Disclaimer: The views expressed on this website do not represent those of any other organization. By publishing and updating this website, the Founder is acting purely in the capacity of a private citizen and not as a representative of any other organization.
Welcome to The Preamblist® Movement Inc.
Mission Statement:
4 options from which you can choose (email us at preamblism@gmail.com which one or a combination you like best):
-To improve our nation’s political environment by promoting the values of the Preambles to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
-Promoting the Preambles of our founding documents to improve our political climate.
-Solving today’s political problems with the Preambles of our founding documents.
-Uniting and rallying America around the values of the Preambles to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The Crisis We Are Fighting Against: I write this in spring of 2023 with my three young children in the next room. I am concerned that our United States of America is at great risk of becoming less democratic, safe, stable, compassionate, united, and able to intelligently solve the problems that threaten overwhelm us. I fear we are in a negative spiral. Our two major political parties not only frequently fail to agree on solutions, but their partisanship often exacerbates our problems. Their primary systems and mobilize-the-base election strategies produce extremist candidates and platforms that give voters binary choices that about half of society will inevitably hate. This not only tears us apart, but also eliminates the possibility of finding common-sense, science and evidence-based solutions. When one of the party’s extremist candidates wins an election, despite often winning by only a small margin, they do not work with representatives of the other party to find moderate solutions to move us forward. Instead, they try to entrench their power through gerrymandering and sometimes voter suppression. Additionally, these extremist leaders produce their own convenient “alternative facts” while sowing distrust in our vital institutions, scientists, and experts. Instead, they turn to extremist ideologies, leaders and sometimes even violence for solutions. Meanwhile our problems get worse and more threatening: the poor and middle-class get poorer, our economy has severe crashes, gun violence increases especially at our schools, climate change produces more disasters, undemocratic foreign powers armed with nuclear weapons engage in or threaten war, and the vulnerable become even more so.
Why We Have Hope and What We Must Do: We have hope because the problem is with the system and the parties, but not with the vast majority of citizens. Most citizens support sensible solutions and want the parties to work together. Therefore, we must unleash the wisdom of our citizens as the driving force of our system. We also have hope because we have a great foundation to build upon that has been severely underutilized: the Preambles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our mission is to promote the Preambles to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution which state the inspiring values upon which our government was formed—we call these the Preamblist® Values (highlighted in the Preambles below):
Preamble to Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. (source)
Preamble to the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (source)
The Opportunity: We have an opportunity to use the Preamblist® Values to improve our nation and government. To understand this opportunity, we first must introduce our key tenets:
Use the Preamblist® Values in combination with science and the best available peer-reviewed research to advocate for the best solutions.
Ensure ALL the Preamblist® Values are honored in their optimum combination/balance with each other. We do not cherry-pick a few values to anyone’s advantage nor take one value to such an extreme that it overwhelms other values. For example, we do not let the value of “liberty” completely overwhelm the value of “safety” and vice versa. (To be clear, none of the optimum combinations/balances ever compromises on the value “all men are created equal” in that we never, ever discriminate based on race, sexual orientation, or other protected classes.)
Imagine if our country intentionally applied these tenets. Imagine if we and our political representatives used the best research and science available to apply ALL the Preamblist® Values, in their most effective combination, to attack our greatest problems. Imagine how many lives we would save by ensuring our gun laws are not only based on debated interpretations of the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights, but also on ALL the Preamblist Values including “safety,” “life,” “our posterity,” and “liberty.” Imagine how much stronger and fairer our economy would be if we looked beyond the usual debates between Capitalism and Socialism, and instead strove for an economy that achieves ALL the Preamblist Values including “all men are created equal,” “the pursuit of Happiness,” “general welfare,” and “liberty." Imagine how much cleaner the natural environment would be if we stopped seeing environmental regulations and economic growth as opposing forces, but instead used ALL the Preamblist® Values, including “our posterity” and “future security,” to recognize that looking after our planet and long-term economic growth are in fact complementary. Imagine how much fairer voting laws and maps would be if our political leaders tried to achieve ALL the Preamblist® values in our electoral system, including “consent of the governed,” “We the People,” “all men are created equal,” and “Liberty.”
Our Strategy: We promote ALL the Preamblist® Values so that:
Citizens can use them to influence government,
Judges (including those of the Supreme Court) factor them into their legal decisions,
Law-makers at all levels of government (local, state, and federal) ensure their bills are striving for them,
Those who execute our laws (police, mayors, governors, government departments, and the President) act consistently with them.
We call ourselves: Preamblists. We call our political philosophy: Preamblism®.
We are just getting started and what we do depends on you: There is only so much the Founder can do with his family’s financial resources and his time. If we get enough support and donations, we will do more of the services below and we may try more direct tactics.
Our tactics and services at this time (what your support will specifically produce):
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Impactful Promotional Tools, Social Media, and Merchandise
We plan to create powerful promotional tools, social media, and merchandise to market the Preamblist® Values to hundreds, then thousands, and hopefully then millions of citizens. We want to make the Preambles and their values go viral so that voters demand their government follow them.
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Preamblism® Content Development
We produce in-depth content, mainly in writing, about our political philosophy based on the Preambles and its implications. We also are building a digital library of relevant articles, books, Podcasts, and more.
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Public Engagement
We encourage the public to work with Preamblist® Values themselves. For example, we will accept and host input from others on this website as long as it follows the tenets. Additionally, we may host an essay writing competition in which anyone is encouraged to apply the Preamblist® Values to an important topic of today. We hope to award prizes such as financial support for further education or job training or other life improvements.
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Build A Network Of People
Using this website and social media, we plan to build a network of contacts across the nation united in helping in this mission. The larger and more committed our network, the more impactful we can be.
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Promote Preambles to Government
WIth your help, we will contact members of local, state, and national government and media to promote ALL the Preamblist® Values and how they may apply to relevant issues. As a 501c3 we cannot endorse specific candidates or campaigns and we can only spend a small amount of time and money influencing legislation, but we can contact judges, mayors, governors, and members of the executive branch.
Suggested next step: Of course donate or visit our store at any time. If you want to read about our political philosophy in more detail visit our Preamblist Movement Foundational Content page.
Support for statements on this page:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/opinions/american-democracy-trump-era-renew-lose-kasparov/index.html
Foa, R.S., Klassen, A., Slade, M., Rand, A. and R. Collins. 2020. “The Global Satisfaction with Democracy Report 2020.” Cambridge, United Kingdom: Centre for the Future of Democracy: https://www.cam.ac.uk/system/files/report2020_003.pdf
“Alternative facts”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts
Decline of freedom worldwide and threat to democracy in US including violence of Jan 6, 2021: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/opinions/democracy-autocracy-21st-century-fight-fredrick/index.html
“Americans are broadly unsatisfied with the state of things in the US, poll finds:” https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/us/gallup-mood-of-the-nation-survey/index.html
Most Americans are in the center:
Most Americans share common-ground on a lot of issues and want the two political parties to compromise to achieve solutions:
https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/a-new-session-of-congress/
Fox News poll and other sources show most Americans support common sense gun control measures: