and improved psychological and moral development ^[12].

The Natural Law Party strongly recommends that this program for developing consciousness be made available to students in our educational system, so that students learn from an early age how to live in accord with natural law. In addition, rehabilitation and law enforcement agencies should immediately adopt this successful approach to reducing crime and substance abuse.

2. To fully address social problems, governments must reduce social stress by bringing the whole society into accord with natural law.

Society as a whole has a "collective consciousness," which is the sum of the consciousness of all its individual members. Individual consciousness influences collective consciousness, and in turn is influenced by it ^[2,13].

If collective consciousness can be brought in tune with natural law, the whole population will cease to violate the laws of nature. Social stress will be reduced, and problems such as crime and violence will automatically decrease.

Research verifies that one powerful and successful program to reduce stress in collective consciousness and promote social harmony and well-being is practice of the TM-Sidhi program by groups together in one location. The TM-Sidhi program is an advanced meditation program to release stress, which leads to improved cognitive ability ^[14], intelligence ^[15], health ^[16], and psychological and moral development ^[17]. The TM-Sidhi program includes the technique of "Yogic Flying." Research has found that EEG brain wave coherence increases dramatically during TM-Sidhi Yogic Flying ^[18], accompanied by the subjective experience of deep happiness and exhilaration.

The TM-Sidhi program is not, however, practiced solely for its beneficial effects on the individual. Its chief purpose is to produce profoundly positive effects in collective consciousness. When groups practice the TM-Sidhi program together, they enliven the deepest level of natural law throughout the whole population. Forty-two scientific studies have shown that such "coherence-creating" groups (comprising as little as the square root of 1% of the population) promote highly significant decreases in violent crime and other negative tendencies, and increases in positive social and economic trends ^[19].

3. Government should function with the efficiency and effectiveness of nature's government.

The Natural Law Party promotes a new definition of government: Government should be able to prevent problems. A government without the ability to prevent problems is not a sovereign government. It becomes crisis driven, a victim of situations and circumstances. Moreover, such a government itself becomes an unwieldy and costly problem for the nation.

To fulfill its highest goals, every government should create and maintain one or more groups of 5,000-10,000 experts trained in the TM-Sidhi program professionally engaged in creating coherence throughout society. (The group could be established from the military or from among students, the unemployed, etc.) Such a group would quietly bring the support of natural law to national law; solve problems at their basis in individual and collective consciousness; and promote the highest level of efficiency in governmental administration.

This is a practical, highly cost-effective, fundamental solution to our nation's problems-one that will bring both immediate and long-term results. As our government runs low on funds, our federal officials have been wrangling over short-term, essentially reactive solutions. But without bringing national law in tune with natural law, no legislative initiatives will ever succeed in eliminating social and economic problems and developing a strong moral core at the heart of our nation. For this reason, the Natural Law Party supports the use of programs to reduce societal stress and bring national life into accord with natural law.

Economy

The Natural Law Party envisions a flourishing national economy in which no citizen suffers from unemployment, recession, runaway inflation, or any other economic hardship; in which America's businesses are highly competitive in the international marketplace; in which the crippling national debt is reduced and eventually eliminated; and in which the tax burden is significantly decreased, enabling everyone to enjoy greater prosperity and a higher standard of living.

THE PROBLEM

A healthy economy is the key to America's domestic strength and international leadership. Without industrial and corporate might, the U.S. cannot remain competitive in world markets, satisfy domestic needs, or continue to play a major role in world events. America has enjoyed exceptional economic growth in 1997 and thus far in 1998, but our economy still faces serious challenges.

For example, President Clinton and Congress have taken credit for the recent U.S. budget "surpluses," but in reality they have created an economic illusion through deceptive federal accounting practices. They have not cut spending at all; instead, they have borrowed surplus Social Security revenues to pay for excessive federal spending in other areas. This action jeopardizes the future of the Social Security program, effectively turning Social Security payroll taxes into a 15% flat tax on income rather than an investment vehicle for employee retirement. America is already over $5 trillion in debt-about $20,000 per citizen-and in fiscal years 1998 and 1999, despite Congressional Budget Office projections of budget surpluses, the national debt will increase by over $100 billion annually. Any credit for recent U.S. economic growth should rightly go not to government but to the hard-working Americans whose creativity has led to increased productivity.

In addition, the increasing income disparity between the wealthiest 20% and the other 80% of Americans indicates a great imbalance in our economy. Although profits and productivity have increased during the past two decades, the purchasing power of the average American has declined significantly. For example, in 1993, the average American worker had to spend 26 weeks' worth of wages to buy a car, as compared to 17 weeks' in 1973. Many wage-earners-especially those in lower income brackets-have limited resources, no opportunity to save, little job security, and no way to cope with emergency medical needs.

Excessive taxes and a burdensome, overly complex, and punitive tax code stifle economic growth. The seven-million-word tax code is so convoluted that the Internal Revenue Service itself has trouble understanding it, and corporations spend four times as much on tax compliance as they do on taxes.[1] In addition, special-interest groups have successfully manipulated the tax code by creating loopholes to benefit specific businesses-a practice that results in corporate welfare and creates disincentives to economic growth.

In the words of the Kemp commission, the present tax code "is beyond repair-it is impossibly complex, outrageously expensive, overly intrusive, economically destructive, and manifestly unfair. . . . We believe [it] cannot be revised, should not be reinvented, and must not be retained."^[2] Yet despite strong popular pressure to change the tax code, Republicans and Democrats, controlled by special interests, have thwarted any meaningful improvement.

American businesses are saddled by the highest health costs in the world. Health benefits have become the third largest expense after raw materials and straight-time pay for most manufacturers, and the second largest expense for most service businesses. For many employers, the cost of corporate health benefits precludes real salary increases for employees, and many otherwise profitable businesses are driven into bankruptcy by these spiraling expenses.

Finally, to maintain our technological edge in the competitive international marketplace, American businesses require highly skilled workers. Alarmingly, our high school students score near the bottom in international comparisons of industrialized nations: 28% of youths entering the U.S. job market are high school dropouts ^[3], and the number of Americans earning doctoral degrees has declined in recent years-yet Congress has cut funding for student loans. America therefore faces a creativity challenge that must be solved for our country to maintain its domestic and economic strength.

THE SOLUTION

Boosting national creativity - In today's information-based economy, intelligence and creativity (i.e., innovation and ideas) drive economic growth. Clearly, America's most precious natural resource is our human resource-the unlimited creative potential of our 260 million citizens. Given today's low test scores and high dropout rates, the most crucial economic strategy that government can adopt is to harness America's untapped creativity. The Natural Law Party strongly advocates proven educational, job training, and apprenticeship programs that develop intelligence and creativity, prevent school dropouts, and bring life into accord with natural law. Only the full utilization of our human resource through the Natural Law Party's fundamental commitment to education will ensure America's competitiveness and future leadership in the family of nations. (For a complete discussion of the Natural Law Party's educational programs, see the Education section.)

Lowering taxes - The most powerful fiscal action our government can take to stimulate the economy is to lower taxes. The Natural Law Party can cut taxes deeply-and responsibly-without adding to the deficit or cutting essential services. Many parties have promised lower taxes, but have been unable to fulfill these promises due to the depth and complexity of problems faced by government. The Natural Law Party, through its cost-effective solutions to crime, spiraling health costs, and other costly social problems, will save the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually. On this basis, the Natural Law Party can offer a realistic strategy for significant tax reduction that protects the integrity of our important social programs.

One simple and viable way to implement across-the-board tax cuts is through a low flat tax. The Natural Law Party has designed a low flat tax that includes an exemption for America's poor and lower-income families. Beginning in 1998 at 18%, our tax rate would fall to 10% by 2003 as the Natural Law Party's cost-effective solutions to the nation's problems began to bear fruit.^[4] The Natural Law Party's low flat tax would stimulate and sustain strong economic growth. This strong economic growth, with its associated increase in government revenues, combined with the savings from our cost-effective solutions, would ensure a balanced budget and gradual repayment of the national debt without borrowing from the Social Security trust fund. This proposal would also reduce the size and scope of the IRS, eliminate loopholes for the wealthy, and put an end to corporate welfare.

In addition to our flat tax proposal, the Natural Law Party is also continuing to study alternative tax options, such as a consumption tax, that might decrease the tax burden for Americans. We concur with the Kemp commission's fundamental requirements for a new tax code: fairness, simplicity, neutrality, visibility, and stability.^[5]

Enterprise zones - The Natural Law Party supports the use of federally guaranteed loans to stimulate capital investment for start-up industries in urban "enterprise zones." By targeting economically deprived urban areas, we can stimulate economic growth where it is most needed, thereby creating more jobs, a stronger sense of community, and the revitalization of our inner cities.

Cutting corporate health costs - The enormous burden of corporate health care expenditures can best be reduced by improving employee health. Research shows that appropriate preventive health care programs can significantly improve health and reduce health care costs,^[6] thereby freeing financial resources for greater productivity, profit, and investment. Therefore, a Natural Law Party government would encourage businesses to implement such programs to improve corporate health and productivity and to reduce employee stress and substance abuse.^[7]

Creating macroeconomic stability through increased social coherence-The Natural Law Party also supports programs that have been shown to dissolve social stress and conflict, thereby providing a more positive and stable environment for economic growth and prosperity. Most analysts are aware of how businesses are influenced by macroeconomic factors such as inflation, unemployment, economic cycles, and the threat of international conflict. However, businesses are also in a position to change macroeconomic trends in a positive direction for the benefit of the organization and society as a whole. For example, research has found that even a single group of 7,000 to 10,000 practitioners of Transcendental Meditation and its advanced programs can produce a significant decrease in inflation and unemployment rates, as well as improvements in other economic indicators.^[8] Businesses that incorporate such programs into their employee benefits packages help ensure economic stability by creating a more coherent and stable society. The recent meltdown of the Asian financial markets underscores the need to insulate the U.S. economy from global economic uncertainties, and the establishment of such coherence-creating groups will help to protect our nation's current economic strength.

