UNDER REVISION

Platform of the Edgertonite National Party

Adopted 9 March 2009

IMMIGRATION – a fair solution!

We seek political independence for the area within a 240-mile radius of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in order to create an independent nation, to be called Edgerton, as a homeland for the Lauraist religion. We support citizenship and immigration policies which respect the rights of those people within Edgerton who wish to remain American citizens and we support free movement of people into and out of Edgerton as long as their presence is actuarially determined to be more positive than negative. The Nation of Edgerton will not discriminate against anyone based on age, race, sex, sexual preference, religion (unless forced on others), political beliefs (ditto), or economic status.

AMERICA – time to break up!

We believe that large countries are very energy-inefficient by nature, and the United States needs to break up to become more manageable and to respect cultural differences among regions. We believe smaller independent economies with independent currencies are the solution. We support a happy medium between the current superpower and total atomization of the 50 states. We believe that Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of North America is an appropriate book for beginning discussion on this topic.  At the same time, we seek the best possible relationship between the new, smaller nations, which should be free to trade and cooperate whenever it is mutually beneficial, though without being forced into the political and economic straitjacket of unification. Accordingly, we stand for Edgertonite withdrawal from the United States. In place of the US, we intend to aim towards greater regional self-sufficiency and to trade with the rest of the world as it suits us. Following our withdrawal from the US, we will use the net contribution this area at present makes to Washington, DC to fund many far more useful projects at home.

LAW AND ORDER - crack down on crime but respect people’s rights!

The ENP will crack down on real crime and restore public safety and confidence while repealing laws against harmless activities. We support capital punishment for persons who have demonstrated they can never safely coexist with the community, as an option for judges in cases where their guilt is proven beyond dispute, as by DNA evidence or being caught red-handed.

ECONOMY - local workers first!

Globalization is bringing ruin and unemployment to local industries and the communities that depend on them. Accordingly, the ENP calls for selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from our markets and reduction of foreign imports. We will ensure that our manufactured goods are, wherever possible, produced in local factories, employing local workers. When this is done, unemployment will be brought to an end, and secure, well-paid employment will flourish. We further believe that industry, commerce, land and other economic and natural assets belong in the final analysis to the people. To that end we will place the economy under public ownership. We will take active steps to break up the socially, economically and politically damaging monopolies now being established by the retail giants. Finally we will seek to give workers a stake in the success and prosperity of the enterprises whose profits their labor creates by encouraging employee-owned companies and co-ops.

EDUCATION - security, sovereignty, achievement!

We will end the practice of politically correct indoctrination in all its guises, and combat bullying and harassment in schools while giving students more personal freedom and choice in their curriculum, and put far greater emphasis on training young people in the industrial and technological skills necessary in the modern world. We will also seek to instill in our young people knowledge of and pride in the history, cultures and heritage of the world.

AGRICULTURE - quality before quantity!

We see a strong, healthy agriculture sector as vital to the country. Our farming industry will be encouraged to produce a much greater part of the nation’s need in food products. Priority will be switched from quantity to quality, as we move from competing in a global economy to maximum self-sufficiency for Edgerton. We will ensure a major shift to healthier and more sustainable organic farming.

HEALTH - first-class health care for all!

We are wholly committed to a free, fully funded National Health Service for all Edgertonite citizens. More support must be given to healthy living with greater understanding of sickness prevention through a healthier environment.

PUBLIC TRANSIT - time to invest!

Increased investment is needed in our public transportation system to bring it up to the highest standards in the world. Congestion of our towns and cities must be eased by the provision of greater incentives to use rail and bus transportation instead of private cars. The first step is to end the crime and squalor that puts so many people off public transportation. In addition, buses should be replaced with streetcars where feasible, as the experience of cities throughout North America is that people who won’t ride a bus will ride a train. Focus on inner cities and working-class inner suburbs rather than wealthy outer suburbs and exurbs should be ensured by a return to the routes, fares, and schedules in effect 18 September 1970. Motorists must not be made the scapegoats for government failure. The gas tax should be cut, speed limits raised, and hidden speed cameras should be banned. Far more must be done to encourage the development and use of cleaner fuels.

ENVIRONMENT – a greener future!

Our ideal is that of a beautiful country, free of pollution in all its forms. We will enforce standards to curb those practices, whether by business or the individual, which cause environmental damage. “Green energy” and “Green technology” must become facts of life, not mere campaign slogans. In towns we would work to replace the brutal modernism of 1960s-style architecture with a blend of traditional local styles and materials and ensure that developments take place on a more human scale.

FOREIGN AID - time to spend our money on our own people!

We reject the idea that we must forever be obliged to subsidize incompetent and corrupt governments by supplying them with financial aid. The money saved by this policy will be reallocated to vital services at home.

SENIOR CITIZENS – are people too!

The conditions in which many of our old people are forced to live are a national disgrace. We are pledged to ensure that all our old folk are able to live in comfortable homes, and will restore the earnings link with pensions. Elderly people who have paid a lifetime of taxes and reared families should not have to sell their homes to pay for care.

FREEDOM OF BELIEF, EXPRESSION, AND LIFESTYLE – even if offensive!

No one should be required to live anyone else’s way. Cleanliness and health should be free choices, not societal mandates. Personal hygiene should be just that – a personal choice. Everyone should be free to believe in whatever religion, political or other philosophy he or she chooses, and to speak freely about any topic, no matter how offensive. The ENP will specifically free children from the oppressive, arbitrary power of their parents and from age-discriminatory laws, and eliminate the oppressive aspects of the education and mental “health” systems. The word “appropriate” shall only be used according to its dictionary meaning of “suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting,” rather than its misuse in psychiatric settings to mean “according to our rules.” Societal and police harassment of the poor, the homeless, and those who are different will be put to an end.

DEFENSE – not aggression!

We will establish a Home Guard to ensure that we are able to deal with any emergency, and defend our homeland and independence. We will withdraw from NATO. We will nationalize US military bases on Edgertonite soil, and refuse to risk Edgertonite lives in meddling “peace-keeping” missions in parts of the world where no Edgertonite interests are at stake - a position of armed neutrality. We will also restore national service for our young with the option of civil or military service.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Edgerton’s interests first!

Our foreign relations should be determined by the protection of our own national interest and not by our like or dislike of other nations’ internal politics. We would have no quarrel with any nation that does not threaten Edgertonite interests. We will maintain an independent foreign policy of our own, and not a spineless subservience to the USA, the international community, or any other country.

DEMOCRACY - letting the people decide!

In recent years, people have been denied their democratic rights. On issue after issue, the views of working-class people have been ignored and overridden by a politically correct elite which thinks it knows best. On immigration, on capital punishment, on the surrender of local autonomy to Washington, DC, and in numerous other areas, democracy has been absent as Republicans and Democrats conspire in election after election to offer the people no real choice on such vital issues. The ENP exists to give the people that choice, and thus to restore and defend the basic democratic rights we have all been denied. We favor more democracy, not less, not just at national but at regional and local level.

Power should be devolved to the lowest level possible so that local communities can make decisions which affect them. We will remove legal curbs on freedom of speech. We will implement a Bill of Rights guaranteeing fundamental freedoms to all people. We will ensure that ordinary people have real democratic power over their own lives and that government, local and national, is truly accountable to the people who elect it.