We need a Rescue Party, a movement of ordinary people and aligned public servants, from across the political spectrum, who will work together to restore sanity and decency to our civic space, who will oppose all forms of corruption, and counter all abuses of power, to rescue rights and freedoms by enacting the best uses of those rights and freedoms, to fulfill the ethical duty to defend the humanity of all.
The Rescue project starts from the following core insights about self-government in the American democratic republic:
Citizen is the highest office. Human rights are paramount.
All officeholders must operate only within the scope of written law. Power is subordinate.
Sovereignty begins and ends in civil society. Each of us matters. Our voices, our silences, our way of serving or not serving our communities, all of that makes a difference and shapes our collective future.
Constructive change comes from civil reform with popular support; that is why civic structures exist. It will not be easy to reconvert our civic structures into non-ideological problem-solving spaces, but we can make real progress by noting where that is already the standard and then spreading it to those offices where vitriol has displaced mutual devotion.
The Constitutional team needs all the allies it can get.
The Rescue Party is an idea space—a way of organizing helpers and problem-solvers across the political spectrum.
- No one has to leave their party to be a Rescuer.
- We do not run candidates for office, but we do invite anyone who puts the good of the people, the republic, and future generations ahead of self-interest or hardline ideology, to campaign on the ideas we share and organize around.
- This movement must not emulate the structure, purpose, or practices of political parties, because the task before all of us is the rescue of human dignity from the failings of an obsessively hostile political landscape.
- We seek an informal alliance of good-hearted people loyal to the rights and liberties of all.
A few things need to be true of this movement:
- We need to start with a profound respect for our common humanity, and so for the irreducible human rights of all people.
- We need to honor the sacred right and duty to bear witness. The First Amendment is sacrosanct, because it safeguards all other rights by protecting all forms of witness.
- Rescuers help those in need; we cannot be free people if we do not use our freedom to uplift those vulnerable to injustice and harm.
- Constructive cooperation, without ideology, is key. Republicans, Democrats, Forwardists, Greens, Libertarians, independents, people of faith, and people not motivated by religion or politics, can all play a role.
- ‘Constructive’ does not mean Rescuers do not call out cynical partisans or breaches of the public trust. Rescuers must be critical, speak truth, and support all who defend democracy.
- Nonviolence must be an absolute standard.
The Preamble to the Bill of Rights notes that its ten amendments were added to the Constitution “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers” and that the purpose was expressly “restrictive” on the use of public authority, with the aim of “extending the ground of public confidence in the Government…”
This is what we mean by rescue—extending the ground of public confidence by expanding the spaces in which we can work together, in spite of difference and disagreement, to build a better future together.
The Rescue Party is a civic renewal project emerging from the rights-focused publication The Faithful Citizen.
Read about the meaning behind the Rescue Loon logo.
Rescue Rights & Freedoms 