Sharing the benefit - As the economy continues to improve, we anticipate higher pay, better working conditions, shorter work hours, and a shorter work week. We believe that the American work force should reap the benefits of a powerful economy through a higher standard of living.

Through cost-effective solutions to the nation's problems, responsible tax reduction, and proven programs to boost national intelligence and creativity, the Natural Law Party will propel the economy into a sustained growth phase. This pro-growth policy will simultaneously create jobs, reduce unemployment, balance the budget through increased government revenues, and retire the national debt. Only the Natural Law Party offers a comprehensive, viable strategy to accomplish these goals.

Health

The Natural Law Party is committed to ensuring a long and healthy life for every American. By bringing life into accord with natural law, the prevention-oriented health programs proposed by the Natural Law Party will significantly reduce disease and promote the health and vitality of all Americans. As our nation's health improves, we can lift the massive burden of health care costs, thus freeing our nation's resources for greater progress and prosperity.

THE PROBLEM

Too many Americans suffer from poor health ^[1]; the U.S. has some of the worst health statistics of all industrialized countries [2]. Yet America has the highest per capita health care costs of any nation ^[2].

Why is the U.S. medical system such a cost-effectiveness disaster? The answer is that our health care system is really a "disease care" system-it focuses on the management of illnesses, rather than on the prevention of disease and the promotion of health. But the vast majority of our national health is influenced by factors over which this disease-based approach has little control-such as nutrition, stress, societal problems, and environmental toxins. Consequently, in the absence of effective prevention, our present disease care system can never create a truly healthy society.

Recent research shows that 50% of deaths and 70% of disease in America are self-inflicted - caused by an epidemic of unhealthy habits, including improper diet, inadequate exercise, smoking, and alcohol abuse ^[3]. Thus, the vast majority of disease is preventable ^[4].

Incredibly, Republicans and Democrats consistently ignore proven prevention-oriented approaches to health, and Medicare specifically bans funding for most preventive services ^[5]. Following the federal example, most private health insurance companies also refuse to cover prevention. No health care reform bills debated in Congress have focused on improving health; they have dealt only with problems in disease-care financing and delivery, hoping to save money by streamlining and downsizing the system.

Spiraling health care costs have dramatically increased the cost of health insurance, and at least 40% of U.S. citizens are now inadequately covered or have no medical insurance. Health care expenditures have also placed a heavy burden on American businesses; if employee insurance costs continue to rise, many companies will collapse by the end of the decade.

THE SOLUTION

By focusing on the prevention of disease and the promotion of health, the Natural Law Party offers a solution to the health care crisis that is comprehensive, cost-effective, and scientifically proven.

Our health care platform has two aspects.

1. We support health strategies that focus on prevention and strengthen the general health of the nation, thereby shifting our national focus from disease care to health care. These programs include prevention-oriented health education, including strategies to modify unhealthy behaviors, and prevention-oriented natural medicines. These preventive strategies have been shown by extensive research to create healthier citizens and to cut health care costs by 50% to 70%.

2. We support the introduction of financial incentives that will help prevent abuse of the health care system and ensure high-quality care. These incentives include (a) medical savings accounts for Medicare and Medicaid subscribers, which will provide financial rewards for good health ^[6]; and (b) vouchers enabling Medicare and Medicaid subscribers to choose any insurance plan or health care provider they desire, thereby promoting competitive costs and quality of care among medical providers. Such financial incentives will reduce demands for unnecessary care and prevent overuse of the health care system by giving greater financial control and responsibility to individual subscribers.

Through our two-pronged approach of preventive health care and financial incentives, we can rescue Medicare and Medicaid from bankruptcy, save the nation approximately $500 billion a year in health care costs, and prevent untold pain and suffering.

To structure meaningful health-benefits options for all Americans without disastrously increasing the federal budget deficit, we must responsibly decrease health care outlays per person-a particular challenge as the population ages. The most effective and humane way to achieve this goal is to prevent disease in the first place by strengthening the human immune system and eliminating the imbalances that ultimately cause disease.

The prevention programs supported by the Natural Law Party incorporate the most up-to-date knowledge of nutrition, exercise, and stress reduction, as well as the use of natural herbal preparations, natural dietary supplements, and alternative medical treatment modalities. Americans favor such approaches. There are now more visits to alternative medicine practitioners than to conventional doctors ^[7]. Research has consistently shown that the prevention programs endorsed by the Natural Law Party significantly reduce the need for conventional medical treatment by empowering individuals to take better care of their own health ^[8].

Our national health care debate has degenerated into an argument over "who should pay for whose disease," with little attention given to preventing disease and improving health. Funding for proven prevention services has been denied to Americans, largely because the lobbying influence of over 1,000 medical PACs (political action committees) has shaped legislation and preserved the status quo ^[9].

The Natural Law Party, which does not accept PAC contributions, is committed to changing this unethical and inhumane situation. During the past four years, Dr. John Hagelin and Dr. Mike Tompkins, 1996 Natural Law Party candidates for President and Vice President, have worked closely with the U.S. Congress to introduce wording into health care bills in both the House and the Senate that would provide coverage for any scientifically verified, cost-effective, proven preventive program. This proposal has such commonsense appeal that it has gained the support of conservative and liberal members of Congress alike.

The Natural Law Party's approach to health care provides a unifying influence in the political debate by transcending surface bickering over money and solving the health crisis at its basis-by improving the health of Americans. The enormous savings generated by the Natural Law Party's prevention-oriented programs, coupled with the financial incentives created by medical vouchers and savings accounts, will allow the government to realistically extend high-quality health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

The programs of preventive health education advocated by the Natural Law Party are also unique in raising health care to a new level: development of the full potential of every citizen and reduction of individual and societal stress by promoting life in accord with natural law. This approach goes beyond "behavioral modifications" such as smoking cessation, which have low compliance and cannot be enforced in a free society. Research shows that stress is responsible for the persistence of life-damaging habits despite overwhelming medical evidence and governmental warnings. By neutralizing individual and social stress, the Natural Law Party can improve the effectiveness of such behavioral-modification programs by significantly enhancing compliance. In this way we can achieve a lasting social transformation toward more life-supporting, health-promoting behavior among our citizens.

The Natural Law Party is unique in offering high-quality health care for all, while providing a net cost savings for the nation.

Education

The solution to all our national problems lies in proper education. The Natural Law Party advocates scientifically proven educational programs that can unfold the full creative potential of every student and produce ideal citizens capable of fulfilling their highest aspirations while contributing maximum to the progress of society. By harnessing America's greatest resource-the unlimited creativity of our 260 million citizens-the Natural Law Party can bring fulfillment to education and ensure America's competitiveness and continuing leadership in the family of nations.

THE PROBLEM

Education in America is not working. Even though the United States spends more money per student than any other country, our students still rank far behind most of their international peers in math and science-and well behind U.S. test scores of 20 years ago. Twenty-eight percent of our high school students drop out-the highest rate of any industrialized nation-and those who graduate are often ill prepared to enter the work force.^[1]

Each year, 3.7 million children suffer substantial injury at school, resulting in an estimated $3.2 billion in medical spending and $115 billion in good health lost.^[2] Drug and alcohol abuse continues to undermine our nation's students and rob them of their mental clarity, motivation, self-esteem, and ability to focus.^[3] Moreover, juvenile violent crime has increased markedly during the past decade, especially gang and school violence using guns.^[4] According to the Centers for Disease Control, American youths are 12 times more likely to die by gunfire than their peers in other nations.

The culturing of inner values has all but disappeared from our nation's schools. Yet James Madison observed in the Federalist Papers that democracy cannot function unless our leaders and citizens are "in a higher degree of virtue than any other form" of government.

America's problems are human problems-crime, drug abuse, domestic violence, and declining health. Only through the full development of our human resource can we rise above the reach of problems. Yet research has shown that students graduating from our current educational system use at most 5-10% of their full mental potential.^[5] A new and effective approach to education is clearly needed.

THE SOLUTION

Education is for enlightenment-the full development of mind, body, and behavior. The Natural Law Party promotes proven educational programs that directly increase intelligence and creativity and simultaneously improve moral reasoning, self-reliance, and mental and physical health and well-being. These programs include sound educational approaches to nutrition ^[7], natural, preventive health measures ^[8], effective drug prevention programs ^[9], and innovative curriculum development, including programs to develop the full mental potential of students.

While focusing on dissemination of knowledge, current approaches to education ignore the most fundamental component of learning-the consciousness or intelligence of the student, which is the basis of gaining knowledge. Today's educational approaches provide no knowledge of consciousness and no scientifically proven technology to develop it. This fundamental failure is the ultimate source of the problems afflicting education today. Even current proposals to improve education most often focus on information technologies, such as computer access to the Internet, that offer larger and larger volumes of data. However, without an educational approach that can develop more than 5-10% of a student's full mental potential, no amount of information will ever produce truly educated, ideal citizens.

