Working the field, part III – Prohibition!

Earl Farwell Dodge

Gene Amondson

I had planned to write up something about these two gentlemen, but the links cover that pretty adequately. The Prohibition Party will rack up about 1400 votes in the general election, which is hardly enough to put it on most people’s radar. However, I hold to my belief that everyone deserves some kind of coverage.

It looks to me like Earl Dodge, the longtime head of the party and  oft-nominated candidate (or “candicate,” as the site heading reads), is not up for this go-round. Amondson, though, is.

Actually, reading the Prohibition Party’s platform, I have a hard time finding much with which I disagree. It is a fairly classical isolationist and conservative statement of position.

I also find it impossible to disagree with this statement:

Republicans and Democrats have created a two-party monopoly by enacting

increasingly repressive laws that keep most independent and third-party

candidates off the ballot in most states. We will enact a federal law to

restore all legitimate political rights to all third-party and

independent persons and groups. We support term limits for all members

of Congress

The oligopoly of the two parties has limited debate and has established controls of the House of Representatives and Senate that grant them all kinds of powers — to say nothing of the fact that the two ruling parties earmarked $50 million each for their own party conventions. The Prohibition Party is certainly not getting that kind of federal funding.

Decency, pro-life, states’ rights, small government … these look like good, solid conservatives to me. These are people the Republican Party should be reaching out to. No, we’re not likely to see the GOP turn back to banning alcohol. However, I see room to grow by outreach — if the party stands for the principles it professes.