VP candidate for United States Pacifist Party (aka US Pacifist Party) (2008)
Running mate with nominee: Bradford Lyttle (b. 1927)
Popular vote: 110 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Bradford Lyttle is a Chicago-based peace activist who has been involved with nonviolent resistance protest of America's militarism since the 1950s, when he served nine months in jail as a conscientious objector. He had been a perennial write-in candidate for President since 1984, but 2008 was the first election season where he achieved ballot status and also the earliest one where I can identify a running-mate-- Abraham Bassford.
Lyttle is also known as the author of the "Apocalypse Equation," a theory that if believed must surely add a sense of urgency to his efforts--
The Apocalypse Equation, (technically called a "stochastic equation," because it describes the relationship of probability to time) shows what nuclear weapons ultimately mean for "civilization." If each of a large number (n) of nuclear missiles existing today has even a small probability (p) of being launched, over time (T) the probability of a launch (APocalypse) approaches certainty. The more missiles, the shorter the time before a launch (T1 is less than T2). Unless nuclear weapons are deactivated, and nonviolent means developed to take the place of military violence for achieving justice and peace, civilization is doomed.
The USPP spelled out their platform on the 2008 webpage--
THE UNITED STATES PACIFIST PARTY
2008 platform (Ver. 021808)
The United States Pacifist Party (USPP) rejects military force as a means of resolving international disputes. USPP members believe that military force violates the moral principles of the world’s great humanitarian religions and philosophies, and is a “Faustian bargain,” that may achieve short range political objectives, but only at the cost of long-term catastrophe for the human species. They believe that nonviolent resistance, as developed by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, and massive economic aid programs to eliminate poverty worldwide, are appropriate and effective ways to resist aggression and tyranny. Major planks of the USPP’s 2008 plafform include:
International Relations
-Withdrawal of all military forces from Iraq.
-Preparation for nonviolent resistance against possible invasion and occupation attempts; This would include establishment of a national Department of Peace, and an unarmed service corps trained in strategic nonviolent defense and equipped for mobilization anywhere in the world;
-Deactivation of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons;
-Elimination of the Strategic Defense initiative;
-Abolition of all aspects of the Selective Service System;
-Complete disarmament, through negotiations and unilateral actions;
-An end to all overt and covert military aid and “intelligence” operations;
-Repeal of the Patriot Act;
-Reduction of the military budget toward zero;
-Immediate termination of all foreign military aid. Humanitarian foreign aid would be directed toward helping the poor meet their basic human needs and become self-sufficient. Aid to foreign governments generally would be contingent upon exemplary human rights records. When serious human rights violations are suspected, any aid given would be distributed by trustworthy agencies;
-Establishment of a massive economic aid program to abolish poverty, hunger, disease, homelessnesss and ignorance at home and worldwide. The aid would be administered by the United Nations;
-Normalization of relations with Cuba. Repeal of the Helms-burton Act, that permits lawsuits against individuals and firms who make use of land and facilities in Cuba that were nationalized by the Cuban government;
-Support for legitimate, nonviolent, social change movements that are struggling to advance human rights and political freedom;
-Support for one-person-one-vote democratic world government;
The Environment
-Inauguration of a crash program to stop and reverse global warming. This would emphasize creating a global solar power system that could provide sufficient electrical energy for everyone on earth. It would be based on passive and active solar power generating systems, associated with pumped water, compressed air, and battery storage systems, and, where possible, connected by high voltage, direct current, grids. It would make only limited and tightly controlled use of fossil fueled plants. Nuclear power plants would be shut down, and all nuclear and fusion energy research would be placed under international control. The humanitarian principle of such a system is that all people are entitled to free electrical power sufficient for their needs.
-Ending of private logging, grazing, and oil drilling on public lands;
-Special taxes on polluting industries to provide incentives for reducing pollution, and revenue for funding other environmental protection programs;
Health Care
Creation of a Canadian-style, single-payer national health care system with universal access, comprehensive coverage, and freedom of choice in the selection of doctors, medical facilities, and methods of treatment;
Immigration
Unrestricted immigration. Health and educations needs of immigrants would be paid for from the hundreds of millions of dollars saved by shutting down the military “defense” system;
Domestic Economy
-Full employment through private enterprises, cooperatives, worker-controlled and managed industries, and federally administered public projects;
-A guaranteed minimum income for U.S. citizens through the establishment of a negative income tax (A negative income tax gives checks to people whose income lies below the poverty level);
Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
-Opposition to all forms of racial, sexual, and religious discrimination, and all unjust socio-economic barriers;
-Abolition of the death penalty;
-Ban on the manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns and assault weapons;
-Support for national and international family planning programs;
-Support for a Constitutional amendment banning discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation;
-Opposition to any restrictions on the right to freedom of travel and migration across U.S. borders;
Election Reform
-Limitation of campaign spending. Establishment of fair and open ballot access laws. Establishment of public campaign financing and provision of equal access to public television and radio for all ballot-certified candidates;
-Support for the principle of proportional representation in national elections.
OK, I will be going slightly out on a limb, although I believe this a low-risk guess. Lyttle's campaign was fairly low-key and his running-mate was invisible during the electioneering. It is reasonable to assume Abraham Bassford the VP choice is the same as Abraham "Brahm" Bassford IV. Originally from New York City, he was a Freedom Rider in the JFK era, and served 40 days first in the Hinds County Jail and then in the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman for "disturbing the peace" while peacefully demonstrating against racial segregation. Bassford considered himself a Christian Socialist.
In 1972-1973 when the Socialist Party of the United States of America was reborn/formed, it was Bassford who served as their first National Secretary. How Lyttle and Bassford formed an alliance is not known, but they were both residents of Chicago in 2008.
An interesting bit of USPP self-reflection can be found on their webpage regarding elections--
Although Lyttle founded the USPP, and the party has vindicated itself as an exceptionally effective vehicle for reaching the general public with the pacifist message, Lyttle has always been ambivalent about it. He does not fully understand this ambivalence. He is not principally opposed to voting in national elections. However, pacifism has anarchist implications, and nation states are mainly justified on the grounds that they can provide military “protection” for populations. Additional considerations are that any “third party” can be considered a “spoiler” in a close election (the Green Party and Ralph Nader have been strongly condemned in some circles for causing George Bush to be elected), promoting any political party requires sustained work, and the hate mail suggests that there is considerable personal risk involved in promoting pacifism through a political party in a country as highly militarized as the U.S. * * *
The Lyttle/Bassford ticket was on the ballot in Colorado, where they placed 15 out of 16. Bassford also was listed as being a Chicago resident. Since they apparently were both residents of Illinois, the fact they were from the same state would have posed a Constitutional problem in the event of their victory.
For the 2016 campaign the USPP had modified their name to Nonviolent Resistance/Pacifist Party.
Election history: none
Other occupations: National Secretary of the Socialist Party of the United States of America, journalist
Notes:
Bassford was one of the subjects of Laurens Grant's 2011 documentary Freedom Riders.
