America's Independent party has nominated Alan Keyes as their candidate for President in the 2008 election. The party's website states: "America's Independent Party is a conservative pro-life political party that stands for constitutionally limited government, national sovereignty, secure borders, economic liberty, and a Reaganesque "peace through strength" national defense and foreign policy. America's Independent Party endorses or nominates candidates for public office based on a proven adherence to constitutional principle, not mere party labels." This party has also joined forces with the American Independent party out of California as one of its affiliates. Alan Keyes has run for President before, as a Republican (1996 and 2000), but has never received the nomination. He was an ambassador under Ronald Reagan and spent many years as a radio talk show host. His campaign website doesn't really offer much in the way of information. It is basically an online form for donations with a link to the party's website. However, the party's website does give enough information to be informed about what they believe. They begin their platform with a strong statement supporting God and moral values. Then they state a strong belief in the right to life of the unborn which is followed by a statement of support for all enumerated rights in the Constitution and for all natural rights through the ninth amendment. By choosing the words they did here, it is clear they are not supported of positive rights theory or Progressive rights. The platform continues to express a strong support for an individual right to bear arms, against same sex marriage and calls for a repeal of the sixteenth amendment (income tax) and the seventeenth amendment (electing Senators by popular vote rather than by state legislatures). Finally, they express a desire to restore limited government, control our borders, fight efforts to weaken our sovereignty and to use our armed forces responsibly through their concept of "peace through strength". This sounds to me to be very similar to the Republican party, except for the fact that the Republican party has abandoned these principles in their power struggles with the Democrats to get elected.
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