New York Prohibition Party

 

Good Government

 

We believe that the purpose of the government is to act as a moral agent and a servant of its people; that it has the responsibility to use its legitimate powers and functions to protect the vital rights and wellbeing of its people, promote the general welfare, establish justice and equality under the law, and allow people to pursue the improvement of themselves and society.

 

Temperance and Prohibitionism

 

We recognize that alcohol and other intoxicating drugs are a poison to the minds and bodies of people, that they bring vast personal, social, medical, and economic damages to our society, and that they are ultimately destructive to the lives, actual liberty, and happiness of people. As such, we promote temperance, teetotalism, and prohibitionism.

 

We support policies to restrict and prohibit these substances, efforts to educate the public, programs to encourage abstinence from these substances, and programs to provide treatment for those addicted.

 

We support and encourage local communities to pass local dry laws, and we encourage the state to re-strengthen the state’s ABC laws. We oppose any government support for the alcohol industry, and believe that those politicians who have supported it need to be called out, encouraged to change their ways, or be replaced.

 

Honest Government and Anti-Corruption

 

We believe that our elected officials should be ethical, responsible, and act to the best of their abilities to fulfill their roles as public servants. We believe in holding our elected officials accountable for their actions. As such, we are opposed to government corruption, and support stronger laws to combat it. We also believe in working to cultivate and promote decent people into positions of government.

 

Education

 

We support the ability of all children to have universal access to a decent education, which works to develop knowledge, reason, skill, character, and good citizenship. We support policies and reforms that work toward better achieving this aim. We also support the ability of people to pursue tertiary education that will enable them to pursue careers and make constructive contributions to our society. As such, we encourage the state to work toward establishing a system that will allow all qualified students to reasonably be able to receive a free college or vocational education in the state’s public and private non-profit colleges.

 

State Finance

 

We encourage the reform of the state finance and taxation system to make it more secure and better suited to the needs of New Yorkers. We encourage the state to take on a greater responsibility for funding its own budget and reducing the amount it forces localities to pay, so that the state’s property tax burden may be reduced and local governments may be placed in a better situation.

 

Justice, Equality, and Law

 

We hold that our laws should be based in the principles of justice (to have fair rules of order, to promote that which is right, to prohibit serious wrongs, to protect public safety and wellbeing, to give due consequence to actions, and to seek where possible to reform misdoers that have been held to account). We seek to produce laws that will best fit this aim.

 

Based on such principles, the state should abolish the statute of limitations on sex crimes.

 

We support the passage of the Child Victims Act and Brittany's law. 

 

We hold that all people are created equal, with universal personhood and a common humanity. This applies to all people regardless of gender, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, class, or any other such distinction. As such, we oppose any unjust mistreatment on account of such distinctions, and encourage the principle of equality in society and under the law.

 

Health

 

We encourage the development of policies that will ensure the ability of people to receive decent healthcare. We also support efforts to improve personal and public health. This includes working to counter the harms of tobacco.

 

Gambling

 

We recognize the harm that gambling can bring to practitioners and society. We encourage the state to end state practiced gambling, and for society to move away from the practice.

 

Economic Development

 

We support positive economic development efforts. We recognize that good economic development efforts need to be responsible, sustainable, and designed in holistic manner that takes into account the implications that it will have on the community. Practices which give unfair advantages to the politically connected or which promote businesses that cause greater damage to the rest of the economy and society (such as the alcohol industry), need to be abandoned. By promoting things which provide a net benefit and working to reduce social problems, we can build a basis for greater prosperity.

 

Infrastructure

 

We support the repair and revitalization of the state’s infrastructure, including its important buildings, roads, railways, bridges, subways, water and air transportation. In doing so, it would not only allow for the people of New York to more conveniently commute and travel, but also benefit the economic condition of New York.

 

Environment

 

We recognize the importance for people to be good stewards of the earth, and for our society to have a positive relationship with our natural environment. We support efforts to protect important parts of our environment, advance sustainable business practices, and advance sustainable energy, while balancing the economic needs of our society.

 

Ballot Access

 

The ability of the people to vote for their preferred candidate and the ability for citizens to run for public office is central to healthy functioning of a democratic republic. Forces in the two major parties have historically and currently conspired to establish ballot access laws which function to largely block the ability of independent and minor party candidates to be able to gain access to the ballot, or to make them acquire it at such great expense that it discourages them or greatly reduces their resources with which to campaign. By doing so this has acted to entrench the power of the two to major parties at the expense of limiting the electoral choices of voters.

 

The Prohibition Party of New York State supports reforms to the state’s ballot access laws to create more reasonable ballot laws, with fairer standards of ballot access, so that the voters may have greater choices and a greater opportunity to vote for the candidate of their preference.