On the Campaign Trail

Natural Politics

After John Hagelin '76 graduated from Dartmouth his thoughts were on physics, not politics. Yet the physicist is now making his third run for the White House as the Natural Law Party's presidential nominee.

The Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 to "bring the light of science into politics," says Hagelin. It has become the fastest growing new party in America, with candidates on the ballot in all 50 states. "We cannot survive the next millennium without a radical rethinking of our policies and patterns of behavior," he says.

To increase his viability in the campaign, Hagelin has been forging a third-party coalition. "We need one that can truly challenge the Republicans and Democrats and break the twoparty death-grip on our politicial process," Hagelin says. His attempt to combine the nominations of the Reform and Natural Law parties garnered wins in the Illinois and Minnesotalowa Reform Party straw polls.

Hagelin's platform, as outlined in his book Manual for aPerfect Government (Maharishi University of Management Press, 1998), centers upon development of human potential: rehabilitation rather than tougher criminal policies, renegotiation of trade policies to promote democracy rather than corporate agendas, and programs that harness the laws of nature, such as alternative health care and sustainable, organic agricultural methods.