AHC: More Successful Natural Law Party

Uhura's Mazda

Uhura's Mazda

Banned
One of the hipster picks, I'll admit, but there's something fascinating about the fact that a party based on Yogic flying managed to put forward so many no-hoper candidates in elections throughout the the world. They even got one state assembly member in Madhya Pradesh in India in 1998.

Your challenge is to create a scenario where the Party becomes relatively successful - like, getting an MP somewhere or winning a seat in the New Hampshire State Legislature or something, but anything goes, really. This can be in any country. And bonus points for doing this without the Beatles getting involved.

 

overoceans

In some college town hosting a conservative Catholic university, the misperception develops that the Natural Law Party promotes Thomistic ethics, and they manage to carry that district in a by-election in which no one is otherwise paying much attention.
 

overoceans

Seriously though...

I could only see them getting anywhere with an entryist strategy, ie. infitrating some vulnerable party, like the LaRouchians did with local Democratic organizations in Illiinois in the 80s.

So, perfect storm...

The NLP hooks up with some slightly more credible new-agey outfit, in Canada maybe the Canadian Action Party(we'll go with that group just for the sake of convenience). Some of the Yogic Flyers run under the CAP banner, under agreed-to terms allowing them to promote Yogic Flying in their local campaigns.

There is some issue at play in the riding that alienates the electorate from all the major parties, eg. someone wants to build a widget factory, and it's REALLY unpopular with the electorate, but the majors are all running pro-widget candidates. Only the CAP-NLP candidate is opposed.

The CAP/NLP candidate is a beloved local celebrity, maybe a news anchor generally regarded as credible, despite his oddball religious views.

The CAP/NLP candidate wins a slight plurality.

Maybe you wouldn't need the hookup with another party for this to work, but I think for most people, it's the whole relligious aspect that turns people off of the NLP. The CAP is pretty off-the-wall as well(banking-conspiracy economics with an overlay of UFO cult), but, at a cursory glance, seems more in line with the rhetoric of mainstream parties.
 
kodak

kodak

Natural Law politician gets nominated by one of the two main American parties for a state office, and goes on to win.
 
Heliogabalus

Heliogabalus

(For the US; not really sure about any other countries) Have the Natural Law Party become the main left-wing third party in the United States (basically taking the Green Party's place IOTL). You can stop the Greens from becoming popular by making Nader not run in 1996, but for Natural Law to take their place you would need New Age ideas - particularly yogic flying - to become more mainstream, which would probably require an earlier PoD.

Once you have the Natural Law Party as a major minor party, it should be much easier (but still pretty difficult) to have them win an election, probably in a scenario like the one @overoceans described.
 

Rarename91

Banned
Heliogabalus said:
(For the US; not really sure about any other countries) Have the Natural Law Party become the main left-wing third party in the United States (basically taking the Green Party's place IOTL). You can stop the Greens from becoming popular by making Nader not run in 1996, but for Natural Law to take their place you would need New Age ideas - particularly yogic flying - to become more mainstream, which would probably require an earlier PoD.

Once you have the Natural Law Party as a major minor party, it should be much easier (but still pretty difficult) to have them win an election, probably in a scenario like the one @overoceans described.
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Wasn't the natural law party right wing and became the Constitution party?
 

Somedevil

I think the Constitution party is whats left of the Reform party.

I think a good start in the USA for them would be to try to win state wide elections in one or two states at first and go from there.

also in the 90's and early 00's was a party called the Peace and Freedom party that I always thought could of taken that spot the Green's now sit in now.
 

Nazi Space Spy

Banned
I was involved with the Transcendental Meditation movement for a while. Calling it a cult is hyperbole but it seemed at times to me to be some type of secular religion.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
? ? Didn't the Natural Law party really promote health and specifically think constipation limited our human potential ? ?

Yes, it's embarrassing and I'm sure it does! But not more than any other health issue.

*going to back off on above specific issue (although not entirely sure I'm misremembering!). More generally, the Natural Law Party seems really big on "prevention," as if they invented the concept.
http://www.natural-law.org/
And they closed their national headquarters in 2004.
 
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overoceans

Somedevil said:
looks like they did try to Merge with the reform party before they went poof in 2000 interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Law_Party_(United_States)
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Thanks for the info. I did not know that, having always assumed that the NLP had no truck nor trade with other political parties whatsoever.

The Reform Party in the US was actually not that different from the Canadian Action Party I mentioned earlier as a possible suitor, ie. protectionist economics and nationalist rhetoric with an overlay of black-helicopter paranoia, fronted by an ideologically eclectic cast of has-beens and never-weres.
 
Ariosto

Ariosto

Unless there is someway to convince a large sect of people to adopt the teachings of Maharishi Yogi then there is no chance of it becoming a prominent political force anywhere. As it is during its time in the States for example it was considered little more than a crack-pot group, and its more peculiar platform positions, i.e. those relating to Transcendental Meditation, tended to drive away potential members and voters. That said, it could have remained in a "significant" capacity had Yogi not pulled his endorsement for overt political efforts, and it has a number of local-level candidates in the past.​
 

Arkenfolm

overoceans said:
Thanks for the info. I did not know that, having always assumed that the NLP had no truck nor trade with other political parties whatsoever.