The consciousness-based approach to education advocated by the Natural Law Party develops full human potential while providing mastery of the technical skills necessary to compete in today's society. This approach combines the most advanced and successful curriculum innovations with the most thoroughly researched educational program to develop the full potential of consciousness - the Transcendental Meditation program ^[8]. This integrated approach to education develops knowledgeable, highly creative citizens who can fulfill their own goals while simultaneously promoting the interests of society.

The Natural Law Party proposes to upgrade the U.S. Department of Education to a Department of Educational Excellence, which would charter several federally funded model schools in which educational innovations of all kinds could be implemented and researched. Based on the success of these programs, parents and educators across the country could choose the ones they felt would be most appropriate and effective in their neighborhoods. Rather than dictate educational curricula at the local level, the Federal Government could thereby play a crucial research and leadership role in expanding educational choices for parents and students, improving educational outcomes across the nation.

The Natural Law Party also supports federally funded vouchers to cover 100% of tuition to increase parental options for school choice and to foster competition among schools. These vouchers could be used to pay for any school of the parents' choice-public, private, or parochial-provided that the school maintains high academic performance on standardized national tests. The free-market competition that this voucher system will engender will help reverse declining educational outcomes in America.

The Natural Law Party also supports the following initiatives:

• Fully fund the Head Start program, to give all eligible children an opportunity to excel from an early age.

• Provide financial support for every student who wants to go to college. The Natural Law Party does not support the scaling back of Pell grants and student loans for higher education. Government loans should be repaid after graduation-if necessary through mandatory salary deductions or community service.
  
  
• Establish higher national standards and the practical means to achieve them. Other parties have called for higher standards but have offered no effective strategies to accomplish this goal.
  
  
• Lengthen the school year and increase the number of required subjects in high schools, as recommended by the 1984 National Commission on Excellence in Education.
  
  
• Establish ties with teachers' organizations, schools, and community interest groups to develop policies and programs that upgrade the status and skills of teachers.
  
  
• Add computer support to the National Literacy Act of 1991, to provide research and help implement computer-aided instruction, including Internet instruction, in literacy programs.
  
  
• Increase the nutritional value of school lunches-a simple but essential change that has been shown to improve educational outcomes in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
  
  
• Establish community centers of knowledge where parents can receive the latest understanding of health and nutrition for their children.

• Create national apprenticeship programs by bringing together business, labor, and educational leaders to develop a system that offers training in a valuable skill for students who are not college bound.

Most of the educational programs promoted by the Natural Law Party have been successfully applied in diverse educational settings worldwide ^[10] and have therefore been the subject of extensive scientific research. The results of such programs include the significantly improved educational outcomes mentioned above-increased intelligence, creativity, motivation, academic performance, moral reasoning, psychological maturity, and social responsibility-as well as a higher quality of life among students and faculty.

Crime and Rehabilitation

The Natural Law Party envisions an America free of crime, where all citizens live fully in accord with both natural law and national law; where people freely move on the streets without fear; and where Americans live and work together harmoniously for both their own fulfillment and the national good.

THE PROBLEM

Crime costs Americans $450 billion annually ^[1]. Despite two decades of "get tough" policies-with longer, often mandatory prison sentences-the rate of violent crime in America is high compared to other developed nations ^[2]. Of gravest concern, juvenile violent crime has spiraled during the past decade-especially urban gang and school violence using guns ^[3]. According to the Centers for Disease Control, American youths are 12 times more likely to die by gunfire than their peers in other nations. An FBI crime report concluded that "every American has a realistic chance of being murdered because of the random nature [that] crime has assumed."

America's criminal justice system is under constant strain. Courts, police, probation and parole agencies, and prisons are overworked and inadequate to deal with the high level of crime ^[4].

Clearly, a "get-tough" policy is not enough. Effective crime prevention is also crucial. Yet despite the dismal track record of "get-tough" approaches, Republican and Democratic legislators ignore proven preventive strategies and press for more police, more prisons, and stiffer punishment. Consider the following ^[5]:

• Building more prisons has not worked. Since 1971, the U.S. prison population has increased sixfold to over 1.2 million-645 of every 100,000 Americans-incarcerated in 1500 state and federal prisons and 3000 jails. The U.S. now has the largest percentage of its citizens behind bars apart from Russia ^[6]. Incarceration acts like a quarantine, preventing a faster acceleration of crime, but fails to eradicate the source of the crime epidemic.
  
  
• The threat of punishment is not enough. Most violent crime is "an impulsive response to an immediate stressful situation," often committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol-not a rational, considered action ^[7].
  
  
• Many experts feel that prisons train inmates to be better criminals ^[8]. Most violent crime is committed by hard-core repeat offenders: the majority of all prisoners commit new crimes and are arrested within three years of release.
  
  
• More police on the street does not lower crime. Published reports indicate that increased police patrols in major U.S. cities have had little effect on crime rates ^[9]. Washington, D.C., for example, has the highest police/population ratio in the nation-and one of the highest violent crime rates. The $25 billion crime bill designed to deploy 100,000 more police represents merely a drop in the bucket and is hardly effective or cost-effective.

Increasing recognition of the need for prevention has led to experimental approaches such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and midnight basketball. Unfortunately, long-term scientific studies have found no significant effects on crime and drug abuse from such programs ^[10].

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party believes that these "bandaid" approaches do not work because they fail to address the root cause of crime-the epidemic of stress throughout society. During the past two decades, medical science has documented the alarming rise of stress-related illness such as hypertension, stroke, and heart disease. This same build-up of stress is responsible for a similar rise in social illnesses-crime, drug abuse, domestic violence, and family disintegration.

Current crime prevention programs overlook the psychological and physiological devastation wrought by constant, traumatic stress. Stress causes a complex psychophysiological chain reaction that makes the nervous system hyperexcited and unstable ^[11]. Chronic, acute stress leads to serious physiological malfunction. Among other effects, the body's neurochemical balance is distorted, producing abnormally high levels of cortisol (a primary stress hormone) and low levels of serotonin (a key neurotransmitter) ^[12]. This out-of-balance biochemistry has been linked with anxiety, fear, anger, impulsive violent behavior, and substance abuse ^[13].

Moreover, the combined stress of all the individuals in society builds up and creates a dangerous, criminal atmosphere in the whole community. This societal stress and tension becomes a breeding ground for more crime and violence. Thus, to reduce crime, stress must be reduced in at-risk individuals and throughout society.

Reducing social stress-In addition to a tough penal code as a deterrent to crime, the Natural Law Party offers systematic, scientifically proven programs to reduce stress in the individual and throughout society-thus eliminating the root cause of crime. At least one such program, the Transcendental Meditation program, has been scientifically shown to (1) reduce individual and social stress; (2) reduce cortisol and increase serotonin production in the body, thus counteracting the neurochemical imbalances produced by stress; and (3) decrease anxiety, hostility, and anger, and improve psychological development and moral reasoning ^[14].

Forty-three published scientific studies have shown that large groups practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program in one location reduce social stress and violence. These studies, which have investigated the impact of such groups on communities, cities, and entire nations, have consistently found decreases in crime, war deaths, and other negative social indicators, as well as improvements in economy and national mood ^[15]. This innovative approach offers a highly cost-effective, scientifically proven strategy to eliminate the fundamental cause of crime through reducing individual and societal stress.

Effective prison rehabilitation - The most cost-effective prevention strategy is to target those individuals who are at highest risk for crime-the current prison inmate population, 90% of whom will be released from prison. A five-year Harvard study investigated the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique in a maximum security prison. Inmates who learned the practice decreased significantly in stress, aggression, and mental disorders. Violence throughout the prison decreased, and the rate of return to prison among participating inmates was 30-35% less than for four other treatment groups ^[16]. Similar studies in 28 other maximum security prisons have shown equally impressive results ^[17]. (Current rehabilitation strategies put the cart before the horse. They try to reeducate and reform inmates without first changing inmates from within by ridding them of the stress that makes them uninterested in education or incapable of being reformed ^[18].)

Community policing - In New York City, a new initiative called computer-assisted community policing has been credited with reducing crime by 40% over two years. In this approach, police are assigned to high-crime neighborhoods identified by computer tracking, work closely with these neighborhoods, and are rewarded for preventing crime. According to statistics from the New York Police Department, murder in New York City dropped 31% during the first half of 1995 compared to the first six months of 1994, with similar reductions in other categories of violent crime. This striking improvement led one journalist to refer to New York as "the suddenly safer city" ^[19].

Urban revitalization - Our overcrowded, decaying urban centers obviously contribute to the rise of stress and crime. Any program to reduce crime must involve a comprehensive plan to revitalize the inner cities, as laid out in our Revitalizing Our Inner Cities section.

Drug and alcohol rehabilitation - A high proportion of crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs. A recent study of crime in New York City found that tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse cost the city's taxpayers and corporations $20 billion in 1994-21 cents of every tax dollar ^[20]. The Natural Law Party would introduce programs proven to reduce drug dependency, eliminate stress, and promote mental and physical health ^[21].

Preventing youth crime - School dropouts are at highest risk for crime and drug abuse. The Natural Law Party strongly supports more effective educational programs to keep children in school, off the streets, and out of the reach of crime. Our proven educational programs unfold greater creativity and intelligence and develop ideal citizenship by raising life to be in accord with natural law and national law (see our Education section). The Natural Law Party's strong educational focus is the true, long-term solution to the pervasive problem of crime.

The Natural Law Party is the only political party with a truly comprehensive, scientifically proven strategy to reduce crime. Our approach is the most hard-headed and hard-hitting, since it focuses on scientifically proven programs that work. Our prevention-oriented approach will save the nation hundreds of billions of dollars and prevent immeasurable anguish and suffering in the lives of millions of Americans who are victims of crime each year.

