#like come on torts its the blueprint

[thirdpartytribune]

Interview: Nick Hensley, Reform Party Secretary

1. What is the Reform Party, for the uninformed?

The Reform Party is a moderate, centrist and populist party founded in 1995 by followers of Ross Perot. We take a moderate stance on fiscal issues and no stances on social issues.

Social issues, in modern politics are wedge issues. The Democrats and Republicans bring these issues up year after year, but do not follow through on promises. Parties use these issues only to motivate voting blocs, so they never pass legislation at the federal level to further these issues. When social issues are resolved, such as gay marriage, it is usually done by the nonpartisan courts. We wish to move American politics away from these tactics. Candidates however can pick where they stand on these issues, and we have both socially conservative and socially liberal members.

In addition to our economic platform, we call for the end of unrestricted free trade and opt for a balanced approach to foreign trade. We support American manufacturing. American workers have seen their jobs, communities, pensions and benefits packed into cargo containers and shipped overseas. As this has happened, top level corporate officers have seen their wages increase as the wages of working class Americans declined.

We want to keep Medicare and Social security solvent for future generations by making long term changes, and rooting out fraud in the system.

We advocate for outlawing gerrymandering, opening the ballots to all parties and candidates, and the public financing of all elections. With those platform issues, we hope to break the establishment's hold on political elections and open the door to electing real representation in Washington.

Lastly we wish to balance the budget by ending special interest tax loopholes to raise revenue, ending welfare for large corporations, and restructuring government entities and programs to streamline costs. At the same time we want to create a blueprint to restore the Federal government's financial state in the decades to come, and pass a balanced budget amendment.

2. The party gained 0.2% of the popular vote in last year's election. How does the party plan on capitalizing on this?

For a decade the Reform Party was seen to be on its death bed. Recent reforms in the Reform Party are slowly bringing it back to life. Over the past few years, we've regained our ballot access in several states, and tripled the number of officeholders we have nationwide. While doing so, we have seen an uptick in fundraising and exponentially increased the number of active organizers we have across the country. Last year, we received about 40,000 votes for our nominal presidential candidate, up from less than 1,000 in 2012.

Communications and outreach are always areas we are improving. Most of our growth has come from improvements in our internal and external communications. A few years ago, we invested in social media for the first time, and began issuing periodic press releases. We also have started reaching out to do more interviews. During this process, we've garnered attention and new supporters.




We are also looking to run candidates in more elections. Right now Paul Bachmann is running in Florida State House District 66, Rick Kasa is looking into a run for Franklin County Soil and Water Board, and we are eyeing several more races around the country.

3. What do you feel is holding third parties back, and how can we fix it?

The Democrats and Republicans stacked ballot access and redistricting laws in their favor. Independent and third party candidates have a higher degree of difficulty in obtaining a spot on the ballot. By changing our ballot access laws, on a state level, third party candidates would spend fewer resources on ballot access - like establishment candidates.

Gerrymandering is also a hindrance. Democrats and Republicans draw districts to favor their candidates. Having independent redistricting boards in every state would open elections to independent and third party candidates.

Campaign finance laws are written to favor large party candidates. Most candidates do not qualify for matching funds - like those of the Democratic and Republican Party. If there was a pool of public money for each election, that was split evenly between all ballot qualifying candidates, it would remove special interest money from elections and even the playing field for all candidates.

4. What makes the Reform Party stand out compared to the Democrats, Republicans, or other third parties?

The Reform Party is different from other third parties, because it proposes mainstream solutions. Many third parties are fringe alternatives, as the Reform Party was built to be a vehicle for moderates, which compose the the majority of American voters.

We differ from the Republicans and Democrats, because we are not beholden to special interest donors. The political establishment in the country has taken donations from corporate donors and PACs, and thus legislates to the benefit of a few monied power brokers.

5. What candidates should people be keeping an eye on in the various elections across the nation?



Right now Paul Bachmann is running in Florida State House District 66. He was a political activist for sometime before announcing for office. He has a good political network, raised all of his funds from small donors and will be facing a single opponent without a Democrat in the race. Paul Bachmann may be the non establishment candidate to watch in 2018.



It is rumored that Darcy Richardson of Florida is eyeing a race. I am not in a place to confirm or deny that rumor as I stay away from those things until they are set in stone. I will say that if he did run, he has years of political campaigning under his belt and could self finance to a point. He also has numerous allies that can help him across the political spectrum. He is a friend to great many Libertarians, Greens, Reformers, Democrats and Republicans. He is in a position to turn heads.

6. In a recent Reform Party tweet, the party wrote "#GopInCrisis". Do you feel that the current two party system is starting to crumble?



