Humane Party Platform

HUMANE PARTY PLATFORM 2018-19

Introduction

The Humane Party is a political party serving the United States of America and the individual jurisdictions therein. The Humane Party platform for 2018-19 appears below.

This document has three main parts. The first part presents “public” policy positions: those positions that the HP presents as the best choices for the U.S. nation and society as a whole and, where applicable, for individual jurisdictions within the U.S. The second part presents “internal” policy positions: those commitments which the HP organization has made regarding its own organizational nature, values, and behavior as well as certain commitments that HP team members make regarding their own personal values and behavior. The third part comprises one-time resolutions pertaining to current and historical events and relationships.

In order to keep this document to a manageable length and highly readable form, the individual public-policy “planks” of the platform are phrased so as to capture the essence of a given position without over-burdening the given plank with detail. The focus is on goals and solutions on which almost all science- and ethics-minded individuals are likely to agree rather than on the means to those ends and manners of implementing those solutions, where a great deal more room for debate is necessary, desirable, and available within the HP community.

Note that the solutions presented below are integrated and mutually reinforcing; for instance, the healthcare system described is enabled in part by the policies regarding reproduction, social justice, education, animals, and the environment.

The Humane Party seeks what is best for the United States of America and all—meaning all—of its inhabitants and what is best for the planet and all—meaning all—of its inhabitants. We are, indeed, all “in it together.” Individuals who share HP values are encouraged to volunteer, vote, contribute, and run for office so as to help implement this platform and achieve the goals expressed herein.

Public Policy

The Humane Party has adopted the following simple set of resolutions as the Humane Party’s 2018-19 platform. We have:

RESOLVED that appropriate legislation be enacted and appropriate governmental action taken so as to:

1. require balanced federal, state, and territorial budgets, subject to narrowly tailored exceptions.

2. replace the electoral college system with democratic election of the U.S. President through ratification of the Democracy for America Amendment (“Democracy Amendment”); and

protect and empower democracy, through, inter alia, elimination of systems and practices intended to discount the voting power of political minorities or to suppress so-called “third parties.”

3. ensure equality under federal, state, and territorial law, such equality including but not limited to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and marriage equality, through, inter alia, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment II (“ERA2”); and

address issues pertaining to reproduction, through, inter alia:

  • providing extensive, free, universal, and responsible education regarding birth control and contraceptives;
  • providing free, universal access to reliable contraceptives;
  • designing and implementing a fair and neutral way to encourage voluntary use of contraceptives; and
  • in concert with other nations, developing an international program to ameliorate existing overpopulation-driven problems and incentivize widespread embrace of birth-control measures and contraceptives.

4. end non-emergency-based use of toxic, hazardous, and economically untenable fuels and energy production methods, such fuels and methods including but not limited to “fossil” fuels and nuclear fission, through, inter alia:

  • replacing such fuels and methods with alternatives that serve the nation’s immediate and long-term economic and national security interests;
  • to the degree possible, remedying, both independently from and in concert with the international community, the harms heretofore caused by such fuels and methods; and
  • incentivizing (i) departure from cultural habits and practices that drive inefficient use of energy and (ii) embrace of design, development, and living choices that rely upon passive energy only or, at a minimum, fossil- and fission-free energy.

5. defend the nation’s air, land, and water resources against further contamination and depletion, such defense including but not limited to:

  • preventing anthropogenic effects on air quality, soil quality, and water quality beyond those inherent to humans as organisms;
  • establishing zero-landfill and zero-litter waste management systems in all U.S. jurisdictions through, inter alia, incentivizing elimination of the “disposable” product and single-use packaging paradigm and developing a comprehensive system for stopping the spread of plastic/microplastic contamination;
  • practicing sustainable agriculture so as to regenerate U.S. farmland and protect all said resources indefinitely by, inter alia, eliminating all fossil-fuel-based and animal-based fertilizer systems, so-called “pesticides,” and herbicides;
  • preserving the remaining ecosystems of which the nation is a part, including development and pursuit of international agreement to the Non-Militarization of Animals Treaty (“NMAT”);
  • protecting the remaining species who inhabit such ecosystems, including pursuit of international agreement to the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Faunacide (“Faunacide Convention”); and, to the degree possible,
  • revitalizing such ecosystems and remediating such anthropogenic effects.

