EXPANSIONIST PARTY

THE EXPANSIONIST PARTY

PARTY OVERVIEW

"The Expansionist Party of the United States ("XP") is a small, international organization founded over the telephone February 19, 1977 by two gay men in two different boros of New York City. It works, sometimes in conjunction with other statehood organizations, to enlarge the United States geographically. Alas, in that we are a voluntary organization with no independent income, the Party gets only such time as its Chairman, L. Craig Schoonmaker, and other members can devote after their regular occupations. Lack of wealth also prevents the Party from running candidates for elective office at this time, save by write-in campaign. The bulk of the Party's work is in educating the public, by means of letters to the editor, the Internet, occasional radio and TV appearances, speeches at colleges, etc., and in urging government officials to adopt XP policies."

Today Puerto Rico, tomorrow Saskatchewan . . .

This charming exercise in political idealism is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of the United States. Self-described as radical centrist and radical pragmatist, they are "a general-purpose political organization of the radical center dedicated to geographic enlargement of the United States, ultimately to culminate in world union under the Constitution". They would like to see Canada and Great Britain, and ultimately the rest of the world join in the union of the United States. It's not about power though, it's about mutual aid and assistance. Since America is a very wealthy country, they feel it has an obligation to unite with and help less fortunate countries.

The Expansionist Party actually has some pretty good ideas. Take their solution to the Kosovo problem, for example: "The U.S. has no right to make laws for people outside our Union. If we wish to make laws for Serbia, we will have to make Serbia a state, admit two Serb Senators and seventeen Representatives, then listen respectfully as Serbs explain why they must defend themselves against guerrilla onslaught by Albanians. And it will then be American soldiers, policemen, mayors, etc., that the Kosovo "Liberation" Army is murdering. Our motto here, and in every other civil war around the world in which we are asked to intervene, must be "No domination without representation." So unless you are for "Kosovo, USA", you should pressure the U.S. Government to get out of Kosovo and stay out."

OFFICIAL PLATFORM STATEMENT
FROM THE OFFICIAL WEB PAGE

"We can start by ending the scandal of colonialism at the end of the 20th Century. The United States, which started the entire modern process of decolonization by throwing off the British yoke in 1776, itself has colonies! Shocking but true. We must end our own colonialism as our first priority, by (a) granting statehood, (b) merging small colonies into larger new or existing states, or (c) granting independence".

"XP proposes that our two Caribbean colonies, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, be merged into a single 51st State. There is a sizable statehood movement in Puerto Rico, but it has refused to demand the one thing that will bring Puerto Rico into the Union quickly: that Congress unilaterally terminate PR's neither/nor "Commonwealth" status (neither full equality with the 50 States as a State of the Union nor equality among the nations of the world as an independent country) and force Puerto Ricans to choose between the only two permanent statuses available to them: statehood or independence - fish or cut bait!"

"The United States has three colonies in the Pacific Ocean: Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, all of which are very small. Even put together, these three colonies would not be large enough to warrant admission as a State of the Union, for it would be unfair for their 250,000 people to have as much representation in the Senate as California's 32 million. The only way they could become fully participating citizens of the United States, then, is for their three tiny territories to be merged into the State of Hawaii - the "Big Hawaii" proposal made over 30 years ago by prominent Hawaiians."

"Once we have resolved, to statehood or independence, the status of our colonies, we should look to bring into the Union areas that are compatible in language (English Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the English-speaking areas of the Caribbean); then culture, trade, and history (Quebec, Mexico, Haiti and other non-English-speaking areas of the Caribbean, the Philippines, Latin America, Europe, and Japan); and then areas less like us (the rest of the planet). Rich areas would subsidize poor - and, happily, make money by supplying electrification, roads, schools, hospitals, housing, and other infrastructure; textbooks, medicines, and the panoply of other goods and services the people of poor areas need! Poor areas need what rich areas make, but they can't afford to buy it as long as they remain apart. Join them together and the one hand washes the other, money flows from the right hand to the left - and back again".

"With such a system, the United States could absorb the entire remainder of planet Earth without risking the wealth and lifestyle of present-day Americans. All the world would, in a unified Congress, split on matters of principle. New members would not conspire among themselves to victimize their fellow citizens of the now-minority old-American population. Leftist-inclined representatives would align with their fellow leftists, across geographical boundaries. And to the extent geography did play a role in controlling people's votes, Uttar Pradesh would balance Szechwan; France would balance Germany; South Africa would balance the Congo. And we would all find a way to work together for everybody's common interest".

THE DARKHORSE2000 FISHY-EYED ASSESSMENT