Moe, H. D. [Harold David; 1937 - 2013]. The Utopia Now (or Happy Freedom) Party, Candidate for President of the United States. PLATFORM. [Berkeley, California?]: [1988?].
H. D. Moe was a noted Berkeley poet, author and editor, and decidedly not a politician. Yet, among his papers were these unpublished typescript pages with two "complete" versions describing the platform and policies for the country under which he would run for the office of President of the United States. One version is 14 pages, with 100 points. The other is 15 pages printed recto only with 105 points. Also included are some draft pages and a photocopy of one of the drafts. All are the contents of a file the author kept. 8-1/2" x 11". Minor creasing, a few pages with faint stains. Very Good condition.
We find no record of H. D. Moe actually running for office, nor of the Utopia Now Party, or of the Happy Freedom Party. The work is not dated; however it placed the world population at 5.2 billion, a number that was reached in approximately 1988. From his obituary, published in the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Aug. 23, 2013: "For the last 48 years, David has lived in the Bay Area, where he wrote and published more than 30 books of poetry. During his life, he served as editor and publisher of Beatitude Press, Embassy Hall Press and Deserted Times, an art and poetry newspaper distributed in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He coordinated the San Francisco Poetry Festival in 1978." A bibliography of his published work can be seen at https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/H.D._Moe.
From his platform:
2. Mandatory voting required in all major elections of all citizens 18 years of age or over.
7. All doctors shall be required to pass an examination demonstrating a working knowledge of psychology, nutrition, orthomolecular, Chinese, holistic medicine, along with their traditional western medicine schooling and internship before getting an M.D.
13. Women's Equal Rights Amendment shall be passed.
18. All dinosaur utopia vehicles and machines (combustion engines) shall be phased out by the year 2000 and replaced when necessary by alternative energy cars and engines -- solar, wind, wave, etc.
33. Any couple or group, lesbian, bi, homosexual, straights etc. 18 years of age or older, shall be granted, after vows, a blood test & a nominal fee, a marriage license.
35. All prisons shall be required to be self-sustaining or to make a profit (by organic farming, home industries etc.). Every prisoner will be encouraged to work by sentence reduction incentives & the prerequisite that he or she pay back all costs incurred by the crime(s) & the incarceration, at least, before being off parole.
36. All magazines & newspapers of a 1,000 or more circulation shall be required to publish at least one hundred lines of poetry each issue & to pay the poet a minimum of $2. a line.
47. Unless our land is directly attacked, all armed conflict or declared war we participate in in any overt or covert way shall be financed solely by a war tax ( collected via the vote of the people) & shall note be paid for by deficit spending or any other monies gathered for other needs - education, social welfare, roads, etc.
56. All ancient forests will be off-limits to any lumbering whatever.
62. Any person throwing trash in the street shall be fined or jailed. but large public billboards will be made available on every block of downtown or business districts for spontaneous street artists.
66. All plea bargaining shall be outlawed in violent crimes.
These are but a few of the shorter platform points from these unique documents. Collectively, they reflect the thoughts of an idealist about how to run society and the United States.
