| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Brian Moore Stewart Alexander |
| Affiliation | Socialist Party USA |
| Status | Lost election, November 4, 2008 |
| Headquarters | 339 Lafayette St. Suite #303 |
| Website | |
| www.votebrianmoore.com | |
The2008 presidential campaign ofBrian Patrick Moore, a local activist fromFlorida, began when he announced his candidacy forthe presidency of the United States inSt. Louis, Missouri, on October 19, 2007. The same month he was declared the nominee of theSocialist Party USA for the2008 presidential election. The SPUSAnational convention electedStewart Alexis Alexander ofCalifornia as Moore's vice presidential nominee.
During his campaign, Moore focused on theAmerican-led wars abroad,labor rights and community ownership of corporations. Throughout his campaign Moore failed to gather much support in the states he had access to, and ended in 11th place overall, receiving 6,555 votes nationwide. Moore was not able to increase the party's voter base, and instead, it lowered itself from 10 to 6 thousand votes nationwide from theprevious presidential election. Moore's campaign raised $9,516.[1]
While minor, Moore managed to earn much needed media interest in the later part of the election mostly due toJohn McCain'sred baiting againstBarack Obama and making an appeal to the 5th US Circuit Court to getballot access in the state ofLouisiana. His media campaign included writing articles in several leading newspapers such asThe New Republic and theNational Journal and making appearances on television, most notablyThe Colbert Report.
On October 19, 2007, the Socialist Party USA held theirnational convention inSt. Louis, Missouri.Brian Moore was voted the party's presidential candidate, with four out of 11 opponents earning fewer votes than him combined. He earned the majority during the third election round.[2][3] Later,Stewart Alexander was selected by the party as Moore'sVice Presidential candidate.[4] A week later, Moore stood as a candidate for thePeace and Freedom Party, againstRalph Nader,Gloria La Riva, andCynthia McKinney.[5] Nader became the presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party,[6] Moore then stood as a candidate for theNatural Law Party in Michigan, where he was again defeated by Nader.[7] Moore won the nomination of the Natural Law Party of Mississippi.[8]
After not completing the necessary paperwork in time to field candidates in the state ofLouisiana, the Socialist Party USA along with theLibertarian Party lost their respective privileges to field write-in candidates and party affiliated candidates in the state. Mark R. Brown of the Libertarian Party, along with Moore, made an appeal. The 5th US Circuit Court overturned US District Judge James Brady's order to include the Libertarian candidate on the Louisiana ballot, but upheld their ruling towards the Socialist Party USA, concluding that they had "filed too little, too late".[9] Another reason is that the Socialist Party USA is an "un-recognized" organization according to the law of the state of Louisiana.[10]
This election marked the first time since the days of theSocialist Party of America, that a socialist candidate was on a ballot in the state ofOhio.[citation needed] Following legal challenges,US District Court Judge Edmund Sargus ordered Moore's name placed on the Ohio ballot.[11] During their presidential campaign, the party earned little funding from supporters, with Moore remarking that the only candidates able or having a slim chance to win were "millionaires, or sellouts to corporate America". He further commented that it would be impossible for a third-party candidate to win an election without ballot access in all fifty states. While highly vocal that he did not even have a slim chance of winning, he believed there would be a good chance of getting on the ballot in at least 20 states, because of the2008 financial crisis.[12]
Moore ended in 11th place overall, receiving 6,555 votes nationwide out of over 125 million cast.[13] He thus missed, by a large margin, the 5 percent needed to qualify the Socialist Party USA for federally distributed public funding in the next election.[13] His best showings were in Tennessee, where he received 1,326 votes out of over 2 million votes cast, and inOhio, where he managed to receive 2,731 votes. His weakest showings were inKentucky andMinnesota, where he managed to gain 7 votes in each state.[14] Moore was not able to enlarge the party's voter base, but instead the voter base shrunk by over 4 thousand votes nationwide from the previous election fronted byWalt Brown.[15]
Being a former member of theDemocratic Party, Brian Moore said he moved to socialism because the system wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, further stating that it was "mixed up withMcCarthy andStalin and theRed Scare". He ended his thoughts on the matter by clearly stating that socialism wasn'tcommunism.[16] He has also noted that even before joining the Socialist Party, he "always promoted a national socialized health plan, antiwar, favored a guaranteed annual income, advocated worker control and elimination of corporate control."[17] Moore has stated at various times that he promoted a platform to inform Americans of an alternative option in American politics. He believes thatcapitalism was a selfish system which focused on the wealthy and not the weak and the poor. Moore felt that "capitalism is an economic system where decisions are made at the top and come down in a dictatorial fashion"[17] He felt that redistributing the wealth between the rich and the poor would give the United States a strongerpublic sector, which would in turn focus more onrenewable energy and the needy. During his presidential campaign he claimed that the current economic system was falling apart because of capitalist greed.[18] Moore guaranteed an income of "approximately $10,000 per family a year and decent housing for all families". He also called for the "elimination of exorbitant executive salaries, outsourcing of jobs and companies, and calls for an end to for-profit corporations".[19] When asked what made socialism better than capitalism, Moore said;[20]
It's based on fairness and equality. [...] And right now America under the capitalistic system is based on greed and getting ahead and you usually do it at the expense of your fellow man.
— Brian Moore,Bay News 9 interview from October, 2007
Moore has publicly criticized claims thatBarack Obama is a socialist, saying he is offended by this characterization.[18] According to the weekly periodical,The Nation, Moore said Obama along withJohn McCain was "bought and sold" byWall Street, saying that the two major candidates cannot change their opinion, since they are both "imprisoned" by the "corporate machine".[21]
Moore was against the wars inIraq andAfghanistan, and supported free and accessible health insurance for all. He also wanted to transfer ownership of corporations to the workers.[4] When discussing thewar on terror, Moore felt it was destroying small communities throughout the country with higher taxes and more pressure on the local governments.[22] Moore and vice presidential candidate Stewart Alexander supported a 50% reduction of theUnited States Department of Defense spending, and using the other 50% to improve veteran benefits. Alexander proposed that retired veterans with 10–30 years of military service should receive an income of $15–30 thousand annually from the state.[23]
Moore along with America First chairman Jonathan M. Hill appeared onAl Jazeera English, discussing strategic development plans forthird parties in the United States. The broadcast was viewed by over 100 million viewers worldwide.[24] He also made two appearances onFox News, first on the TV specialThe Rescue Rumble[25] and later onYour World,[26] both shows were hosted byNeil Cavuto. He later appeared as a guest on theComedy Central TV seriesThe Colbert Report, anews satire show about modern American politics. According to Moore, the decision to have him on the show came fromStephen Colbert, the current host for the TV series. A spokeswoman from Comedy Central would not comment on the motives behind the selection. Moore also wrote several articles inThe Nation,The New Republic andNational Journal,[24] and the newspapersSt. Petersburg Times, theLos Angeles Times and theChicago Tribune. The question of whether or notBarack Obama was a socialist, led to an increased interest in Moore during the election.[27] TheLeft Party, a Swedishdemocratic socialist political party, officially endorsed Moore for president during a televised debate in Sweden.[28]