Energy and Environment

The Natural Law Party will create a future in which renewable, nonpolluting, inexpensive energy is abundantly available, the air in our cities is pure and clean, and our rivers and lakes are free of pollution. We foresee a time when waste is efficiently managed; when the needless destruction of forests and species diversity has ceased; when there are many more parks, gardens, and fountains; when new jobs have been created to develop renewable energy sources, conserve energy, and protect the environment; and when global cooperation ends environmental threats to the future of humankind.

THE PROBLEM

The standard of living and the economic vitality of the United States depend on the increasing availability of inexpensive, clean, renewable sources of energy.

Until now, the U.S. has relied mainly on fossil fuels. Coal, oil, and natural gas account for the majority of energy used for electricity, heat, transportation, and industry. However, these fuels are nonrenewable and limited in supply. Their use results in air pollution, acid rain, pollution from mercury and other contaminants, the threat of global warming, and other environmental hazards that may endanger future generations with irreversible global changes. Air pollution kills 64,000 Americans a year-a higher death toll than for auto accidents ^[1,2]. The indirect costs of burning fossil fuels-health care, damage from acid rain, the impact on tourism and quality of life, etc.-are incalculable ^[3].

Oil imports are responsible for almost 50% of our trade deficit. America's dependence on foreign oil creates economic vulnerability and political instability between the U.S. and the Middle East. For example, Desert Storm, with its enormous attendant costs, was largely to protect America's critical oil interests in the Middle East. The costs of such military operations must be added to the high health and environmental costs of fossil fuels.

By subsidizing these costs with taxpayer dollars, the Federal Government artificially suppresses the cost of fossil fuels relative to sustainable alternatives, such as wind and solar, which are not subsidized. The government thereby perpetuates our continued dependence on fuels that are environmentally and economically unsustainable.

In addition to the environmental hazards posed by current energy use, toxic agricultural and industrial chemicals threaten the health and safety of all Americans. Recent estimates indicate that exposure to such chemicals is responsible for 75% of all cancer cases in the U.S. ^[4].

Short-sighted environmental policies contribute to alarming reductions of earth's nonrenewable resources. Approximately 93% of the virgin forests in the Pacific Northwest have been cut, and most of the remainder is scheduled to be cut in the next few years-nearly all of it on public lands. Biodiversity is being threatened at an alarming rate, not only in our vanishing forests, but in the oceans. Hundreds of thousands of sea mammals are being exterminated by drift-net fishing. Approximately 50% of our wetlands that provided habitats for wildlife have been destroyed, and overgrazed prairie lands are being increasingly eroded.

At the recent summit in Kyoto, Japan, where all nations assembled to address global environmental concerns, the U.S. Government took a stand to protect economic interests that it perceived to be in conflict with environmental interests. Protecting the environment was equated with loss of jobs, increased costs of goods, and loss of economic vitality. Today, America's environmental protections are being further eroded by a Congress held captive to special interest groups.

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party is committed to increasing both energy efficiency and the use of renewable, safe, and nonpolluting energy sources. This approach will protect our environment, create energy self-sufficiency, and add to the economic prosperity of the nation. Through programs that will create new jobs and new industries in energy conservation and renewable energy sources, the Natural Law Party will move away from the hazardous and wasteful use of fossil fuels in ways that will simultaneously benefit the environment and save the nation hundreds of billions of dollars.

To improve energy efficiency and self-sufficiency, the Natural Law Party will:

• Support basic research on energy efficiency, energy storage (both for large- and small-scale applications), and fuel cells, in addition to electric, hydrogen, and highly energy-efficient vehicles.
  
  
• Provide financial incentives for homeowners and industry to use available energy-efficiency measures, such as insulation and compact fluorescent lighting.
  
  
• Set performance standards for energy-consuming and pollutant-emitting products in order to encourage adoption of state-of-the-art technologies and to protect responsible and innovative manufacturers from being undercut by those who produce cheaper but dirtier products. By increasing efficiency, the U.S. can significantly reduce energy consumption-with substantial economic and environmental benefits for the nation ^[5].

The Natural Law Party also supports the development of new energy sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass-which could be cost-competitive now if government stopped subsidizing fossil fuels. The Natural Law Party is committed to increasing the proportion of renewable, environmentally clean energy sources by the year 2000. To achieve these goals, the Natural Law Party will:

• Remove federal subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Require that construction of new electrical power plants take into account all long-term costs to the nation, such as environmental protection and health costs.
  
  
• Progressively implement a tax on fossil fuels to reflect their real cost to the nation, including environmental cleanup, medical costs, and security costs in the Persian Gulf.

The Natural Law Party does not support the development of nuclear energy. At present, municipalities subsidize nuclear plants and the Federal Government funds nuclear reactor construction with tax-deductible bonds. But no one can safeguard for 10,000 years the highly toxic wastes generated by these reactors-which is what the Federal Government has agreed to do. (The government's efforts to clean up these wastes is yet another subsidy for pollution-generating energy sources.) In addition, the known worldwide reserves of low-cost, high-grade nuclear fuel are running low, which will soon necessitate a transition to the next generation of nuclear power plants: advanced converters and breeder reactors. These reactors have the technological advantage of producing their own fuel, but they also produce bomb-grade fissionable materials as unavoidable by-products. With the widespread availability of bomb-grade material, nuclear containment becomes effectively impossible. Therefore, for both economic and security reasons, the Natural Law Party does not support further development and construction of nuclear energy plants.

It is vitally important for America to clean up its polluted air, rivers, lakes, beaches, wetlands, and oceans. When businesses are forced to stop polluting, they frequently come up with innovative ways to make use of their polluting by-products. In Scandinavia, for example, businesses in any given region collectively decide how to use polluting wastes from one business as part of the manufacturing process of another, with the goal of zero pollution.

To eliminate toxic waste, the Natural Law Party supports research into innovative technologies such as the plasma torch, a cost-effective process that cooks contaminated soil into inert, harmless glassy rocks suitable for road gravel. A similar technology, devised for liquid nuclear waste, drains out water and salts and turns the remainder into glass logs that are safer for long-term storage.

America should lead the global effort to prevent the destruction of the earth's forests, the decimation of the diversity of species, and the potential damage from ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. A moratorium should be declared on cutting timber in national parks, national forests, and national monuments until a sustainable management plan for cutting is instituted.

To make these changes requires flexibility and ingenuity in the development of new environmentally sound technologies-not giving up the present standard of living, but raising it through developing energy sources, industries, and modes of transportation that are in harmony with nature.

The programs supported by the Natural Law Party for cleaning up the environment and protecting it from irreversible damage will stimulate the economy-actually paying a dividend of increased energy efficiency and economic vitality. Cleaning up polluted rivers and lakes will increase fishing industries, increase tourism, and increase revenues from outdoor recreational activities. Cleaning the air will reduce the medical costs of respiratory disease and lung cancer. Protecting forests and reducing exhaust emissions will avert the potentially disastrous expenses of adapting to climatic changes due to global warming.

Since pollution is primarily caused by human behavior, bringing the individual and the nation into harmony with natural law will greatly facilitate implementation of the above programs. The Natural Law Party therefore supports educational programs that promote broad comprehension and "pollution-free behavior"-behavior that is in accord with natural law, and does not create problems for society or the environment.

Agriculture

The Natural Law Party envisions a time when American farmers will farm in full accord with the laws of nature, fully utilizing nature's creativity to yield abundant, healthy food, while protecting the environment and ensuring a vigorous, diversified, sustainable agricultural economy.

THE PROBLEM

The future of agriculture depends on its sustainability-that is, the ability of agricultural policies and practices to preserve and strengthen the farming economy, ecology, and community for future generations.

The recently passed Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR) has been heralded as a major change of direction for U.S. agriculture. But it has left many wondering whether crucial, fundamental changes have really been made in agricultural policy, and whether FAIR is fair-especially for small family farms and for the environment. FAIR does not go far enough to ensure agricultural practices that are sustainable-financially, environmentally, and socially.

1. Financially unsustainable

• Recent projections of increasing international demand for food, coupled with rapidly shrinking global food reserves, suggest that consumers will pay even more for food in the future and that poor countries will receive less U.S. food aid. Despite these realities, current U.S. farm programs restrict America's agricultural production (for example, 36 million acres have been taken out of production) while encouraging competitors to plant more ^[1,2].
  
  
• The new farm subsidy program of FAIR, although formalizing the phasing out of government subidies over the next seven years, continues to favor the nation's largest farms.
  
  
• The growing consolidation and control of food production by a few very large corporations jeopardizes the survival of small family farms. U.S. Department of Agriculture policies and regulations are biased against small farm operators and enforce a form of corporate welfare that drives small farms into bankruptcy so that they can be bought by huge agribusinesses.
  
  
• From 1988 to 1993, even the most economically profitable farms averaged only a 3-5% return on stockholder equity; food manufacturers, on the other hand, averaged 16.5% ^[3]. Clearly, farmers receive little of the "value-added" profit accruing to food manufacturers that process farm goods for the market. Farmers-especially those working small family farms-and their surrounding communities cannot survive without diversification of farm activities that keeps more of these profits close to home.

2. Environmentally unsustainable

• Conventional agriculture erodes and degrades soil; it requires large-scale use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that pollute groundwater and are unhealthy for consumers and farmers. These agrichemicals pose real threats to water quality, wildlife, and human health. Recent scientific research indicates that common pesticides are estrogen mimicking and implicates them in the high incidence of breast cancer and prostate cancer in America and in the striking decline in male sperm count. Yet FAIR continues to support chemically intensive cropping practices.
  
