An interesting thing occurred the other day. A girl from Santa Rosa, CA - Where I used to live - contacted me on MySpace, saying she thought the idea of a "20 year in advance grass roots presidential campaign" was amusing, ad that she wanted to jump on board - but that she simply couldn't without knowing what my position was on various issues.

Now, normally, I really don’t mind if a person i've never heard of has issues with my political point of view, but her point was that, for all of my political blundering, I really don’t make a point to clearly state my positions. So, for Nora, and for the rest of you, here is my platform, and my position on various critical issues facing the United States today.

I am against the Death Penalty. I know this is a hard issue for some people  to clearly fall one way or the other on, but I am steadfast on this. The state has no right to end the lives of its citizens. All of our citizens, even the most cruel and damaging of them, are granted protection. The death penalty has been proven to NOT be an effective deterrent, so what are we trying to achieve with it? Closure for the victims or their families? Well there's a reason we don't allow the families of the victims to sentence the accused. The goal of a Justice system is not to grant closure to the victims, it is to prescribe a punishment best for the health of society, appropriate for the crime committed. Death of a convict never serves to provide safety to a society, or to teach the convicted. It serves only to satiate bloodlust. The judicial branch needs to be above this.

I am against trying minors as Adults. The sever moral implications of this heinous practice aside, it's this simple. We can not extend the punishments of adulthood to a group that is not granted its benefits. The argument for the prosecution of minors as adults is that they are mature and intelligent enough to understand the severe implications of their decisions. If this is truly the position of the government, then we need to lower the voting age, the smoking age, the drinking age, the pornography age, and the military eligibility age. And I'm sorry, but I don't think lowering those ages is appropriate. Punishing minors, like all criminals, is important - But they're minors for a reason, and the law needs to reflect it.

Gay Marriage is not enough. Marriage is not now defined by the constitution as a union between a man and a woman, but the states continue to proceed as if it were. And allowing gays to marry is not enough of a step to ensure that this kind of discrimination battle will not re-occur. We need to make marriage a legal protection granted to any two citizens. End of story. If we simply redefine marriage to protect Male-Male, Female-Female, and Male-Female couples, we're simply setting ourselves up for legal battles in the future regarding people who choose not to solidly identify with either gender. This kind of institutionalized discrimination needs to stop. The fact that homosexuality makes 45% of Americans uncomfortable is not nearly enough of a reason to continue belittling homosexuality in this country. Equal Rights Now.

Convicts and ex-convicts deserve the right to vote and run for office. Currently, the rights of convicts are severely curtailed after being released. This leads to massive disenfranchisement of a shockingly growing percentage of americans. Americans whose lives are, more directly than most, affected by policies created at the local, state, and federal level. Not allowing these citizens their right to participate in the democratic process is Cruel and Unusual.

Gays should be able to serve in the military. Any other point of view is just stupid. The official rationale for this policy is that gays cant keep their hands to themselves, and will be too busy anal fucking to do their jobs as soldiers. That's institutionalized stereotyping, and it needs to end.

The War on Drugs Needs to End. The VAST majority of the felons in our federal prisons are there on drug charges, and a large portion of those are in prison for use, purchasing, or possession. This is absolutely fucking insane. Drug use is the only victimless crime left. Once again, the common rationale being that drug use can lead to poor decision making, or can lead to criminal action. Driving under the influence, rage, theft, etc. Well guess what. Those things are already crimes! We can't outlaw things because someone "might" do something illegal. How do I know we can't? Simple - Gun Ownership and Drinking are legal. If you own a gun, you may kill someone. If you drink, you may drive. We have plenty of legal precedent proving that we do not outlaw potentials. We outlaw acts. Getting yourself extremely fucked up is your decision. Stupid or not, it's your right to be stupid.

And now the polarizing one.

I support a woman's right to choose. I've got friends I know are going to give me a fucking earful for this, and will probably be pretty pissed at me. But I've been through an abortion. I've impregnated someone, and together we made the decision that was best for us. We are talking about the ability for a a woman to make, what is for all purposes, a biological decision. Once we take away the ability for women to make that decision about their own bodies functions, we take a dangerous step towards turning women into breeding machines, whose beautiful ability to create new life is eerily controlled by governmental decisions. For or against the decision to abort a pregnancy, it simply is too personal of a process to be left in the hands of the legislative system. Our bodies are the only thing we truly own. Handing over control of that to the state is giving away our only god given freedom.

Thanks for paying attention. If there are issues here I haven't addressed that you wish to hear about, please feel free to ask.

-Eliot Cirivello

Candidate for President

General Election, 2032