Escondido’s ‘True Democrat’ Runs for President--but at a Slow Walk

Would you prefer a government in which you had the right to fire the president and to choose the amount of taxes that government can impose? Then A. A. Van Petten is your candidate.

The Escondido Democrat has filed with the Federal Elections Commission and has paid his $1,000 to enter the New Hampshire primary to fulfill a dream of 35 years standing--bringing prosperity and justice back to the United States of America by putting government back into the hands of the people.

At 62, with no political organization behind him and about $20,000 in the bank, Van Petten is the darkest of dark horse candidates. He also must overcome the handicap of blindness when he ventures to New Hampshire to talk to the voters about his plans to rewrite the U.S. Constitution and revamp the entire governmental structure.

But go he will, sometime early this year and despite his physical and financial roadblocks, to face the likes of Gary Hart, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois in the Feb. 28 New Hampshire primary. Van Petten is convinced that he is the only true Democrat in the 27-candidate Democratic field because he is the only one who wants to hand the reins of government back to the people.

‘Authoritarian Government’

Van Petten wants to become president in order to dismantle the “authoritarian government” he believes the United States has become. His battle cry is “decentralization,” and his aim is to put the power of government into the hands of local groups, such as school boards, for instance, rather than have a decision on Escondido students’ curriculum come from Washington.

In Van Petten’s government, orders to the top come from below, giving the average Joe a chance to vote on major and minor issues every day from the convenience of his or her home, via computer or by telephone.

There’s no requirement to participate in this participatory government, he stresses, but judging from the popularity of talk shows and opinion polls, most people would.

Van Petten’s governmental pyramid is a simple one in which the orders would flow from the base--the people--to the No. 1 man or woman at the apex. If the president failed to respond, the people could simply vote him or her out because there is no set term of office in Van Petten’s democracy.

To spread his message and promote his candidacy, Van Petten won’t use bumper stickers because “you can’t say anything important in such a small space.” He won’t have campaign banners, and he won’t hand out straw hats with red, white and blue headbands.

What he will do is talk and talk and talk, and hope that people will listen to the logic he has derived from 35 years of thinking about how to create a more perfect union where everyone can choose his way of life.

Van Petten has nothing in his past that he feels he must hide from the electorate. In fact, he is proud of his record, which includes graduation from West Point--”about 15 minutes ahead of Alexander Haig”--in the top third of his class, and service in the Korean War as a combat engineer. He has a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

Lost His Eyesight

That war experience probably turned Van Petten’s life to politics--a profession he holds in low esteem.

“It very nearly killed a whole bunch of us when Harry Truman wouldn’t let Douglas MacArthur run the war and bomb China when the Chinese entered the fighting. I realized (then) that there was something terribly wrong with our government,” he said. A captain, he resigned from the Corps of Engineers and, in succeeding years, ran for Congress unsuccessfully in West Virginia and in California, and wrote two books, publishing one, “The Prosperity Plan.”

In 1975, he lost his eyesight to glaucoma and was forced to retire from his job in aerospace engineering.

He hopes that after he gains the ear and the heart of the voters in New Hampshire, it’s on to the Iowa caucuses and ultimately to the California primary, if he can persuade Secretary of State March Fong Eu to put his name on the ballot.

“As long as I’m able, I’ll run every chance I get. I’ll talk to people as long as they will listen,” Van Petten said. His dream is to gain a seat among the presidential front-runners at a national debate or two.

Van Petten claims no slogans but has several attention-catching proposals he hopes might win him support he needs to remain on the campaign trail after the New Hampshire primary:

- End all “transaction” taxes, such as income taxes, sales taxes and payroll taxes, which he says do not tax idle wealth.

- Derive revenue from taxes that accumulate value over time, such as property taxes.

- Exempt $50,000 a year per person from all taxes, to protect the poor and middle class.

- Programs such as Social Security and welfare would be abolished. Instead, Van Petten would have the government pay everyone over 12 years of age $20 per day.