  
• Federal agencies have decided that some genetically engineered plant and animal products (such as recombinant bovine growth hormone-rBGH-which boosts milk production) are safe and may be commercialized, despite the concerns of some scientists. Virtually all European nations have banned rBGH and other hormone treatment in livestock. Many products similar to rBGH are under review. In addition, many foods that have been genetically engineered with pig, insect, virus, or bacteria genes are already being sold in supermarkets. Yet these genetically altered foods are not labeled as such-despite well-documented health risks from some genetically engineered foods, including:
  
  Toxic tryptophan - this genetically engineered food supplement killed 37 people and permanently disabled 1,500 more.
  
  Allergenic soybean - this soybean, genetically altered with a Brazil nut protein, caused a marked reaction in many people allergic to Brazil nuts.
  
  
• Some leading scientists believe that alteration of DNA-the most fundamental level of plant and animal physiology-is likely to have profound negative impacts on the environment and human life ^[4]. For example, altered genes from cultivated food crops may be released to wild relatives, thus compromising the "gene pool" upon which breeders of domestic crops must draw to enhance resistance to pests and disease. Unlike other products, a genetically engineered organism that has been released into the environment can never be recalled.
  
  
• The explosion of factory hog farms, cattle feedlots, and poultry operations during the last few years has increased livestock concentrations, confinement housing, and separation of animals from their natural environments. As a result, these animals are more prone to disease; therefore, they need more antibiotics; and consequently, their wastes become a health hazard instead of a natural aid to soil fertility.
  
  
• In addition, to ensure maximum weight gain in their livestock, farmers commonly inject antibiotics into healthy animals. Many scientists suspect that this practice helps create bacteria and viruses that are resistant or immune to antibiotics. Since antibiotic-resistant germs have become a major health problem in America, this practice should be stopped immediately.

3. Socially unsustainable

• Experts feel that conventional agriculture has led to "decaying communities [in] rural America that continue to lose population, business, and even their reason to exist as farms consolidate into larger units and farm families leave" ^[5]. Small towns are a reservoir of enterprise and traditional values that Americans cherish, and they should not be lost.
  
  
• Corporate-owned factory hog farms, cattle feedlots, and poultry operations, as well as the corporations that supply them, are becoming increasingly vertically integrated, pushing family farms and rural agribusinesses out of business and reducing farmers to corporate laborers.
  
  
• The challenges of farming today are making new demands on farmers and their families. The farmer must take into account many complex factors in making production decisions, including the weather, quality of the soil, threat of pests, available financial resources, and changing agricultural markets. Economic pressures cause stress, which affects health and well-being. Research has found that farmers are also at high risk from exposure to chemical pesticides ^[6].

THE SOLUTION

Agriculture is more than a business; it is a way of life. The food produced by farmers is basic to our health and national security, and farmland itself is an irreplaceable resource vital to sustenance of life. Therefore, government must help ensure the long-term viability of agriculture.

The Natural Law Party supports legislation that will ensure social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture while balancing the following goals: (1) ensuring an economical and healthful supply of high-quality food for consumers; (2) promoting health and longevity in farmers and in the population as a whole; (3) protecting natural resources and the environment; (4) cushioning farmers from the natural and financial instability unique to agriculture; (5) enabling farmers to better pursue financial profitability; and (6) restoring the vitality of rural communities.

The Natural Law Party has identified solutions to the problems faced by U.S. agriculture:

1. Given the far-reaching ecological and health impacts of genetic engineering, a moratorium should be imposed on the release of genetically engineered organisms until the safety of such organisms can be firmly established. In addition, to protect the public's right to know, labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory.

2. Farm policies should be redirected to expand opportunities for new and existing farmers to prosper using sustainable, organic systems that will enhance the health of the farmers and the population as a whole. Training and apprenticeship programs, loans, grants, and other incentives should be devised to assist conventional and entry-level farmers to adopt organic or more sustainable systems. Demonstration farms, farmer-to-farmer networks and field tours, and studies of successful alternative farming systems should be used to hasten the adoption of more sustainable practices.

3. The U.S. should change its policy focus from "cheap food for the consumer" to "quality food for the consumer on a sustainable basis." Through research and education, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is in a unique position to influence (a) practices of farmers and the food-production industry, and (b) the food choices and demands of consumers:

(a) Field-tested techniques supported by scientific research, such as integrated pest management, integrated crop management, and organic farming, already exist for farming profitably on a low-input, sustainable basis ^[7]. On this basis, agrichemical use could be reduced 50% by the year 2000. The USDA should initiate and fund research into further development of alternative and chemical-free sustainable agricultural practices, with an emphasis on the development of systems and technologies that can be integrated economically and completely into all agricultural production. In addition, economists have developed accounting techniques that incorporate the costs of pollution and natural-resource depletion into agriculture's balance sheet ^[8]. Government legislation should make it a priority to disseminate these practices and techniques to the entire food production industry, showing farmers, producers, and consumers that sustainable food production practices are more cost-effective in the long run.

(b) Consumer demand drives agricultural supply. Changes in consumer preferences will create a shift toward less resource-intensive food production and a healthier food supply. The USDA should initiate and fund research investigating the impact of dietary change on health and longevity, and then launch campaigns to educate the public. For example, government should fund vigorous programs to inform consumers that chemical-free food is possible now, at a reasonable price. Moreover, scientists have recently concluded that substantial public health and environmental benefits would likely result from more widespread use of vegetables, fruit, and plant-based protein in the diet ^[9]. The government should educate the public about the health and environmental value of these foods in the diet.

Land-grant universities and extension services should also take the initiative to develop and disseminate sustainable agricultural practices and healthier dietary approaches.

4. Farm communities should seek new ways to keep "value-added" processes and profits as close as possible to the farm. Public policy should promote cooperative development of local processing facilities and diversification into the production of higher-value, specialized crops-including chemical-free production.

5. Family-sized farms should be protected and strengthened through more programs such as FAIR's Fund for Rural America, which supports value-added incentives, assistance for minority and beginning farmers, and other initiatives to empower farmers and rural communities to work towards revitalizing rural life. Even removing farm payment loopholes for large corporate agribusinesses would favor the viability of family-sized farms. Programs such as the Fund for Rural America should be given high priority and full funding.

6. For the above recommendations to be successful, however, it is necessary-for the individual farmer and society as a whole-to develop consciousness and gain more support of natural law. The Natural Law Party therefore recommends educational programs to develop the consciousness of the farmer and thereby reduce stress, improve the farmer's health and well-being, and promote the skills to meet new management challenges. Such programs will enable farmers to spontaneously make better decisions and better use of the environment, and will bring them greater support of natural law in all their activities. Similarly, the reduction of stress in the collective consciousness of society, combined with the Natural Law Party's focus on education, will influence consumer choices toward higher-quality food, better health, and more life-enriching behavior-life in accord with natural law ^[10]. These programs will help ensure that the natural resources upon which agriculture depends will be available far into the future.

Strengthening Democracy

Our nation's founders strove to create a democracy that would guarantee fundamental human rights and hold the government accountable to the people. The Natural Law Party is committed to restoring this vision to the American political process and overcoming the bipartisan conflict and special interest control that has paralyzed and subverted our government.

The Natural Law Party supports long-overdue election and campaign reforms to ensure (a) equal access to the ballot, the media, and the public for all qualified candidates, (b) the elimination of PAC and soft-money funding of campaigns, and (c) a shift toward public sponsorship of campaigns in order to reduce the undue influence of special interest money on election outcomes. Such reforms will fulfill every American's right to complete information about all candidates and their platforms while freeing elected officials to focus on serving their country rather than seeking campaign contributions.

The Natural Law Party envisions a future in which elections are a time of national celebration, free of negative campaigning-a time when the nation takes pride in its achievements and plans collectively for the future.

Election Reform

THE PROBLEM

There is no Constitutional basis for America's current two-party system. In fact, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson specifically warned against political parties, which they feared would become entrenched as elitists and servers of special interests, unresponsive to the needs and desires of the people.

Today we find ourselves in this very situation. Frustrated by political gridlock, many Americans feel that government has grown into a self-serving, self-perpetuating partisan body that neither reflects nor recognizes their desires. Recent polls indicate that 86% of Americans feel that their elected officials will never solve the nation's problems, partly because political infighting has frozen the machinery of government. Consequently, the U.S. has the lowest voter turnout of any country in the world.

Over 60% of Americans favor the formation of a new, major political party. Americans want change and are deeply frustrated with both Republican and Democratic candidates. Traditionally, third parties have introduced important new ideas, such as women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery, into our national political debate. As former Chief Justice Earl Warren commented:

"All political ideas cannot and should not be channeled into the programs of our two major parties. History has amply proved the virtue of political activity by minority, dissident groups, which innumerable times have been in the vanguard of democratic thought and whose programs were ultimately accepted. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness in our society."^[1]

Yet the Republican and Democratic parties continue to exert an effective stranglehold on the political process, preventing crucial new ideas from emerging via third parties and their candidates.

