Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 5

ON MY CONVICTIONS AND BELIEFS:

THE BASIS FOR A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
By Tim K. Fitzgerald

I believe in one God, indivisible and eternal. In life after death. In the teachings of Christ as reflected in the four Gospel of the New Testament. That the Bible may serve as the basis for governing a society or civilization, as well as a personal Guide to living a life.

That I have done my best to keep God's Commandments, though in this ultra material society, that is not possible without the grace and guidance of the Lord. That anyone may attain Enlightenment and Revelation as promised in almost any religious scripture, and that all faiths lead to a state of higher thought and blessings of the Creator and His Creation.

That the present world order was ordained and established over 500 years ago, beginning with the discovery, or RE-discovery of the New World by Columbus, and the inquiry of Copernicus and Galileo + announcing an Age of Discovery and Inquiry that will continue for at least another 200 or 300 years, allowing for the present global enterprise to evolve into a more just and intelligent social order likely to entail a `withering away' of the present alignment of Nation/states as we know them.

That given these parameters, it must be granted that all people are born essentially good, and whole, tainted only by our Institutions which bear the burden of evil and wrong in the eyes of God + much as is outlined in the works of J.J. Rousseau, and major intellects of the 19th and 20th century. That clearly, an honest appraisal of Western man since the time of Discovery must conclude, "WE ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" And that since the time of Machiavelli ("It is better to be feared than loved!") and Thomas Hobbes (life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short!"), we have been led astray and against God's plan and purpose.

That we all have a birthright to `life, liberty, and happiness' and that governments are ordained to guarantee these God given Rights, and it is `our right, and our duty, to alter or abolish them if they become destructive of these aims (that Thomas Jefferson had it right from the beginning, and nothing has changed to mute or alter the justness reflected in his Declaration of Independence or its purpose as the covenant with our maker that grants us our sovereignty and nationhood.

That since the time of Machiavelli and Hobbes, the devil has made this planet his footstool, just as Martin Luther preached five centuries ago. And that the evolution of our present state of International Capital is his master stroke, intent on damning mankind with the whip of wage slavery, the dictation of the work whistle, and the unquenchable thirst of the factory tread mill and rat-race paced headlong drive to exhaust our resources, our endurance, and our salvation (upon which any hear after is predicated and postulated to occur.

That I am vindicated by these conclusions, for which we depend upon the good will of mankind to make every effort to prevent the mind of Satan, that much discussed `dark side of the force,' from overwhelming our better nature, and with the help of the Almighty, find some path or recourse to right our fragile craft that is our society with the help of the consent of our neighbors, here and abroad. That the Will of God, as described by the German Philosopher, Hegel, and the prophesy of the ancients, is yet to play itself out, and that we are as W. Shakespeare proclaimed with "all the world a stage, and all the people players."

That we each are entitled to the birthright of charting our own course, so far as it is in keeping with the goals proscribed by our society, and our faith in those that lead, that `no child will be left behind.' That we are all children of an omnipotent God, cut of the same cloth, and bound to the same fate. That there are innumerable sources that argue for the rightness of this view, handed down through the centuries, available to any inquiring mind, seeking the wisdom and faith or the Ages

• In reflecting a Political Philosophy + an ideology for governing one's life + it is imperative to keep political policy separated from economic ambitions. The former dictate the way the public's business is to be conducted and the way collective decisions are to be made. The latter, in the realm of `economics' and the laws governing production possibilities, in the realm of policy formulation, are better directed to the kinds of choices to be made + and the opportunities to be cultivated and promoted by the political decision making process. One is not the other, and very often in the heat of political debate surrounding our national elections + even on the local level + one is confused for the other. A grave mistake where our potential and command over the nature of social organization becomes greatly inflated and over stated.

I have since early youth been a great admirer of the Revolutionary spirit that created this amazing nation, the traditions that were established at its founding, and the hard headed and serious effort that was devoted to create a National Government that could augment the inclusion and vision of a nation /state fit to govern a continent. The writings of Jefferson and the collection of papers in `The Federalist' outline a compelling vision for governance of a free and independent people.

But we have in the course of the last two decades; abandon much of what was set forth as rules for promoting good and sound democratic government. We have abandoned our cherished and noble cause set forth by the founders, and their efforts to guarantee those liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights and a rule of law, not of men. As an economist educated in the production possibilities of our nation and the post industrial world, I am brought in awe of the laws of the Creation and their strict role in determining the outcome and results of our labour and creative energies. For the laws of economics are hard and fast laws based on the mathematical probabilities of what will occur given the direction our nation takes in cultivating opportunities for the greater mass of society to choose from, in the course of private decision-making during their daily lives.

The prospects are very troubling. Much of what passed for critical criticism had been ignored or disregarded in the last century, in a mad dash to secure a questionable form of International Capitalism in order to create a monopoly on the resources and productive capacity of the globe.

This was done, not in the sense of `Wars to make the world safe for Democracy' as it were to `make the world safe for Corporate Capitalism.' And that orientation, undaunted in the last few decades, has led to questionable national policies and attitudes that may make it necessary for us to wage war overseas, and suppress dissent here at home for many decades to come.

The family as a structural unit in the matrix of social enterprise + the very bedrock of democratic organization has been severely curtailed and crippled. In the mad dash to attain opulence and wealth unheard of in any prior epoch, we have sacrificed the sacred bond between man and women that has cultivated an undeniable and amazing result in the annuals of life systems here on the planet. Man now has the power in his grip to subdue any form of life system or physical geography in the solar system. He has mastered the laws of nature to that great an extent.

But in doing so, he has not mastered the laws of human decency and protocol that make life here on Earth pleasant or even desirable. 9/11 has not been the only gross tragedy in this nation's history that speaks to an unacceptable grievance of other peoples around the world.

Not only must we look back at Pearl Harbor, or the blowing up of the Maine, but our own Civil War spreading death and destruction to over a hundred thousand men in arms on each side. We are not a nation that covets peace and justice as several others amongst the family of nations and the societies of man.

Thomas Jefferson once stated unequivalently, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." And since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we have been lulled within this nation's boundary, to retreat from the rights of man so long a cherished goal of our national enterprise. The vice of evil is at the nations gates, not from without, thought these are mean and troubling times, but by the misguidance and misunderstanding of those who purport to lead and to govern. My election has set its sights on a reform of that process, allowing that we have come to disregard the nature of good will, and a social process that will once again return us to the great vision of our leadership over the prior two centuries.

Tim K. Fitzgerald