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.

What we are seeing play out across the United States, under the guise of immigration enforcement, is a many-faceted breach of founding laws and principles and of the public trust. And that is just part of a wider litany of offenses, many of them similar to those listed in the Declaration of Independence, adopted 250 years ago this coming July 4.

Part of what is wrong with politics in America is that the roots of republican democracy are being starved. We often attribute that to the effect of big-dollar donors to political action committees and the sway they have over elected officials, and that is as grave a problem as any, but it is not the whole story.

The roots of republican democracy are in communities, in local experience, in our everyday lives:

• How much say do we have over the dynamics of our experience?
• Can we determine whether our friends and families will be better off, because they worked hard, or is that out of our hands?
• Are common virtues—like nonviolence, charity, civil disagreement, and citizen consultation—practiced?
• Who answers when we have a problem that needs immediate attention?
• Is local experience improved or tormented by the wider structures of a vast technocratic society?

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.

Extreme violations of rights and law are happening, and those violations need to be treated as crimes, and prosecuted. That includes the direct denial of basic rights, as well as corrupt relationships between people in office and those funneling money to them.

That does not mean everyone who has contributed to the breakdown in respect for human rights is forever lost. No conversation is the end of all things.

Many of those who have worked against our founding purpose have done so without fully understanding the real harm their policy choices brought to everyday lives and to the foundations of our democratic republic. We need to find ways to welcome those capable of a change of heart back into the collective defense of democracy and human rights. The Constitutional team needs all the allies it can get.

A few things need to be true of this movement:

1. We need to start with a profound respect for our common humanity, and so for the irreducible human rights of all people.
2. We need to honor the sacred right and duty to bear witness. The First Amendment is sacrosanct, because it is necessary to safeguard all other rights by protecting all forms of witness.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. ‘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.
6. Nonviolence must be an absolute standard.

The Rescue Party should be an informal alliance of good-hearted people loyal to the rights and liberties of all. It should not emulate the structure, purpose, or practices of political parties, because the task before all of us, at this moment, is the rescue of human dignity from the intense failings of an obsessively hostile political landscape.

Ronald Reagan said Americans enjoy and embody “a bounty of the spirit” that welcomes newcomers, especially those fleeing persecution and violence. It is a foundational principle of the American democratic republic that human beings are welcome to seek freedom, make a living, and contribute to the work of self-government.

We are free together, every human being in our country, or we are not free.

Let’s get back to freedom, get back to decency, get back to solving problems and advancing our collective wellbeing, as the Constitution requires.