The United States Pirate Party hosted leaders of the National Bull Moose Party during a recent Pirate National Committee meeting, continuing its outreach to other political organizations.
In a post-meeting wrap-up published this week, the Pirate Party said members of the National Bull Moose Party joined its latest meeting to observe and ask questions. The party said the guests included the Bull Moose organization’s chair and secretary, though it did not provide additional details about the discussion.
The meeting comes as the Pirate Party has shown interest in working with other organizations since last year. Following a series of similar conversations, the group entered into a formal partnership with the United States Transhumanist Party formally called “All Hands for a Free Future,” which the two groups said could eventually expand to include additional parties. The Pirate and Transhumanist parties have also backed the same candidates for office since entering the coalition.
Meanwhile, the National Bull Moose Party is a newer progressive organization styled after the historic Bull Moose Party, also more formally called the Progressive Party. Theodore Roosevelt and his supporters formed the original party after Roosevelt lost the 1912 Republican nomination to incumbent President William Howard Taft. Roosevelt finished second in the general election, ahead of Taft, making the effort one of the most successful third party presidential campaigns in U.S. history.
The current organization says its platform is an updated version of the 1912 Progressive platform for the modern era. Its priorities include campaign finance reform, direct election of the president, abolition of the Electoral College, ranked choice voting, a None-of-the-Above ballot option, and direct-democracy mechanisms such as the initiative, referendum, and recall.
The platform also calls for the support of universal free education, free universal healthcare through a single national health service, stronger labor protections, conservation, antitrust enforcement, abortion rights, and a foreign policy that mixes diplomacy with Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” mantra to national defense.
The National Bull Moose Party does not currently appear to have ballot access in any state. The party has said in remarks online that it intends to begin by fielding candidates for local, nonpartisan offices with the goal of earning a ballot line to focus on specific state-level races where incumbents otherwise lack opposition.
Its website lists state chapters in Tennessee and Colorado, both in varying levels of development, as well as a national leadership team that forgoes the use of first names. The organization also says it holds virtual general meetings every other Thursday and maintains a newsletter.
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