As far as the long term prospects of the Democrats and Republicans, I don't know what the future holds. In the present however, we have a Democratic Party without a message. The Democratic Party says "Don't support Trump" and that is not platform. They have no solid stances on any issue, and their masters advocate for many things that do not resonate with the American people. They seem out of touch to most.

The Republicans in recent months have shown they are no better for winning the 2018 elections. The White House has created numerous controversies, and President Trump is unpopular through large areas of the country. Meanwhile the Republican legislators are fighting amongst themselves, and have nothing to show for their electoral victories.

That is why America is stagnant.

7. What does the Reform Party think Congress should do about Obamacare?



Once you give voters a benefit, it is hard to take away. If a party was to dismantle Obamacare in its entirety, it would doom that party to the wilderness for a foreseeable future. There are numerous flaws with Obamacare. The main issue is that the cost of healthcare is still rising, and not falling. While looking at the issue of amending Obamacare, we need to stop looking at the cost of health insurance and instead look at the cost of healthcare services. There is a lot of administrative cost that can be cut through regulatory reform - that does not affect the quality of service. A good example of which is the cost of processing medicare, health insurance and other plans. A second example would be tort reform.

8. What about threats such as ISIS and North Korea?



Until recently North Korea was viewed as a joke. Even I thought that North Korea was a clown that talked a good game, and was unable to act. Sadly we were wrong. North Korea's ICBM tests were a wakeup call. However North Korea is protected by China. Diplomatically there is little we can do to with North Korea that doesn't include negotiations with China. It will take the strength of the world to persuade China to rein in its puppet. At this time however it is doable through diplomatic actions.



The United States has been at war in the Middle East for over 20 years. ISIS is a continuous of our military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. ISIS was created partly by mismanaging our past operations. Luckily recent gains on the battlefield have favored US backed forces. It looks like there may be a rise of an independent Kurdish state. If that is true, the Kurds have been a close ally to the US, and we should continue giving them military support and supplies.

9. Do you feel the mainstream media (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) does not pay enough attention to third parties?



No. Many media outlaws lean towards either the Democratic or the Republican Party, and profit off their actions. Right now the Democrats and Republicans are controlled by the far left and the far right, and media outlets profit off of supporting those groups. Sadly we live in an age where media outlets present opinions and not facts.

10. In 2000, Donald Trump temporarily vied for the Reform presidential candidate nomination. Is it weird to think about that now?



Yes and no. Donald Trump was a friend of Jesse Ventura and was supported by Jack Gargan's faction. Jack Gargan was an authoritative figure within the Reform Party, and was recalled during an emergency meeting in 2000. That meeting was in Nashville, and Jack Gargan supporters created a situation, and police were called to maintain order. Many of the people involved in this situation supported Trump during his campaign. This should have served as a warning to the Republican Party. They did not heed it, and now they have to deal with these people. We spent years marginalizing these people, and forcing them out of the Reform Party. I guess they found a new home.

11. What issue do you think is being ignored too much in politics?





All of them. During the 2016 elections, the current majority and President Trump made numerous promises to the American people. There were several great proposals that have been sidelined, because controversies have taken attention off of them. The American People were promised infrastructure reform. To date neither the Democrats nor Republicans have moved on the issue.

There has been little talk on budget reduction. Leaving positions unfilled does not significantly reduce the cost of operation for an organization the size of the United States. These unfilled positions have reduced America's spending by tens of millions of dollars when we have a budget deficit measured in the hundreds of billions.

Special interest control of the American political process is another issue that no one is talking about. Political Action Committees, lobbyists and corporate donors spend billions of dollars to influence lawmakers. As lawmakers are serving the wants of special interests, they are ignoring the needs of The People.

12. Anything you'd like to say?




I would like to thank the Third Party Tribune for allowing me to do this interview. Minor parties find themselves ignored by many media outlets, and the Third Party Tribune has given me a great opportunity.

Going forth into the future, the United States faces many challenges. We have a growing debt of nearly 20 trillion dollars. Our economy and worker wages have been stagnant for a decade. Americans' savings are lower compared to other nations. We have been in constant military conflict in the Middle East for two decades, and there is no end in sight. Meanwhile we look towards the political establishment, composed of Democrats and Republicans, to fix these issues. Issues they created.

In order to solve these issues, we must look elsewhere.

 The Reform Party wants to bring honest leadership and real solutions to American government. As we rebuild, we are looking for new members. We need volunteers and activists, like you, from across the center left and center right to accomplish our goals. Without an active membership, the Reform Party will not be able to break the political establishment. If you can't volunteer, donate and/or vote for our candidates on election day.

Thank you for reading this interview, and allowing me a few minutes of your time.

The Third Party Tribune would like to thank Mr. Hensley for his time.

#Reform Party #Nick Hensley #Third Party Tribune