The Reform Party in the US was actually not that different from the Canadian Action Party I mentioned earlier as a possible suitor, ie. protectionist economics and nationalist rhetoric with an overlay of black-helicopter paranoia, fronted by an ideologically eclectic cast of has-beens and never-weres.
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That wouldn't translate into any victory for a Congress seat. Donald Trump, Reform Party member, said in 2000, "So the Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep." Ignoring Donald Trump 2017, this obviously means the Reform Party was a complete mess of ideologies and individuals.

So maybe the Beatles and other celebrities can boost the Natural Law Party and its associates globally. In the US, it can absorb elements of the Reform Party and especially the Green Party and win positions in local government as well as a few seats in states like California.

But the Natural Law Party can't succeed without divorcing itself from its crackpot elements as the Social Credit parties did (to some degree or another). The Socreds of Canada became a basic conservative party, for instance. Ultimate success for the Natural Law Party, at least in the US, would basically mean fusing with the Green Party as a left-wing alternative to the Democrats, which means they will win a handful of local elections in certain areas.
 

overoceans

metalinvader wrote:

The Socreds of Canada became a basic conservative party, for instance.

Actually, I think the Credititiste in Quebec were still commited to monetary-reform, during the period when they had parliamentary representation. I'm not sure to what extent they made that a part of their everyday appeal, though.

I do remember semi-following the 1979 election as a kid, and the newscasters on Canada AM mentioned one morning that Trudeau had been attacking the banking policies of Social Credit. Whether those policies were classic Douglasism, or just populist bluster against service charges(or whatever), I don't know.
 

Arkenfolm

overoceans said:
metalinvader wrote:

The Socreds of Canada became a basic conservative party, for instance.

Actually, I think the Credititiste in Quebec were still commited to monetary-reform, during the period when they had parliamentary representation. I'm not sure to what extent they made that a part of their everyday appeal, though.

I do remember semi-following the 1979 election as a kid, and the newscasters on Canada AM mentioned one morning that Trudeau had been attacking the banking policies of Social Credit. Whether those policies were classic Douglasism, or just populist bluster against service charges(or whatever), I don't know.
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But weren't many of their voters voting for them for other reasons than the monetary policy of the Socreds? A cursory look at the global Socred movement shows most Socred parties have drifted away to some degree from the original Social Credit ideals. Look at the Solomon Islands Social Credit Party, which governed in a coalition for several years about a decade ago, and seems to have initiated no real Socred-style reforms, despite the party being a descendent of the New Zealand Socred Party. So there's some obstacle for Socred reforms to be initiated. Whatever the Natural Law Party wanted--and what distinguished them from any grouping full of New Age types--probably wouldn't get past traditional politics either. Hence the left-wing of the Reform Party and the Green Party. New Agers (even those who don't practice TM) in the US do have a stereotype for supporting left-wing politics, so I think it could be this version of the Natural Law Party which might draw off enough Third Party groups to coalesce into a group which can win a state legislature seat and some local government positions.

Outside of those areas might be questionable. In some Congress districts in the South, the Green Party seems to run people who I have described as "Ron Paul libertarians who care about the environment more than the free market". Can we get those people who will vote Green to the Natural Law Party, and most importantly, can they pull off an upset in a state legislature district (say the incumbant and favourite does something utterly stupid, as has happened)? Local government is important too, where party alignment tends to mean less. But from everything I know, I think it's possible the Natural Law Party can equal what the Libertarian Party boasted several years back and have between 250-300 elected positions, ranging from state legislator to county and municipal offices.

But how much more do we want for the Natural Law Party? Do we want a Natural Law Party gaining 1% of the vote like the Green Party in 2016, or maybe 3.3% like the 2016 Libertarian Party? I'm speaking of the US mainly. Obviously, Natural Law is a global movement. For the US, is John Hagelin still their candidate and leader?
 

overoceans

metalinvader wrote:

But weren't many of their voters voting for them for other reasons than the monetary policy of the Socreds?

Oh, I would think so, yeah. They were socially conservative and anti-Communist, which likely had a lot of appeal in rural Quebec. But my point wasn't exactly about why people were voting for them, but what the party was actually preaching. To the extent that they were still promoting Douglsism, they weren't precisely a "basic conservative party".

And as I said earlier, Trudeau did apparently feel obligated to attack their banking policies in the late 70s, so that probably indicates that at least some voters were being lured to Social Credit by the populist economics.

Interesting stuff about the Ron Paul/Green overlap in the South. I'm not sure if you could get Natural Law to 3.3% as in the Libertarians 2016, but they probably could pick up some of the more mystic-minded stragglers from other anti-establishment movements.
 

Somedevil

The NLP also had the backing of the "Beach Boys" and seemed to grab lots of the libertarian types from the republican party. They seemed to be politically all over the play. for Equal rights but against legalization of drugs and fiscally they wanted money to go into infrastructure but also wanted to gut the budget of projects they deemed useless.

they seem very much like the reform party being all over the place.
 
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