Allen Charles McCone, July 23, 1917 (Nishnabotny Township, Iowa) - June 13, 2004 (Kansas City, Mo.)
VP candidate for Take Back America (aka Independent) (1992)
Running mate with nominee: John Andrew Yiamouyiannis (1943-2000)
Popular vote: 2,199 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Almost every town had one, at least back in the 1960s up here in Washington State. That guy who opposed the fluoridation of public drinking water to the point of festooning their house and yard with primitive signage declaring their warnings about the danger of cancer. Some would even drive around in vehicles with posters.
The public image of anti-fluoridation activists as cranks and quacks was not helped by the portrayal of General Jack D. Ripper by the actor Sterling Hayden in the film Dr. Strangelove (1964), "Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?" he said as he ranted about "precious bodily fluids." In the public mind the anti-fluoridation movement came to be associated with the extreme Right, the same folks who displayed signs urging Congress to impeach Earl Warren and for the US to get out of the UN.
But there were some with respected academic credentials who fought against fluoridation which they saw as a matter of public health-- and they felt if there was any conspiracy it was a capitalist one, not communist. Although basically debunked and drummed out of their professions, they persisted and formed their own subculture. One of the most prominent of these figures was John Yiamouyiannis (pronounced Ya-moo-ya-nis) of Delaware, Ohio. He had a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Rhode Island (1967) and made a living as a writer, activist, and self-styled public expert on the subject.
In 1992 he decided to run for President.
Here's a typical Yiamouyiannis observation:
Fluoride is a poison more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic. If people would vote to put fluoride in their water, why wouldn't they vote to put arsenic or lead in their water or mercury for that matter? You can spend about a dollar on fluoride and that amount of fluoride will kill about a thousand people. It's the most economic poison you can get. We actually got an admission from Proctor & Gamble in 1984 that a family-sized tube of Crest contains enough fluoride to kill a small child on the spot.
The professional sanctions for opposing fluoridation can be severe, and it is best not to even acknowledge evidence of harm or ineffectiveness.
In echoes of some elements of the American Vegetarian Party, Yiamouyiannis was also opposed to vaccination. He guessed that vaccinated people would be more likely to contract AIDS. Pasteurization of milk was another practice he opposed.
His running-mate was long-time anti-fluoridation activist Allen C. McCone. Dr. McCone (so called because he was a retired veterinarian) and his wife Jean had been successful in getting an anti-fluoridation measure on the ballot in their hometown of Kansas City, Mo. in the 1964 election and seeing it win the public vote. But by 1980 the mood had changed and voters approved fluoridation.
McCone was 75 in 1992, making him one of the older VP nominees that year. He owned a nutritional supplement wholesale distribution company. When it came to fluoridation he told a reporter, "You can't argue the subject. People make fun of those speaking out."
Yiamouyiannis was running a single-issue campaign, but he had views on other topics: his belief that the HIV virus was not the cause of AIDS, he would eliminate the individual income taxes, halt the banking system bailout, and he would order the US Treasury to print enough money to pay off the national debt. He said he would institute high tariffs, and heavily tax doctors, lawyers, polluters, and corporate executives.
He saw "special interests" as the enemy of the people: "Through their influence on politicians, the power brokers have stifled competition and profited from insider trading and junk bonds. This has led to the destablization of American industry and the extortion of billions from the banking system and from the retirement programs of the elderly. They poison the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat and the soil beneath our feet."
Unsuccessful legal battles to obtain ballot status in Mississippi and Ohio took up more newspaper ink than coverage of his actual platform.
The Yiamouyiannis/McCone ticket made the ballot in four states, where they placed at or near the bottom in each one: Arkansas (0.06%), Louisiana (0.05%), Iowa (0.04%), Tennessee (0.01%). They were registered write-ins in Missouri (zero votes) and supposedly in Washington State.
Yiamouyiannis died of colorectal cancer in 2000, after refusing to seek conventional medical treatment.
Election history: none.
Other occupations: veterinarian, owner of a nutritional supplement wholesale distribution company
Buried: ?
Notes:
Not that I want to stir things up or have a dog in this fight, but I grew up on a farm with well water.
Now I am a senior citizen and I still have all of my teeth. Whenever a new dental person asks me to
open up they somehow guess I was not raised with fluoridated water. Interesting.
Quirky trivia for quirky trivia types: The wife of US Vice-President John C. Calhoun was named "Floride." Calhoun's great-grandnephew John Temple Graves (1856-1925) was a VP nominee of the Independence Party in 1908. Calhoun himself was a force behind an early third party, the Nullifier Party.
