In 2000, Pat Buchanan received the nomination for president and pushed the party far to the right. Since then, it has lost a lot of candidates and memberships to other parties and is no longer a cohesive national movement since most of its power is disseminated state-to-state. Noticeably absent from the Reform Party’s state platforms are positions on social issues, including abortion and gay rights. For years, Reform Party representatives believed their party could bring people together from both sides of these issues to address what they considered to be more vital political concerns and create a coalition of moderates.
In 2001, Buchanan’s supporters had taken over the party and rewrote the party’s national constitution to specifically include opposition to any form of abortion. Ironically, the Buchanan supporters were overtaken in 2002 and the party’s constitution was restored to its 1996 version, which includes a right-leaning moderate platform. The current Reform Party’s platform includes:
- Maintaining a balanced budget, ensured by passing a Balanced Budget
- Amendment and changing budgeting practices, and paying down the federal debt
- Campaign finance reform, including strict limits on campaign contributions and the outlawing of the Political action committee
- Enforcement of existing immigration laws
- Opposition to free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and CAFTA, and a call for withdrawal from the World Trade Organization
- Term limits on U.S. Representatives and Senators
- Direct election of the United States President by popular vote
