The Leading With Democracy Pledge

Our pledge reflects America’s foundational commitment that voters remain the ultimate authority. The sovereignty of voters is designed to keep leaders from abusing power, and keep our people free.  Our pledge obligates candidates and voters to honor these commitments through promises and action:      

All Lawful Votes Must Count - And Not Just Be Counted, But Also Matter.

Our democracy depends on participation.  People, factions and parties will fight over policy, as they should — but they must not be permitted to exclude voters from the process as they do it.  We therefore favor measures to make lawful voting easier, to expand access, and increase enfranchisement.  Items such as secure vote by mail, early voting, and similar measures often support those goals.  We oppose any measures that restrict citizens’ access to the process.  We support legitimate efforts to protect against voter fraud, but we reject efforts to suppress lawful voters under false pretexts of fraud.  We further believe that for democracy to function, votes need to matter.  Voters must choose leaders - not the other way around.  Votes cannot matter if they are gamed into meaningless.  We define votes mattering, in turn, as not expecting that any individual voter will by themselves determine elections (an unrealistic view in a country of this size), but that each voter can expect to have an impact comparable to every other voter. We therefore support measures that improve the extent to which election outcomes reflect voter preferences, such as ranked choice voting efforts.  We oppose measures such as gerrymandering or any other measures that reduce or eliminate the meaningfulness of selected groups of voters.  We favor measures to undo entrenchment wherever it exists.  We similarly support efforts to keep election integrity and operations secure - to make vote counting safe from hacking or from partisan efforts to incorrectly count (or discount) votes.  

No Faction May Break Our System Or Exclude Those Who Disagree With Them From The Decision-Making Process; The Voters, Not The Factions, Must Remain Sovereign.

At its core, American democracy is about preventing abuse of power. We see this principle as the point of checks and balances, limitations on government itself, and so forth. Voters’ ultimate sovereignty serves precisely that goal - providing a key check on potential abuses of power by leaders, while simultaneously ensuring that the people, rather than power factions, are the ones whose choices ultimately govern.  We make a distinction between exercises of power (e.g. making policy choices according to the power invested in a leader via an election) - and abuses of power (e.g., damaging the system, violating the limits set by the framework, or undermining the power of the voters to remove them if they step outside the limits our system sets.)  We will not tolerate efforts to subvert the ultimate authority of the voters over the leadership.  We will not accept any efforts by leaders to exclude voters who do not support them from a meaningful role in the decision-making process.  We will not support entrenchment efforts of any kind.  We similarly will not tolerate efforts by any leader to break the limits set upon them by our Constitutional framework, at either the federal or state levels.   Attempts to set aside lawful votes are unacceptable.  Promoting either election fraud or false claims of election fraud is similarly unacceptable. Attempts to overthrow the system are disqualifying; events such as January 6 must never be allowed to happen again, and no one who supports or endorses the events of that day deserves support.  Similarly, efforts such as those that have been floated among various legislatures to allow rejection of elections in favor of partisan fiat cannot be tolerated.

Our American Democracy Matters More Than Any Party Or Policy Win.

This alliance isn’t about policy.  We’re about the foundation of the country - the protection of the power of the people against those who would steal that power from them.  Our members thus can and will disagree on any number of policy matters.  We may each fight for the policies we each believe to be right.  But we will do so within the framework of our democracy, and with the conviction that our policy opponents are nevertheless our fellow citizens who deserve the same rights that we do.  We will fight to preserve both their place and our own within our democratic system.  We will recognize that the fundamental right that America gives everyone to participate in our collective decision-making ranks above any other interest we might advance in the public sphere.  We will stand for that principle against all threats, including those posed by fations that advance policies we might otherwise favor.   In practical terms, this makes it absolutely critical that we apply our principles across the board, to all factions, regardless of policy or power imperatives. We will not engage in, nor permit, any anti-democratic activity in the name of any policy win or drive to get the political strength needed to further policy goals.  We will not tolerate abuses of power by anyone, from any faction.  We will accept no double standards on this point. Those who join us must share our willingness to stand against abuses by our own factions as quickly (or more so) as against the abuses of other factions.  We will not permit the deck to be stacked against other voters, regardless of what we might think of their positions.   In particular, our members must be willing to withdraw their support from any candidates who, having received our support, later break their commitment to democracy and to the rights of all voters.    

This pledge does not obviate the views of any member or candidate on the issues of the day.  We neither subscribe to nor advocate “single issue” voting.  So long as one is pro-democracy first and foremost, one remains free to battle on substantive policies - even against other ACV members. Our members, however, commit to keep those fights within the bounds of our system — to fight without excluding dissenting voters from the battle. This commitment stands above considerations of the power of any faction. It similarly stands above the impact that pro-democracy measures might have on the relative power of any faction.  It is a commitment both to the system and to each other — a trust in other coalition members to protect all of our seats at the table in the same manner as we protect theirs, no matter what the outcome of any particular policy debate might be. 

Our willingness to count on voters should not be seen as a blind faith that voters will get everything “right.”  We expect voters to make choices that our members find objectionable.  We believe, however, that democracy offers the best chance not only for us as a nation to make better choices overall than any one faction could do if granted sole power, but also to correct from mistakes and revisit decisions that do not work.  We trust in our fellow Americans, believing that if we do not get things right the first time, we will get them right the next time.  Our commitment to each other counts on voters rather than dictating to them, making our alliance truly an exercise in shared power and trust - and potentially the first step in a new focus on our common ground as Americans.