A Different Choice
By: Charles Geraci, The Herald Journal

7/5/08

Chuck Baldwin says he’s fed up with both the Republican and Democratic parties, and he intends to do something about it. His response: Run for president.

The Constitution Party’s nominee for president, Baldwin, 56, founded and currently pastors the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla. He’s also an author, radio talk show host and former vice presidential candidate for his party.

He’s spent the week campaigning throughout Utah trying to spread his message of being an alternative to the country’s two major political parties.

Baldwin is critical of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

“The two major parties have not given the American people a real candidate who will, in my opinion, represent the Constitution of the United States, limited government, personal freedom and the principles upon which our country was founded,” Baldwin told The Herald Journal on Thursday. “Years ago, the saying was, ‘There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two major parties,’ and with inflation, today I would say there’s not a nickel’s worth of difference.”

He points to the immigration issue as evidence, contending the positions of the Republican and Democratic parties are essentially identical.

“The Democrats basically want the illegals to continue to come across the border at will for the sake of getting votes,” said Baldwin. “The Republicans, on the other hand, want the borders to remain open for the purpose of being able to obtain cheap labor. Regardless of the reason, neither major party has any desire to secure our borders.”

Baldwin added, “It makes no sense at all to me that we’re fighting a war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then we leave our own borders wide open.”

He pledges to secure the borders of the United States “within 30 days of becoming president.”

Having opposed the war in Iraq from the start, Baldwin favors a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country after first developing an exit strategy — “unlike John McCain who wants to keep us there for a hundred years and unlike Barack Obama, who has given us no concept whatsoever of what he plans to do.”

Baldwin would also repeal the income tax, and in return implement a 10 percent tax on all imports into the United States. In addition, Baldwin would drastically cut federal spending.

“Basically, the only difference between the Republicans and the Democrats today is that the Democrats want to tax and spend, and the Republicans want to borrow and spend,” Baldwin said. “But both of them want to spend. They spend like drunken sailors, except that’s an insult to sailors because at least sailors are spending their own money.”

On abortion, Baldwin favors overturning Roe v. Wade, noting the Republican Party is “phony” on the issue.

“They have done nothing to stop abortion on demand, even though they had the entire federal government for six years,” he said. “We feel that now the Republican Party is probably on the last legs of its existence.”

Baldwin likened himself to Abraham Lincoln in 1859, noting the Republican Party then was a “minor third party.”

“Sooner or later, an independent party, a third party, is going to break into the national limelight and is going to take that spotlight off the Republican Party and elect a president of the United States,” Baldwin said. “I would like to think it’s gonna be 2008, and I would like to think that I’m the Abraham Lincoln of this generation.”