Howard Phillips was born in
Boston in
1941. He is married to Margaret Phillips and has 6 children. He graduated from
Harvard in
1962.
He served in various capacities in the
Republican Party, working his way up to become the Director of the
U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity under
Richard Nixon. He resigned in protest because Nixon did not cut
enough funding to social programs.
Since
1974, he has been the chairman of
The Conservative Caucus, a supposedly "non-partisan" (despite the name) advocacy group. He has been the presidential candidate of the
Constitution Party (formerly the
U.S. Taxpayers Party) since
1992. The name is ironic because some of the views expressed by Phillips and his party are blatantly unconstitutional.
Views:
Abortion: Supports criminalization of abortion.
Civil Rights: Against affirmative action.
Education: Wants
Christianity and "wholesome issues" in school.
Environment: Thinks federal ownership of public lands is unconstitutional.
Firearms: Against ownership restrictions.
Health care: Against federal involvement in health care, against tobacco and alcohol taxes.
International Affairs: Anti-immigration, for
English as a "national language", against citizenship for children of immigrants born in the US (which is unconstitutional).
Capital Punishment: Wants to return to
Biblical (actually
Old Testament) views on capital punishment,
an eye for an eye.
Taxes: Against
FICA,
capital gains, inheritance, gift, and business taxes.
Military: No "undeclared wars", no US troops under foreign command (when are they now?).
Thanks to the Fall 2000 students in SLS 1101 section 55 at the University of South Florida for providing much of the factual information contained in these writeups.