John Edmund de Graaf, August 26, 1946 (San Francisco, Calif.) -
VP candidate for Bread and Roses Party (2020)
Running mate with nominee: Jerome Michael Segal (b. 1943)
Popular vote: 5,949 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The Bread and Roses Party was founded in 2018 by longtime peace activist Jerome Segal. Called "Maryland's Bernie Sanders" in his marketing, Segal announced he was running for President in Aug. 2019 and the following month filed with the FEC under the auspices of the new party. He pointed out he had no wish to act as a spoiler in favor of Trump and planned to campaign only in states that were reliably in the Democratic Party column.
The Party's platform and objectives were presented in several wordy sections on different websites, revealing a classic utopian "Socialist-lite" vision. The section that seemed like the most concise summary of the Party follows--
Key Elements of the Bread and Roses Program
The Two-Fold Core
1. Level the Pyramid
Vision -- A more equal society, one with far less disparity between winners and losers
Task: Re-Distribute Wealth and Income
Every household will have a Corporate Stock Ownership Account. Over 20 years these will collectively come to hold 75% of all corporate stock. This will be achieved through wealth taxes, higher estate taxes, and stock purchases funded through financial transaction taxes.
Parameters for earnings – We need to have this conversation. Proposal: No one should earn more than 20x the minimum wage.
Multiple policies to achieve the re-distribution of Income so that the average after-tax income of the top 20% will be no more than 3X the income required to achieve a health and decency standard for viable simple living:
Eliminating the income cap on payment of payroll taxes.
Increasing marginal tax rates in the upper brackets.
Enacting a progressive consumption tax.
Increasing both the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Tax Elimination: Eliminating all taxation on those with incomes below a health and decency standard, including sales taxes, employment taxes and property taxes.
A 2% wealth tax on great fortunes.
Introducing progressive property taxes.
Higher estate taxes, and closing loop hole for transfer of capital gains.
Consideration of a modest basic income guarantee.
Additional Revenue to fund our agenda will come from:
Reversing the Trump corporate tax cut.
Enacting a “no-exemptions” minimum tax on corporate profits.
2. Providing a Simple Living Option with Life-long Economic Security
Vision -- A Simple Living Option:
For everyone to have the life-option of a secure income sufficient, through life, to live simply, with productivity growth channeled to expanding leisure to do that which is most important in life, each to their own drummer. For each, in turn, to contribute to society at their highest potentials.
Key Objectives:
Guaranteed employment
Adequate income levels through all life stages and health conditions
Lowering costs of meeting basic needs
Expanding Leisure
Measurable Progress:
Year by year reduction in Need Required Labor Time (NRLT) at both the minimum wage and the median wage level.
Policy tools:
* To help guarantee employment:
A major expansion of the non-profit sector.
Jobs programs to meet needs of the least advantages, and to address the global climate change crisis.
Job sharing in periods of recession.
* To guarantee health and decency income:
- Integrate a rising minimum wage with a rising earned income tax credit (EITC) to enable a health and decency standard of living.
- Raise minimum social security retirement payments from present $11,000 to $18,000/year.
- Initiate a flow of income from universal share of re-distributed corporate stock.
* To lower the costs of meeting needs in housing, health, transportation and education, taxes, retirement:
- A Unified Medicaid/Medicare national system that provides public option for all, includes long-term care, determines costs on a sliding scale, free at the bottom, with highest level of total personal costs capped at 8% of income.
- Free education for each new generation, day care through college.
- Promote home ownership for almost all families, with the objective of debt-free ownership of simple homes; reform zoning restrictions to allow tiny homes on tiny lots; build low-income condos instead of public housing.
- Experiment with free public transportation; research into new inexpensive electric vehicles.
- Progressive payroll and property taxes
On Apr. 30, 2020, Seattle-based author John de Graaf was announced as the running-mate.
de Graaf supplied this blog with a wonderful interview, posted on May 2, 2020--
https://thirdpartysecondbananas.blogspot.com/2020/05/john-de-graaf-2020-vp-bread-and-roses.html
Segal/de Graaf were on the ballot in Maryland (0.19%) and Vermont (0.02%). They did not appear to be registered as write-ins in any state.
Election history: none
Other occupations: author, filmmaker, activist, teacher
Notes:
Full disclosure: de Graaf's film and book Affluenza had an enormous impact on accelerating my path in choosing a simpler and less consumer-based materialistic lifestyle.
