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:
- 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…”
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.
Civics beyond political hostility
Political parties are too dominant in our civic space—holding power and treating official decisions as matters of partisan interest. That should not be happening.
Partisanship in the exercise of the duties of office is a dangerous trap. It allows one major party to unilaterally enforce a standard of destructive non-cooperation, eroding honor and efficacy in government, to the detriment of all.
Often it is well-meaning officeholders who are trapped—people who make great personal sacrifices to serve in thankless roles, out of a sense of moral and patriotic duty. Hyper-partisanship robs them of moral sovereignty, and deprives us of a government that is committed to doing the right thing.
It is the effect of hyper-partisanship and of alienation from our civic processes that we begin to accept that what matters most is the highest office-holder. That gives undue power to the people in high office, who are supposed to be subservient to the law and to the people.
The President is the highest ranking elected administrator, not a ruler and not a lawmaker. He or she is obliged by law to strictly ensure that all other executive branch staff honor the law and uphold the rights of all human beings, every time, in every case, without fail. That is the job.
When we fall into the trap of rigid exclusions—for political reasons, because we believe language about a phantom menace, because we have not exercised our legal rights to pursue redress, or because we have not joined an effort to adjust policies that are not working—we don’t just limit our contact with people unlike us; we undermine our collective ability to engage in self-government.
Some people who seek power find this alienation and disempowerment convenient, because it gives them more leeway to do the wrong things.
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 shared project 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.
Reject nonsense; uphold basic rights
The forces of violent indecency have come to New Jersey and have begun assaulting and abducting people guilty of no crime and who have faithfully followed the legal process for immigration and naturalization.
These attacks are coming to all corners of the country, and they break up families and create an atmosphere of menace in communities.
The office of citizen is the foundation of the republic; our core duty is witness, which is integral to our civic authority as free human beings to speak, organize, form local governments, and defend each other’s right to remain free from violence and oppression.
These fundamental rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to every human being in every circumstance where the government seeks to assert jurisdiction. Any other claim is nonsense.
We must collectively, and nonviolently, say NO to such dangerous dehumanizing nonsense.
Editorial Note
The Faithful Citizen started as a way to retell the story of executive overreach, by reminding readers that there are founding laws and principles and universal duties for all who serve in public office. It will continue to be that, with the crisp look and feel of text on paper—clarifying the boundaries between what is lawful and what is a breach.
We need that clarity, and we need it to be a shared sense of what is normal and right.
Alongside our comment on universal rights and the duties of public office, we will also lay out principles and nonpartisan objectives that can guide citizens, office holders, and other community members, in helping to rescue rights and freedoms by using them wisely, constructively, and for the good of all.
We aim to embody in our writing, advocacy, and efforts at civic empowerment these core values: humanity, universal rights, mutual aid, civic cooperation, and nonviolence.
Read about the Rescue Loon symbol here.
The Faithful Citizen 