Current campaign laws unfairly discriminate against independent and third-party candidates. In 1996, Republicans and Democrats received $148 million taxpayer dollars to run their general election campaigns-including $25 million to hold meaningless presidential nominating conventions-while independent and new-party candidates typically receive nothing. In most cases, access to the ballot is automatic for Republicans and Democrats, but independent and third-party candidates face the most rigid, discriminative, and unwieldy procedures in the world. For example, it is more difficult for a new party to get on the ballot in Florida than it is in all the countries of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada combined.^[2]

The present ballot-access barriers for third parties blatantly violate the 1990 international Helsinki accords that guarantee universal and equal suffrage to all adult citizens "without discrimination," including equal access to the ballot and the media. Ironically, the United States is the world's foremost proponent of these accords.^[3]

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party supports election reform that returns American democracy to the high ideals envisioned by our nation's founders-a democracy that fairly represents the views of all its citizens and candidates. To achieve this, the Natural Law Party supports the following initiatives:

• Ensure ballot access fairness. Every political party and candidate should have the same requirements in every election for getting on the ballot. Incumbents should no longer have privileges over challengers with new ideas.
  
  
• Promote campaign fairness. It is the right of the American people to hear the views of every candidate on the ballot. All candidates who meet ballot access requirements should have the same access to their constituencies, including equal media access through a series of publicly sponsored televised forums, debates, and infomercials, as well as publicly sponsored mailings of voter education materials. To qualify for these privileges, candidates would be required to comply with voluntary spending limits. This structure would favor voter education over privately funded media advertising and would thereby help eliminate special interest influence on the election process.
  
  
• Encourage all Americans to vote. Election day should be made a mandatory national holiday, as in most other nations, so that everyone has time to vote. Voter registration should be facilitated by creating uniform laws that allow same-day registration or even automatic registration.
  
  
• Shorten the campaign season. The campaign season should be reduced to four months-two months for parties to choose their candidates and two months for the general election.
  
  
• Abolish the Electoral College. Under the current system, a presidential candidate can receive a majority of the votes and still lose the election. The President should be elected by the people through direct popular vote.
  
  
• Allow national initiatives. The "public initiative" process, already enacted and in operation in 23 states, should be expanded to the national level. This process allows the collective will of our citizens to initiate legislative reform and thereby shape governmental policy more directly.
  
  
• Consider proportional representation. This political system, as opposed to the "winner-take-all" process, has been effective in countries around the world and more fairly represents the true will of the people.

Campaign Finance Reform

THE PROBLEM

The election process is far too long and expensive. Elected representatives spend too much of their terms fundraising and campaigning for re-election. The United States has the longest campaign season-yet the lowest voter turnout-of any country in the world. The exorbitant cost of campaigns favors the wealthy candidates and those who receive large contributions from political action committees (PACs) and other special interest groups. Research has shown that 90% of all campaigns are won by the candidate who spends the most. Consequently, government has become a hostage to special interests rather than responsive to the people.

In 1994, the Republicans supported campaign finance reform and won a landslide victory. However, once they became the majority party, the Republicans became the majority beneficiaries of PAC funds. Now they are the biggest recipients of special interest money in history, and the recent Republican filibuster ensured that no campaign finance reform will take place during the 1998 Congress.

The savings and loan crisis is a prime example of what happens when government is financed and controlled by special interest groups. The savings and loan deregulation was brought about by the influence of the powerful savings and loan lobby, which furnished large campaign contributions to the President and to Congress. The effects of this S&L deregulation and the consequent irresponsible handling of depositors' funds have cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars-thousands of dollars for every taxpayer.

Campaign finances have usurped the focus of our elected leaders by forcing them to attend to fundraising rather than doing their jobs and solving the nation's problems.^[4] For example, it can take as much as $10 million or more to run an effective Senate campaign; consequently, incumbents must raise $5,000 every day they are in office. Hence the lure of PAC funding becomes too compelling to resist.

Unlike the major-party candidates with PAC funding, independent and third-party candidates encounter formidable financial obstacles to media access. In addition, the frequent exclusion of these candidates from participation in televised debates, due to the stranglehold of the two major parties on the democratic process, prevents new ideas and new solutions from entering the political process.

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party will promote fairness in campaign financing through public sponsorship of election campaigns and will support legislation to correct injustices through the following campaign finance reforms:

• Eliminate PACs. When candidates run for Congress, they turn to lobbyists and PACs for contributions. Consequently, when drafting legislation, they often feel more accountable to special interests than to the people they were elected to serve. This system amounts to legalized bribery. The elimination of PACs and special interest control of the political process would make our elected representatives responsive to the people once again.
  
  
• Eliminate "soft money." This loophole circumvents the legal limits on what individuals or corporations can donate to campaigns-limits which are flagrantly violated today. Since current donation limits apply mainly to the election of federal officials, unlimited funds can be donated to nonfederal party accounts, whose administrators can then apply the money as they choose-including, indirectly, to federal campaigns. Special interest groups often use such "soft money" to buy support for their cause, thus sacrificing the best interest of the American people.^[5]
  
  
• Restrict lobbying. Strictly limit the ability of former public servants to lobby on behalf of domestic and foreign interests.
  
  
• Limit congressional privileges. Public servants should abide by the same laws as every American citizen. Free mailings, congressional pensions, and other special privileges should be limited.
  

Revitalizing Our Inner Cities

The Natural Law Party supports a comprehensive, cost-effective plan to revitalize our inner cities. Our plan includes proven programs for education; job, technical, and management training; crime prevention; drug rehabilitation; urban revitalization; social welfare; economic development; and the development of a stronger sense of community. To guarantee the plan's success, we would supplement all these programs with scientifically validated technologies to reduce social stress and unfold the full creative potential of people of all ages.

THE PROBLEM

America's decaying urban centers are monuments to decades of flawed public policies. Billions of dollars are wasted on programs that fail to revitalize our cities because they do not go to the root of the problem. They fail to unlock the inner creative genius of the people, and they fail to reduce the alarming rise of stress in society, which is at the basis of the widespread epidemic of crime, violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and disease. For example, a recent report from the U.S. Justice Department noted that 81% of weapons arrests take place in cities, and that teenagers account for 23% of these arrests. University of Cincinnati criminologist Frank Cullen commented in USA Today that this trend relates "to an absence of family and social structure to support them. Together, that's a lethal combination."

Without addressing the root causes of stress at the basis of urban decay and unrest, all other efforts for economic recovery and urban renewal are destined to fail.

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party offers something new-something that has been shown by scientific evidence to actually work. This approach involves two steps: (1) reduction of built-up social stress, followed by (2) implementation of practical programs to improve community life and solve costly social problems.

To reduce stress, the Natural Law Party supports the establishment of coherence-creating groups practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program. Extensive research, published in leading scientific journals, has found that when a small proportion of a population collectively practices this program there is a significant reduction in negative tendencies, such as crime, violence, sickness, and accidents, and a strengthening of positive social and economic trends in the population as a whole. Such programs will prevent the accumulation of stress and frustration that has erupted as violence in cities across the nation. In the more harmonious atmosphere generated by these programs, a deeper and more integrated sense of community will emerge as the best security against inner-city crime and decay.

After reducing social stress and creating a more coherent social atmosphere, the Natural Law Party would introduce practical solutions to costly social problems and specific programs to promote progress in every city:

• Economy - In addition to effective vocational training and management training programs, the Natural Law Party supports the use of federally guaranteed loans to stimulate capital investment for start-up industries and urban enterprise zones. By targeting economically deprived urban areas, we can stimulate economic growth where it is most needed, thereby creating more jobs, a stronger sense of community, and the revitalization of our inner cities.
  
  
• Health - To improve public health and curb rising health care costs, the Natural Law Party would support prevention-oriented health education and natural medicines that have been shown scientifically to prevent disease, promote health, and cut health care costs in half (see our Health section).
  
  
• Education - To improve education, the Natural Law Party would support programs that develop the inner creative genius of all students, along with the ability to conduct their lives in accord with natural law. Only education that is perceived as directly relevant to the student's own life-education that unfolds full mental potential and the ability to fulfill desires in harmony with natural law-can prevent dropouts, who become the primary targets of inner-city crime and drug abuse (see our Education section).
  
  
• Public Safety - To improve public safety, the Natural Law Party would support proven, cost-effective programs that have been shown to rehabilitate criminal offenders; prevention programs that target at-risk youth before they become involved in crime; effective programs to prevent and cure alcohol and drug abuse; and a permanent coherence-creating group to reduce stress and create a more harmonious social atmosphere throughout the city (see our Crime section).
  
  
• City Planning - To rebuild the inner city, the Natural Law Party would help plan urban infrastructure and housing that improve health, reduce crime, and restore a sense of community. The Natural Law Party would promote the development of nonpolluting automobiles and public transportation, human-scale housing that discourages crime and supports neighborhoods in which families can grow and prosper, and the development of more parks and green spaces (see our Energy and Environment section).

Drug Abuse

The most effective defense against drugs is proper education-education that directly unfolds intelligence and creativity, builds self-confidence, eliminates stress, and raises life to be in harmony with natural law, thereby eliminating the tendency towards drug dependence.

To be effective, education must be deeply satisfying and directly relevant to a person's own life. Such education will eliminate functional and technological illiteracy and also prevent dropouts, who become the principal targets for drugs and drug-related crime (see our Education section).

For those currently suffering from drug dependence, the Natural Law Party promotes programs that have been shown to dramatically reduce drug dependency and to eliminate stress and restore balance in an individual's physiology and psychology (see our Health and Crime sections).

The responsibility for stemming the drug trade currently belongs to numerous federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as many state and local agencies. This fragmented approach inevitably results in overlapping and at times self-defeating investigations, apprehensions, and prosecutions. These conflicts make administration inefficient-and sometimes result in senseless anomalies that allow known criminals to escape prosecution altogether.

