The Dark Horse: Hagelin Campaigns for Natural Law

It does not happen too often that a former graduate student of Professor of Physics Howard Georgi '67-'68 takes him to the Cambridge Center for Transcendental Meditation, or sends him a campaign watch for his 50th birthday.

But then again, John S. Hagelin, the Reform Natural Law Coalition presidential candidate perhaps best known for his interest in yoga flying and for helping to rupture the Reform Party, is not known for being typical.

Hagelin's platform includes subsidizing preventative medical measures--including transcendental meditation--many of which he practices daily.

His professed adherence to Ross Perot's Reform Party ideals, coupled with his idiosyncratic proposals, has prompted voters to ask whether Hagelin is carrying the mantle of the Reform Party or whether he is just an eccentric.

"He's not a kook," says Georgi. "He's an incredibly smart guy who has well-thought-out opinions on many things."

In the end, however, perceptions of his character are largely irrelevant. The Reform Party, as even Hagelin admits, is not likely to last to the next election. Hagelin hopes to win five million votes, or five percent of the expected turnout, to gain federal financing in the 2004 presidential election.

"The difference with my candidacy is that I've reunited the party...and have reached outside the party," says Hagelin, 46. "I'm a coalition builder, and that's what somebody has to do. Someone must build an independent political movement that speaks for the 50 million registered voters who have no voice...and the 89 percent of students who did not vote in 1998."

And that man is an Iowa native with a Harvard masters degree in 1976 and a doctorate in 1981 in particle physics.

Do You Want a Revolution?

Hagelin received a presidential nod when the Reform Party split into two factions during its national convention in August, with Pat Buchanan taking the other nomination. The Federal Elections Commission recognized Buchanan as the official party candidate, which made him eligible--and made Hagelin ineligible--for $12.6 million in federal funds.

With his running mate, Nat Goldhaber, Hagelin has garnered support from the New York Independence Party, the Natural Law Party and what he terms "the best of the Reform Party" to try to sustain the party founded by Perot.

But when Hagelin describes his hobbies, his speech shifts from a directed political mantra to a moment of reflection.

He waxes philosophically on designing high fidelity home audio equipment: "It's the fun of design and creativity," the Harvard-educated quantum physicist says.

He is also a pilot, and calls flying "liberating." But he says his political goals share those ideals.

Hagelin's Harvard degree led him to a Congressional think tank on science and public policy, which led to a frustration with the inability of non-profit organizations to compete with for-profit organizations for government attention, which led to candidacy for the Natural Law Party in 1992 and 1996.

Now, he is applying his knowledge from physics to his politics.

"Apart from having some technical savvy based upon my Harvard graduate education, the very fact that I'm a quantum physicist means that my expertise is natural law, the government of nature and how nature governs this immensely complex universe without problems," he says.

" I therefore am running for president as a scientist to put our government back on firm principles of knowledge and proven solutions."

Hagelin on the Issues

While he professes a more scientific world-view than the other candidates, Hagelin's platform resembles the original appeal of the Reform Party which attacked governmental bureaucracy and special interests.

He supports school vouchers (he favors experimentation) and campaign finance reform. He advocates public funding and the banning of political action committees (PACs) and soft money, an issue that affected his own campaign.

"We don't have the money to run high profile ads; that's a major setback," Hagelin says. "But we have built now the largest, strongest grassroots infrastructure of volunteers and candidates and organizers in the history of third party politics."

He also says the country could be self-sufficient with energy if it were not "addicted" to foreign oil interests and "held hostage by OPEC and oil barons." He says he believes the mainstream candidates are "marinated in oil."

He says he believes that agricultural systems could be improved based on natural laws, and that government healthcare programs are "pennywise, pound foolish and inhumane."

"I think that obviously being a physicist and knowing a lot of physics is very helpful in knowing a lot of technology, so he is in a good position to understand things like arms control issues," Georgi says.

Preventative medical intervention plays a prominent role in the Natural Law Coalition platform.

In part, Hagelin says he draws on common sense: the government should provide a $200 reimbursement for Medicare patients with high blood pressure or heart disease to spend on a treadmill and personal trainer instead of spending $50,000 on a quintuple bypass operation when the same person is deathly ill.

Under his plan, Medicare would also cover transcendental meditation, which Hagelin practices daily. He cites the National Institute of Health journal articles that says it is more effective and cost-efficient than drugs in reducing high blood pressure and preventing heart disease.

"It's part of my scientific philosophy, and my willingness to stick my neck out for what works," Hagelin says. "If I waver from that clean philosophy by not supporting transcendental meditation for political reasons, then my whole candidacy would be tainted."

He has advocated federally-insured loans and tax incentives to create capital for start-up companies in inner city neighborhoods. He believes in legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes and in decriminalizing non-violent drug offenses.

A Uniter, Not a Divider

The man from the party that split speaks often about bringing the American public together, to give a voice to other voters disenchanted with the mainstream candidates whose parties have had decades to prove themselves and whose platforms, he says, have not realistically addressed the problems.

Although a mainstream candidate will be elected this year, Hagelin says that these "voiceless voters" can be heard now and in the future.

"[The voters I am trying to reach] have no reason to support the Republican and Democratic parties…The Republicans and Democrats attempt to divide the people through issues like partial-birth abortion, wedge issues meant to chisel away at each other's support base," Hagelin says.

"We're about the huge issues that unite Americans, like the prevention of disease and promotion of health, like taking back our stolen democracy from special interests."

Hagelin sees Ralph Nader as a partner in the quest to take votes from Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore '69, but complains Nader's campaign fails to create the "broad-based independent political movement" that is the goal of his Reform Natural Law Coalition.

"He's sticking to his core, narrowly liberal campaign with his upper middle class white support base, and he'll get five percent of the vote that way, but we've got to have a voice for the ... Americans who have no voice in our government," Hagelin says.

While Hagelin's efforts are not fruitless, his political capital does not seem like it will place him anywhere in the headlines the morning after the Nov. 7 election.

Ultimately, the same reasons which brought Hagelin into the political arena--the lack of a viable third party--could potentially dash his political hopes.

"I don't think his unusual views on meditation would get in the way of his views that he's a really smart guy. I would [trust him as president]," Georgi says. "But because of the way our political system works, I don't really think that's an issue."