Justice For All Party

by Dave Nichols

Good morning. I have been a member of this UU for about five years, and I sit on the board — so let me say at the start that this morning I am speaking for myself. Not for the board, and not for this congregation.

I want to speak about something I have been working on. I am not asking you for anything today.

There is a national party called the Justice for All Party. It is new. It is small. I am part of a group that is forming its Pennsylvania affiliate. Right now, the Pennsylvania group is four people. Two in Luzerne County, one in Philadelphia, and one in Pittsburgh. That is the honest number.

The party organizes around three words. Truth, Justice, and Love. Truth means saying plainly what is being done to people, and by whom. Justice means ending the harm and undoing it. Love means the people who are harmed matter — including the ones you will never meet.

You might ask why start a new party instead of working inside the two we have.

The reason is that there are things large majorities of Americans want that never happen. Eighty-six percent of us want to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Eighty-seven percent want term limits. Seventy-two percent want limits on campaign spending. Those numbers hold among Republicans and Democrats alike. None of it gets done.

Look at what those three have in common. Every one of them restrains the people who would have to pass it.

That is the problem I am most interested in. Not any single issue, but the arrangement itself. Both parties share an interest in staying in charge, and what the public wants comes second to that. Neither of them will let the public take charge. That is what a new party is for.

Some of the specific things we stand for are housing as a human right, Medicare for All, a living wage, serious action on climate, protecting reproductive rights, and protecting LGBTQ rights. That is six of the fourteen points our state group adopted last week. I would rather go through the specific programs with you in conversation than read a list from up here.

Our goal in Pennsylvania is to build a state party large enough to be recognized under the state's election law. That hurdle is higher than most people realize. Then we plan to put candidates on local ballots. We are looking for people across Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties.

We are small. What we need is not money and not your vote. We need people willing to come to a meeting and find out whether this is something they want to be part of. We meet every two weeks.

If you are curious, ask me. I am here most Sundays, and I will tell you anything you want to know, including the parts I am still unsure about.

Thank you.

Sources for the three figures: 
Program for Public Consultation, University of Maryland (congressional stock trading, 86%)·
Pew Research Center, "Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics", September 2023 (term limits 87%, campaign spending limits 72%).