Principles of the Integrity Party.

Now that we’ve reached the point of recruiting leadership, the main questions being asked revolve around policies or “what does the party stand for?” 

This is a first stab at blogging for the party, a trigger shy fear has been building, but here goes. 

Please keep in mind that I’m writing this as an individual right now. Social media and online writing in general are not my strong suit by a long shot. Partly in my opinion because I don’t mince words and I tend to come across as blunt if not all together harsh in writing. As I speak in the “we” I’m talking about less than 10 people who have agreed to join the party and with the power of approximately 2,000 people that I spoke with face to face between September 30th and December 23rd of 2019. 99% of these people were in the California Bay Area and the other 1% in Las Vegas Nevada. I spoke to 60-70% of these people in groups of 2-5 including myself as a ride share driver. Those who I didn’t talk to in a ride share were mostly on the streets of San Francisco. More than 10% of those I talked to were competent unhoused individuals. As I spent more than half my life there, I also took a trip to Las Vegas in order to avail myself to members of my family, friends, and associates to whom I owed the chance to express any issues they might have with me entering politics. Finding no opposition and in fact a great deal of support I began the process of forming a political party. I should note that prior to forming the party I ran as an independent write-in candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in order to get my feet wet. You should also understand that I wasn’t fully committed to keeping the party and was equal parts considering running as an independent in the 2020 Presidential race. Not having much chance of raising almost 200,000 signatures in a pandemic did have a lot of weight in deciding to press on with the party. I’m the only proposed candidate for president in the party at this time. 

About the times we are in. The whole time my research was going on I was watching what was going on in Hong Kong and spoke often and openly about my belief that something was going on and that it would spill over into the United States soon. While I cannot with any level of integrity link this to the pandemic we are in globally at the time of this writing. At the very least there is a similarity between the political unrest that has been sweeping this planet for the last six to ten years and the virus that suddenly came out of nowhere. The more important questions require no further links between the crisis of health and the need for political evolution. 

Many of the whys and whats of this party need to stay unanswered until there is a body of people to agree and disagree as to iteration upon the principles of the party. So I’ll try to be less wordy and open the dialogue with some proposed principles and policies. All of them are open for discussion and with or without discussion subject to change. Moreover it will be through engagement, hopefully, that we can give the party structure and depth. 

Principles and Policies-

Integrity, subjective as it’s definition can be, like almost all words, is the core of the party. We don’t put our names, our relationships, our beliefs, our aspirations, our fears, or anything before integrity when speaking in any form as a party. 

Candor is key. How something feels should be removed from anything we say whenever possible to the greatest extent possible. 

Privacy is allowable. There should be no assumptions cast upon a person who wishes to exercise their own right to privacy. 

Information should always be open. When expressing something on behalf of the party there ought not be any reason to hide or delete history. 

Whenever and wherever possible discussion should be recorded and made available publicly. 

Should the party rise in official capacity and members of the party become public officials their obligations to the office they hold should exclude them from party leadership while in office, though not from discussion. 

The party is not intended to endure any longer than it is necessary. Human life is sacred and this entity is not human, it exists to serve humans until its extinction or theirs, whichever comes first. 

For as long as it is possible the party should exist without the aid of money in any form. All activities should be reasonably possible for any person to participate without the need for monetary instruments. To the extent that one or more puts forth capital to support the viability of the party any assets recorded to the party are owned by the party and no remuneration is due to the person or entity that procures it. All legal services provided to the party shall be pro bono. 

English is the only language of the party and there shall be no official translation as and only because there is no way to avoid creating entropy in the meaning of the words translated. 

No person can be excluded from the party for any reason whatsoever. The government of the state in which you may register to vote shall be the setter of limitations where applicable. 

More to come....

So without referring to any guides or rules, who is ready to pick up discussion from here? I’ll give it some time and consider adding and editing soon if none. 

Quickly about formalities-

I did spend some time in November on campus at SF State University and Stanford University seeking out and sourcing some experts in party formation. I also went to Sacramento as well as spending a great deal of time in the San Francisco department of elections. There is plenty of legal advice needed down the road. For now though I’m looking for direct dialogue with non experts as without a doubt, my reasoning behind all of this is, our political system is very much in need of fresh approaches. If you need to read a guide, please reference the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the state you are in. Note that for the time being we are only considering attempting to certify in the state of California, though if anyone is interested in leading an initiative in another state, please let me know. We would need 40,000 party members to certify in California. The FEC requires monetary thresholds to be met in order to work with a party and since we are running without money, a letter of intent has been submitted to them instead of a filing.

What’s it all worth if we don’t certify? A hands on learning experience in the process for anyone who participates. There will be many more elections to come and many more parties to start for that matter. If you end up really believing in me or any candidates to come from this you can also cast your write-in vote on November 3rd. 

This post allows comments and you can also post discussion to us on Twitter @1tegrityParty (note that the “I” in Integrity is the numeral 1).

Comments

  1. I think it is a timely and compelling idea and plan to set off an "Integrity Party". Our time needs more than ever integrating fields or forces by dedicated people. For me an integrating contribution of a political entity could be ....
    ... giving unheared people a voice in the political arena,
    ... building (transcontextual) bridges between political poles,
    ... looking for a third way (rather than the either-or narrative) to create, evolve societal systems.

    INTEGRITY PARTY ... stay curious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know you for having integrity. I suggest publish three books. 1. Global Social Engineering 2. Global Resource Management 3. War, Religion and Greed

    ReplyDelete

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