The Natural Law Party therefore supports procedures that will promote cooperation and coordination among the various law enforcement agencies responsible for interdicting, apprehending, and prosecuting individuals and organizations engaged in illegal drug and narcotics activities.

Upholding the Rights of Women and Minorities

The rights of all American citizens are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and the Natural Law Party would support any legislation deemed necessary to uphold these constitutional rights for women and for minorities. At the same time, the Natural Law Party recognizes the difficulties in "legislating" equality: equal rights legislation has not succeeded in eliminating discrimination.

Government cannot be present at all times and in all places to ensure that people treat each other fairly. Instead, the Natural Law Party intends to reduce prejudice and bigotry in society through more effective educational programs that develop broad comprehension, increased intelligence, and improved moral reasoning, and by reducing social stress that leads to fear and divisiveness. These programs will help create a unifying influence among our citizens and throughout society.

Natural law is that basic element in the universe that constantly nourishes the life of every individual and every living species. The Natural Law Party is the only political party that is based on this universally nourishing quality of natural law. Until now, democracy has been willing to compromise the interests of the minority for the sake of the majority. This is because democracy has so far been based on limited principles of man-made law, which are not sufficiently comprehensive to be simultaneously nourishing to everyone. When such principles compromise the interests of the minority, inevitably some segments of our population remain unfulfilled. The result is an increase in stress and frustration, which inevitably erupts as crime, sickness, and other problems throughout society.

By basing its administration on the most universal principles of natural law, the Natural Law Party's comprehensive, prevention-oriented solutions to America's problems are capable of providing universal nourishment, protection, and fulfillment to all citizens of the nation, including all the diverse groups that compose the richness and plurality of our great society.

We believe that increased participation in government by women and by minorities will bring greater strength and balance to the administration. In this context, we note that approximately a third of the candidates running for office with the Natural Law Party are women or minority candidates.

Abortion

The Natural Law Party is committed to substantially reducing the number of abortions in America. However, the Natural Law Party holds that the best way to reduce abortions is through education - not through legislation.

The Natural Law Party supports proven educational programs to bring individual and national life into harmony with natural law. These programs develop intelligence and creativity, improve moral reasoning, and promote far-sighted thinking and actions that do not create problems. Such education alone can produce the changes in behavior that will reduce unwanted pregnancies. Only the Natural Law Party's strong educational approach, by changing attitudes and behaviors from the inside out, can offer prevention on a realistic basis.

Our nation's history shows that it is difficult to legislate morality. Laws forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcohol during Prohibition had little effect on alcohol consumption. Instead, they led to the birth of the underground and the most murderous epoch in our nation's history. Similarly, legislation to outlaw abortions will simply lead to illegal abortions.

For this reason, the Natural Law Party believes that it is counterproductive for the Federal Government to outlaw abortion. Furthermore, the Natural Law Party holds that the moral responsibility for this decision should be left in the hands of those whose lives are affected most-the mother, the family, and the doctor-not the Federal Government.

At the same time, the Natural Law Party encourages a shift from public to private funding of abortion-specifically, private charity by those who wish to make abortion accessible for women who cannot afford it. Over time, the government should eliminate the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion as a method of birth control, especially because such use of public funds is morally offensive to millions of taxpayers. The Natural Law Party would allow public funding of abortions in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening medical necessity.

The Natural Law Party further believes that private charity to fund abortions could be better used to support proven, community-based programs such as CareNet, which reaches out to women with crisis pregnancies to offer them both material and emotional support, and the "One Church, One Child" adoption initiative founded by Fr. George Clements, which has enabled over 50,000 children to find loving parents and a nurturing home environment.

The Natural Law Party's "antigovernment" stance regarding abortion-neither subsidizing abortions nor legislating them away-is the only defensible position from the standpoint of the U.S. Constitution, which states in the 10th Amendment that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The Natural Law Party's prevention-oriented approach to reducing the number of abortions will produce a much-needed unifying influence on our nation, which has been deeply torn by this highly divisive issue. Our policy serves the interests of both those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice by (a) decreasing the number of abortions more effectively than legislation and (b) leaving moral responsibility in the hands of those whose lives are affected most. Only the Natural Law Party can solve the problem of abortion at its basis and thereby fulfill the goals of all Americans-those who emphasize the sanctity of life and those who uphold the sanctity of individual freedom.

Family Values

The Natural Law Party is deeply committed to strengthening the well-being of every American family by restoring the fundamental moral values that have sustained the minds and hearts of our citizens for generations. Such universal family values include honesty, integrity, responsibility, industriousness, self-discipline, compassion, generosity, and mutual respect. By bringing individual and family life into accord with natural law, we can largely erase the present epidemic of family breakdown and moral decay and create a society in which parents, children, families, and society mutually nourish and strengthen each other in their growth toward fulfillment.

THE SOLUTION

American families today are under unprecedented financial, social, and environmental stress, making it difficult for parents to create loving, stable homes for their children.

• Finances. Real wages for average American workers have decreased since 1973. Due to the much higher cost of living in 1997, most two-parent families require two incomes to maintain a reasonable existence. In addition, the average American now works more hours than at any time since World War II-close to 50 hours weekly. Not surprisingly, this economic stress, coupled with the strain of long work hours, has resulted in increased tension within families, a rise in domestic violence, and an almost 50% divorce rate for new marriages. As a result, many children no longer receive the love, attention, and guidance from their parents that previous generations took for granted as essential for moral development.
  
  Families with only one parent face even greater challenges. Over 25% of American children in single-parent families live in poverty-yet the rate of childbirth among unmarried women has been increasing, up to 32.4% in 1996. Despite the devotion and hard work of many single parents, some studies indicate that children in single-parent families are at greater risk for crime, for drug and alcohol abuse, and for dropping out of school.
  
  
• Social environment. Parents today have little control over the negative influences assaulting their children: school shootings, drug and alcohol abuse, gangs, premature sexual activity, and the risk of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, children now watch an excessive amount of television-time that used to be spent with parents, teachers, or other role models. Our educational system fails to instill core values in students, such as honesty, mutual respect, civility, and social responsibility.
  
  
• Physical environment. Parents can no longer guarantee the quality of even the most basic necessities for their families: food, air, and water. The dramatic increase in poisons and toxicity in our environment-pesticides on crops, air and water pollution, and the potential harm from genetically engineered foods-all constitute a serious threat to the health of family members (see our Agriculture section).

These financial, social, and environmental challenges that parents face today have given rise to an increase of stress in family life. These rising levels of stress throughout society undermine the harmony and integrity of family life, so important to the growing stability and vitality of our nation. Other political parties decry domestic violence, child abuse, divorce, and the breakdown of morality, but they have been unable to offer effective solutions to these problems.

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party offers proven programs that address the root cause of the breakdown of family life today - epidemic stress levels throughout society, especially in our densely populated urban centers. Medical researchers report an alarming rise in stress-related illness-including stroke, hypertension, and heart disease. This same epidemic of stress is responsible for the widespread growth of "social disease"-domestic violence, child abuse, family decay, crime, and drug abuse. The most effective solution is therefore to reduce accumulated stress in the whole population, so that all individuals, and especially parents, are able to make the most life-supporting decisions in their personal lives and decisions that are most nourishing to the lives of their children.

The Natural Law Party would therefore support the permanent establishment of coherence-creating groups on the national, state, and local levels to dissolve communitywide tension and negativity. These programs of the Natural Law Party have been scientifically demonstrated to reduce crime, violence, and negative trends throughout society, and to create a harmonizing influence in collective consciousness, enabling diverse individual interests and tendencies to coexist without creating conflict between family members and in society as a whole.

In addition, the Natural Law Party's cost-effective solutions to the nation's problems and pro-growth economic policies will create jobs, stimulate growth, and ease the financial strain experienced by so many American families (see our Economy section). The Natural Law Party believes that primary-care parents should not be forced by economic necessity to work, since their role as parents is vital for the strength and stability of future generations.

The Natural Law Party also strongly supports the role of the senior, most experienced members of our society as the source of wisdom and guidance for all other members of the family and the community, and regards the widespread isolation and loneliness of our senior members as a significant loss to America. The Natural Law Party supports mentor and housing programs that can reverse this trend and maintains a deep commitment to protecting the lives and rights of our country's senior members.

Most importantly, the strong educational programs endorsed by the Natural Law Party will significantly support and strengthen family unity and the natural unfoldment of each member's full potential. These programs have been scientifically shown to develop intelligence, emotional maturity, moral reasoning, and harmonious relationships, and to reduce anxiety, substance abuse, and antisocial behavior (see our Education section). Such outcomes will help different generations of a family to live together, to nourish each other, and to establish the harmony, respect, and mutual enrichment that is the ideal of family life.

The family is the source of life for every individual, and as such is the primary training ground for social behavior. The quality of the home determines the quality of civilization.

By strengthening and reenlivening the family from the inside, and by eliminating the stress attacking the family from the outside, the Natural Law Party gives parents the opportunity to reawaken universal family values in their children and thus secure a bright future for our nation.

Foreign Policy

The end of the Cold War era has brought the international community to the threshold of a new era of global peace and harmony. The Natural Law Party believes that the United States should lead the world forward in creating new relationships governed by mutual friendship and cooperation and freed from aggression and armed conflict. America is faced with a historic opportunity to help create a new world order, in which peace is perpetual and every nation upholds the flag of every other nation.