6. cultivate the nation’s excellence in education, scholarship, and personal and professional development, such cultivation including but not limited to:

  • fostering humane education, which addresses human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection as interconnected global issues and provides people with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to create a healthy, peaceful, and sustainable world for all humans and other animals;
  • providing options for a tuition-free, universally accessible path to an accredited, four-year college degree through, inter alia, a combination of distance-learning courses, electronic course materials, and skill-competency testing;
  • providing, when necessary, tuition-free re-training of workers whose jobs or skill functions have been replaced or severely devalued by automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other technologies or by implementation of the animal- and environment-related policies described herein;
  • fostering humane education, such that what may be called “ethicacy” takes its place along literacy and numeracy in basic curricula;
  • maximizing the value received by students, parents, and taxpayers from education expenditures by replacing animal-based products and violence-based practices with plant-based products and non-violent practices in all education contexts and at all tiers of the educational system; and,
  • until the Abolition Amendment has rendered such measures moot, denying public funding and privileged tax status to any institution that engages in vivisection or any other form of killing, exploitation, or abuse of animals through, inter alia, passing of the Humane Education Advances Research, Technology, and Science Act (“HEARTS Act”).

7. enhance national security, through, inter alia:

  • implementing the fiscal, energy, ethical, and environmental policies detailed herein;
  • modernizing the U.S. approach to national security so as to achieve both greater security and lower costs;
  • maximizing the value received by taxpayers from defense expenditures by replacing animal-based products with plant-based products in all national security contexts; and
  • eliminating systems and practices that create profit motives to engage in war or to encourage other nations to engage in war.

8. modernize intellectual property and freedom-of-information laws, such modernization including but not limited to:

  • harmonizing copyright and trademark law with patent law such that private causes of action for infringement remain but criminal penalties that include possibility of incarceration are eliminated;
  • guaranteeing free, immediate, and unrestricted public access to all information produced by or in collaboration with any governmental entity or any tax-exempt entity, including but not limited to any private academic institution that benefits from tax exemption, except upon a clear and convincing demonstration by the party in possession of such information that such access would present an immediate and articulable threat to national security;
  • eliminating (i) copyright eligibility for any audible or visible recording of purposeful, knowing, or reckless violence by a human against another animal; and (ii) trademark eligibility for any good or service involving such violence through, inter alia, passing of the Violence Is Not Entertainment Act (“VINE Act”);
  • eliminating or preventing patent eligibility for any animal; for any organism intended for or having the effect of killing animals; for any device or article of manufacture that includes an animal body part or secretion; and for any method that includes or relies upon exploitation of an animal; and
  • protecting whistleblowers who expose illegal governmental or private industry practices against governmental and private retaliation.

9. end inhumane and fiscally unsound criminal investigation, trial, sentencing, and incarceration systems and practices, such legislation and action including but not limited to:

  • repealing the so-called “Three Strikes” laws and other inhumane mandatory sentencing laws;
  • repealing the so-called “Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act” (AETA), “Ag-Gag” laws, and other attempts to suppress speech, expressive conduct, and political dissent;
  • eliminating the death penalty;
  • maximizing the value received by taxpayers from criminal justice expenditures by replacing animal-based products with plant-based products in all criminal justice contexts;
  • eliminating systems and practices that create profit motives to incarcerate people or keep them incarcerated; and
  • except in cases of individuals who pose a clear threat of violence, replacing the prison paradigm with ways of dealing with offenders that are more effective, efficient, and fiscally and socially responsible than incarceration.

10. end inhumane, scientifically indefensible, and economically unsound exploitation or disturbance of other species by humans, such legislation and action including but not limited to, until the Abolition Amendment has rendered such measures moot:

  • eliminating both domestic trade in and import/export of sentient beings, regardless of species through, inter alia, passage of the Borders Act;
  • eliminating torture, vivisection, mutilation, forced impregnation, bestiality, molestation, offspring abduction, displacement, confinement, exhibiting, hunting, trapping, poisoning, and slaughter of, and warring against, such beings;
  • eliminating both domestic and foreign trade in products resulting from or obtained by way of such exploitation, such products including dead body parts, such as leather and fur, and live animal secretions or products, such as milk, eggs, wool, silk, and honey;
  • eliminating services that include or are provided by way of such exploitation, such services including experiments performed on live animals and entertainment events that include live animals;
  • eliminating breeding and genetic manipulation of animals, including, without limitation, by means of forced impregnation or forced breeding, of selective breeding, and of genetic engineering;
  • prohibiting and imposing strict liability for use or release of any biological weapon, whether naturally occurring or genetically engineered, whether targeted at humans or at other animals;
  • prohibiting and imposing strict liability for use or release of any chemical weapon, whether targeted at humans or at other animals;
  • prohibiting and imposing strict liability for introduction of any invasive species, whether the species be naturally occurring or genetically engineered, into uncontained exposure to a given ecosystem; and
  • revising building, development, and behavior-related codes so as to minimize risk of accidental harm to animals, such as flying birds colliding into windows and land animals drowning in pools; protecting and restoring contiguity and integrity of other animals’ natural habitats and migration routes; and eliminating practices that terrorize other animals or otherwise disrupt their habitats, behaviors, and relationships, such as fireworks and other noise or vibration pollution.

11. abolish the property status of (“emancipate”) other animals, thereby granting legal standing and personhood to all other animals, such that, without limitation, an animal’s liberty can be procured by way of a habeas corpus proceeding and his or her rights can be enforced through a duly authorized legal guardian, by ratifying a new Constitutional amendment emancipating all other animals, namely, the Abolition Amendment; and

until the Abolition Amendment has rendered such measures moot, emancipating and granting legal personhood to all animals on public lands, through passing of the Live Animal National Defense Act (“LAND Act”) and state equivalents.

12. guarantee universal access, regardless of ability to pay, to necessary health care, including development and ratification of a Health Care Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so as to establish such guarantee; and

replace the illness-and-cure model with a wellness-and-prevention model for health care by, inter alia, replacing animal-based products with plant-based products in all food and nutrition contexts, the savings thus made possible being used to partly offset the costs of such universal access to necessary health care.

13. guarantee universal access, regardless of ability to pay, to clean water in an amount sufficient to meet daily requirements for drinking and hygiene purposes, including development and ratification of a Water Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so as to establish such guarantee; and

impose strict liability for causing contamination of any naturally occurring waterway or body of water, including, without limitation, oceans, rivers, and lakes.

14. allow humans, in appropriate cases of terminal, incurable and chronically painful illnesses, to exercise a right to die, including but not limited to a right to physician-assisted suicide.

15. recognize, through passing of the Genocide Recognition, Reparations, and Reconciliation Act, (i) the European invasion of the land masses now under U.S. jurisdiction as comprising a series of unprovoked acts of war and genocide; and (ii) the transatlantic human slave trade and the institution of human slavery itself as comprising a series of unprovoked acts of war and genocide; such legislation and action including but not limited to:

  • removing the names and likenesses of chief perpetrators and enablers of these wrongs from all places of honor, such places including but not limited to U.S. currency and landmarks; and
  • establishing, on behalf of the true and rightful descendants of victims of these wrongs, an agency tasked with designing and implementing a comprehensive system for achieving restorative justice and remedying, to the extent possible, these wrongs; wherein:
    • the remedies so provided shall be provided exclusively by the U.S. federal government and preempt all other remedies within the U.S.; and
    • the U.S. federal government shall subrogate to all claims adjudicated pursuant to this section and be empowered to seek contribution from those nations who participated in or profited from these wrongs.