THE PROBLEM

From 1946 to 1993, the U.S. spent $ 439.6 billion on foreign aid-35% of which was military aid. However, these expenditures have not brought peace, economic stability, or greater economic cooperation to the family of nations. We continue to live in a dangerous world troubled by widespread violence and regional conflicts, as evidenced by the Gulf War, the ethnic violence in Bosnia, and continuing terrorism in the Middle East. Moreover, as a major supplier of the world's armaments, the U.S. has directly contributed to such conflicts.

In addition, no real consensus exists concerning the purpose, allotment, and amount of foreign economic aid now that the historical goal of containing communism is no longer an issue. There is an urgent need to address America's deteriorating relations with China, strained relationship and multibillion-dollar trade deficit with Japan, and economic competition with Western Europe. These relationships are especially troubling in view of the continuing U.S. financial commitment to defending Japan, as well as Germany and Western Europe.

Americans naturally wish to help the emerging democracies of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, yet protest substantial funds given directly to Russia and other republics because of so many pressing priorities at home. U.S. aid to developing countries has also been criticized because of countless instances in which funds either were wasted on projects that did not help the people or failed to reach the people due to misuse by the recipient governments.

THE SOLUTION

The Natural Law Party would create an immediate shift in U.S. foreign policy away from military aid toward a more life-supporting policy based on the exportation of U.S. know-how. American expertise and technical assistance in such critical areas as business administration, entrepreneurship, education, sustainable agriculture, and environmental technologies, supplemented where necessary with economic support, should replace military aid as a principal instrument of U.S. foreign policy.

This new type of life-nourishing assistance will allow many developing countries to become financially self-sufficient and thereby to eliminate hunger and poverty. Such a policy would contribute to a more affluent and flourishing global trade and a more prosperous family of nations.

Since the end of the Cold War, America's security interests have begun to shift from military concerns to global economic and environmental issues. America is called to leadership in developing a foreign policy that most intelligently meets this challenge.

This foreign policy must respect and honor the diversity of cultures, religions, races, and economic and political systems of the world, while promoting the value of unity-so that every nation will respect and uphold the sovereignty and cultural integrity of every other nation in an unprecedented flow of economic cooperation and goodwill.

Above all, we must ensure that our precious national resources are applied effectively and not wasted through inefficiency, mishandling, or inappropriate allocation. Foreign aid decisions must be made in consultation with the people of recipient countries, from both the government and nongovernmental citizens' groups.

Fundamental to the success of all these initiatives is the continued lessening of Cold War-era tensions throughout the world. To quickly alleviate remaining global and regional tensions, the Natural Law Party would support the establishment of groups practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program in key areas of the world. These programs have been uniquely effective in dissolving social stress and preventing the outbreak of armed hostility and war ^[1]. By generating coherence in collective consciousness, they create an atmosphere in which diplomacy and other peaceful methods of conflict resolution can succeed. Such groups, established either within the U.S. or dispatched as a U.S. or U.N. peace-keeping force to specific trouble spots, could help prevent the senseless destruction and human suffering resulting from regional conflicts.

In a peaceful and harmonious world family, we can conceive of reducing our own military expenditures and realizing a significant "peace dividend," directing some of our enormous defense expenditures towards our own social programs, including investment and development as an economic superpower.

Defense

With the end of the Cold War era, the U.S. has an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world in creating a stable and permanent peace, free from fear of aggression and war, in which every nation enjoys invincibility and friendship with every other nation.

THE PROBLEM

Despite the declining threat of superpower confrontation, uncertainty and fear still dominate U.S. defense thinking. History has shown that neither treaties nor arms can ensure peace and security. Regional and ethnic conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe have demonstrated that even small nations can imperil world peace and stability. They can hold other nations hostage through terrorism, ecological warfare, and weapons of mass destruction.

No viable defense against nuclear weapons exists. Nuclear tests in China and the resumption of nuclear testing by France have stirred fears in the international community of runaway nuclear proliferation. At least 46 nuclear weapons are thought to be missing from the former Soviet arsenal ^[1]. Arms experts fear that rogue nations and terrorist groups might opt for "back-pack" nuclear weapons carried by foot soldiers. Even after substantial reductions in our own arsenals, thousands of nuclear weapons remain. The military faces huge environmental cleanup costs for its unused arsenals and bases.

Similarly, biological and chemical weapons pose a mounting threat to national security. Their relatively low cost, easily accessible technology, and low-tech applications make them especially dangerous as weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorist groups or even individuals.

The U.S. remains one of the world's biggest arms suppliers. This global arms peddling has tarnished our reputation as a promoter of peace, fostered deep-seated international ill will, and led to a dangerous world in which our own soldiers are forced to confront American weapons on the battlefield. On the domestic front, Congress continues to fund expensive "pork-barrel" defense contracts that the Pentagon does not even want ^[2].

Finally, military personnel continue to face major health concerns, including problems with stress ^[3], alcohol, and a higher rate of cigarette smoking than the civilian population ^[4]. Post-traumatic stress syndrome, a continuing problem for veterans, is virtually ignored due to lack of solutions, and Gulf War syndrome has underscored the insidious influence of environmental toxins on our primary-level military personnel ^[5].

THE SOLUTION

The changing global political landscape mandates a broad reassessment of the purpose, scope, strategy, and financial requirements of U.S. defense. The Natural Law Party believes that these crucial issues must be decided on the basis of a revised set of priorities reflecting America's realistic defense requirements-not on the basis of short-term political considerations and pork-barrel politics.

The Natural Law Party recognizes the need to maintain the alertness of our nation's armed forces. Between 1993 and 1996, the U.S. military defense budget has been cut by 9%. Since the world remains dangerous and unstable, the Natural Law Party believes that the U.S. should not implement further major reductions of defense expenditures at this time. However, we believe that a smaller, more flexible force coupled with greater economic and security cooperation will serve the nation's security interests and provide the basis for a more stable world. We therefore emphasize human rather than material resources.

For example, the Natural Law Party believes that funding for costly, wasteful, and ineffective weapons systems could be rapidly scaled down. As part of this down-scaling, we would (1) accelerate the decrease of U.S. nuclear arsenals, which cost $25 billion annually to maintain, (2) immediately and permanently halt all U.S. nuclear testing and nuclear weapons research, and (3) reduce the U.S. presence in NATO and the Pacific Rim, encouraging Western Europe and Japan to contribute more toward the defense of those regions. The role of America should be to foster peace and prosperity in the family of nations, rather than to act as the world's policeman.

To further strengthen our security, the Natural Law Party offers a peace-promoting technology that will help neutralize international tensions and conflict and promote stability and harmony within the family of nations. Through this peace-promoting technology, which is based upon groups of experts collectively practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program, the Natural Law Party can help to ensure a peaceful world. Only through the addition of this technology to reduce global stress and to generate an actual, physical influence of peace among the family of nations can a political party responsibly cut defense spending and divert the precious resources of the nation toward more life-supporting and humane programs at home and abroad ^[6].

Therefore, the Natural Law Party supports the immediate creation of a "prevention wing" within the military-a group whose primary purpose would be to prevent the outbreak of war and to preserve and strengthen national and international peace. By training even 1% of U.S. military personnel in the proven programs advocated by the Natural Law Party to reduce stress in individual and national life, America can create a genuine peace-keeping force that can maintain a powerful, integrated, coherent national consciousness and thereby prevent the emergence of an enemy.

The Natural Law Party also supports new priorities for the U.S. Department of Defense. Selected military personnel and resources could quickly adapt to roles such as drug interdiction and border defense. We believe that economic growth, leading to new industries and jobs, is the best way to help the defense industry adjust to military downsizing. There is strong statistical evidence that more jobs are created through domestic programs than through military spending. In addition, we favor incentives to stimulate investment of private-sector funds and expertise to help industries diversify into nondefense markets.

Finally, the Natural Law Party supports prevention and rehabilitation programs that have been shown to reduce military stress, decrease alcohol and drug abuse, alleviate post-traumatic stress syndrome, promote better health, and enhance physical and mental performance ^[7].

Gun Control

The Natural Law Party holds that the current debate over gun control overlooks the root cause of this issue. The climate of fear and tension pervading America's cities and towns is largely responsible for the proliferation of guns and their use in acts of violent crime. The Natural Law Party is the only political party to offer scientifically proven programs to reduce built-up social stress and thereby reduce crime and violence (see our Crime and Rehabilitation section).

Within six months of the implementation of these programs, the Natural Law Party anticipates a dramatic reduction in crime rate as stress is neutralized and the whole population spontaneously becomes more in harmony with both natural law and national law. In this improved atmosphere, the perceived need for-and the actual use of-weapons will naturally diminish.

At the same time, the Natural Law Party believes that the widespread availability of guns is, in itself, a significant contributing factor to the rise of violent crime. The Natural Law Party therefore upholds existing gun-control legislation and believes that such legislation represents a suitable balance between public safety and the constitutional right to bear arms. Capital Punishment Given current levels of crime in America, capital punishment has gained broad popular support as a hoped-for deterrent to the most severe crimes. Unfortunately, experience shows that capital punishment neither effectively deters crime nor saves taxpayer money. Although the Natural Law Party supports a strong penal code, especially for specific, highly egregious violent crimes, the current effort to extend the death penalty to include a wide range of crimes is a desperate public (and highly political) reaction arising from deep frustration with present, ineffective crime-fighting strategies. The Natural Law Party supports highly effective, proven crime-prevention programs that have been shown to lower crime significantly (see our Crime section). We believe that the national mood will shift away from an outcry for the harshest possible punishment and towards more compassionate solutions once violent crime has been significantly reduced through the Natural Law Party's prevention-oriented approach.