Internal Policy

In regard to the nature and conduct of the Humane Party organization itself, we have further RESOLVED to continue to:

  • accept only those officers and board members and endorse only those candidates for public office who have committed to:
    • lead their lives in accord with humane values, such values requiring, inter alia, adherence to what is popularly called a “vegan” and “cruelty-free” lifestyle;
    • pursue and achieve those political and legal solutions that accord with such values, such solutions including, inter alia, abolishing the property status of all other animals; and
    • oppose and defeat all proposed courses of action that would, if followed, conflict with such values.
  • strive to embody and practice such values, both as individuals and as an organization;
  • imbue our organizational procedures, protocols, practices, and publications with such values;
  • treat all sentient beings as literal constituents while developing a formal representation structure through which these constituents’ political interests can be fully represented through permanent voting power wielded by and through their duly determined legal guardians (“zoocracy”);
  • reject negotiation with anyone who takes or holds hostages or captives for exploitation, killing, mutilation, exhibition, or sale until all given captives, including, without limitation, farmed animals and animals being held under color of “science,” have been released;
  • reject financial contributions to election campaigns from corporations, regardless of what campaign finance laws may hereafter permit, and regardless of the business or nature of a given corporation;
  • encourage and empower vegan, abolitionist insurgencies within the other U.S. political parties through, inter alia, committing to withdraw our own candidate from a race for public office in favor of another qualified party’s qualified vegan, abolitionist candidate for that office according to the Tipping-Point Provision;
  • encourage leaders of other political parties to commit their parties to abolition;
  • encourage the founding and cultivation of vegan, abolitionist political parties and the election of vegan, abolitionist candidates in other countries;
  • develop legislation, such as the ERA2 and the Abolition Amendment, that can be independently embraced and promoted by anyone who wishes to serve the best interests of the country, regardless of his or her political party affiliation;
  • celebrate Civil Rights Day on April 9 of each year, in both (i) commemoration of previous civil rights victories and (ii) anticipation of future civil rights victories throughout the United States and throughout the world;
  • celebrate American Abolition Day (“Abolition Day“) on December 6 of each year, in both (i) commemoration of the end of human slavery in the United States and (ii) anticipation of the end of all slavery throughout the United States and throughout the world.

One-Time Resolutions

Liberty Party. We hereby recognize the Liberty Party (approximately 1840-48) as a direct political ancestor of the Humane Party. On the understanding that the term “slavery” includes not just human slavery but all forms of slavery, we hereby ratify and reiterate the demand of our forebears in the Liberty Party for the “absolute and unqualified divorce” of our nation from slavery. We further affirm that, like the Liberty Party, the Humane Party “has not been organized merely for the overthrow of slavery; its first decided effort must, indeed, be directed against slaveholding as the grossest and most revolting manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications, and support every just measure conducive to individual and social freedom.”

Invitation to Other Parties. We hereby invite the U.S.’s Green Party, both the organization as a whole and its individual members, to reject the leading anthropogenic cause of environmental harm—namely, animal exploitation—and to commit to veganism personally and abolitionism politically. We also hereby invite the U.S.’s Libertarian Party, both the organization as a whole and its individual members, to reject slavery, in all its forms, as being inherently antithetical to the cause and principles of liberty.

Global Animal Protection Movement. We hereby applaud those political parties in other nations that, like the Humane Party, have arisen in recent years as part of a worldwide movement to replace violence- and exploitation-based parties with science- and ethics-based parties.

The Emancipator, The Liberator, and The North Star. We hereby recognize Elihu Embree’s The Emancipator / Manumission Intelligencer; William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator, and Frederick Douglass’ The North Star as direct political ancestors of The Humane Herald. We also hereby affirm the phrases from The North Star motto “Right is of no sex” and “Truth is of no color” and append the conviction that “Beauty is of no species” to form a motto for The Humane Herald that reads:

“Right knows no gender — Truth knows no color — Beauty knows no species.”

Seneca Falls Convention, 19th Amendment, and the Original Equal Rights Amendment. We hereby recognize the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) and its organizers and participants; the organizers and participants of the movement that led to ratification of the 19th Amendment; and the organizers and participants of the movement that drafted and pursued ratification of the original Equal Rights Amendment as direct political ancestors of the ERA2 movement.

SO WE HAVE RESOLVED on February 1, 2018, and this draft WE HAVE RATIFIED on February 15, 2018, with the intent for publication on Humane Party Platform Day, April 22, 2018.