Illinois Committee for Independent Political Action

This party will be independent but can also work as an organized caucus within the established parties.

There is precedent for such dual-party affiliation. For example, Ron Paul once ran for president as the candidate of the Libertarian Party, yet he also served several terms in Congress as a member of the Republican Party – all while remaining true to his core principles.

Given that RFK, Jr. himself is now aligned with Trump and the Republican Party, and there is a current within the Republican Party that is now standing up for peace, civil liberties, opposition to censorship, opposition to corporate capture of regulatory agencies, and other Kennedy values, it makes sense for our party to act as a force both within the Republican Party (like the "Tea Party" movement of 2009-2016) and as an independent body, simultaneously. Similarly, to the extent that "old school" Democratic Party liberals – those who believe in peace, free speech, support for working people and opposition to corporate corruption – may still be found in the Democratic Party, our party can also work within that party.

This party will be based on a firm set of principles, to guard against corruption.

The party that we aim to build must be different in kind from the Democratic and Republican parties. It must be firmly grounded on a set of principles, to prevent the forms of corruption and betrayal that have marked American politics for generations. We have all seen it many times before: Candidates make various promises to voters to get elected but betray those promises once in office. They instead do the bidding of their corporate donors, PACS, super-PACs, and the army of lobbyists who have turned our representative democracy into a plutocracy, or rule by a small wealthy elite.

In order to break this pattern, we must build a party in which a pledge of support and loyalty to core principles is a requirement of membership and a requirement for serving as a candidate for public office. Members and candidates must be held accountable for their actions and subject to removal if they betray those principles. We need a party in which the will of the people controls the actions of our office-holders, and not the other way around. We need a party that will truly hold its office-holders accountable, and ensure that they act with integrity, not allow them to sell out their constituents to the highest bidders.

The set of principles around which we organize our party must be limited in scope. It is unrealistic to organize a party around the entire Kennedy 2024 platform, which was highly detailed and included some positions on social issues around which even his supporters disagreed. However, there were certain central or core positions that were at the heart of his campaign, positions that drew most of his supporters, like you, into his campaign.

Accordingly, we propose that our party be organized around the following ten core principles:

Jump to a principle:

1. End corporate domination of government. We agree that our overriding goal is to free government from the corrupting influence and control of giant corporations, financial institutions, and their ultra-rich owners. We oppose the destructive policies of the entrenched bureaucracy in Washington that supports this plutocracy and its globalist agenda, especially the National Security State (the intelligence agencies, allied agencies like the National Endowment for Democracy, the military-industrial complex, State Department and Department of Homeland Security). Although we do not oppose all government-corporate collaboration, we oppose corporate "personhood" (specifically, corporations possessing a "right" to influence elections with money), the corporate corruption of government decision-making, and the practices that facilitate corruption – such as the "revolving door" that allows government administrators and regulators to be rewarded with lucrative positions in the corporations they were charged with regulating. We also oppose the efforts of global corporate-dominated international bodies, including the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization, to override national sovereignty and require national governments to adhere to policies that are not chosen by their people and elected representatives.
2. End militarism, war, and imperialist foreign policy. We agree that we must put an end to U.S. acts of war and interference in the internal affairs of other nations. The U.S. should abide by established international law that forbids such acts, including the Kellogg-Briand Treaty, the Nuremberg Code and the United Nations Charter. We agree that our military should focus on its primary role of defending the homeland from foreign aggressors, and that we should redirect the trillions of dollars currently being spent on global military dominance to meeting the needs and serving the priorities of our citizens here at home. We agree that we must put an end to the imperial presidency -- that is, the practice of allowing the president to order the military to commit acts of war, contrary to Article 1, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the exclusive authority to declare war.
3. Secure our border and implement an immigration policy that serves the interests of the American people. We agree that the United States must secure its border and implement reasonable limitations on immigration that are consistent with the interests of the existing citizenry of our nation and with our nation's tradition as being a harbor for persons legitimately seeking asylum from oppression in other nations, provided that they agree to abide by our Constitution and laws. We agree that our immigration and asylum policies must be enforced strictly and efficiently, prioritizing the safety and well-being of American citizens while also showing compassion and respect for the human rights of those applying for admission and citizenship.
4. Restore and protect our civil rights and freedoms. We agree that we must restore and protect our Constitutional freedoms, including those enshrined in the Bill of Rights -- especially our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. We must put an end to government censorship and we oppose the suppression of free speech by corporations providing platforms for social media communications, especially where directed or influenced to do so by government actors. We must oppose government surveillance except as permitted under our Fourth Amendment, and support making our government operations transparent and accountable to the American people.
5. Heal the divide and promote civility. Along with opposing censorship by the government and corporations, we oppose the "cancel culture" tactics promoted by various groups and instead promote civility and dialogue in our public discourse. The Democratic and Republican parties have for too long promoted divisiveness and rancor among Americans by dividing us into competing teams rather than promoting listening to one another's concerns and being open to new information and evidence regarding how best to address the problems of our time. Instead of shouting at one another or discussing how to turn brother against brother and sister against sister along partisan lines, we should be discussing our common interests as human beings trying to survive and thrive in an often difficult and challenging social, economic and natural environment.
6. Lift up impoverished peoples and communities. Healing the divide also means that we support proactive government policies to improve the economic and environmental well-being of our brothers and sisters living in impoverished communities, from our inner cities to the Rust Belt and the Farm Belt. Recognizing that we are one human family, we oppose both discrimination and favoritism based on race. We respect the sovereignty and right of self-determination of our Native American nations. Our federal government must take responsibility for its history of broken treaties with Native Americans and work to reach a just accommodation or compensation for illegally taken lands and resources.
7. Promote public and environmental health. We agree that a primary role of government must be to help ensure the physical health, safety and well-being of its people. Toward these ends, we oppose the corporate capture and domination of government regulatory agencies. We are committed to ending the chronic disease epidemic in America, ensuring food safety and promoting healthy food choices. We are committed to protecting and restoring the health of our natural environment by ending and cleaning up the toxic pollution of our soil, air, and water, promoting regenerative agriculture and protecting our wilderness areas. We oppose the corruption of science and medicine by Big Pharma, Big Agribusiness and other profiteering corporate interests and support a genuine evidence-based approach to public health. We regard the sovereignty of individuals in matters of health to be a constitutionally protected right, i.e., a right of all Americans to bodily autonomy and informed choice. We oppose medical mandates, including the imposition of vaccines or other medications by government or corporate coercion. We support the rights of parents and legal guardians to be the ultimate decision-makers regarding the health care of their minor children. We oppose schools and other public institutions vaccinating, medicating or providing non-emergency treatment to children without parental consent.
8. Promote economic policies that serve the interests of working people and small businesses. We agree that government fiscal, tax and monetary policies must be aimed at serving the interests of the American people as a whole, not the interests of the corporations and financial institutions that presently dominate and control our federal and state governments. We support policies aimed at ensuring decent living standards for all people willing and able to work, ensuring the security and well-being of the elderly and those unable to work, and creating a business climate favorable to entrepreneurs, small businesses and worker-owned cooperatives. Our economic policies should also be aimed at controlling inflation, making housing affordable, and ultimately shrinking the national debt and reducing the debt burden on American families. We need a fiscally responsible government that will vigilantly monitor government spending, make the operations of government more transparent and open to public input, and eliminate programs and practices that aren't serving the interests of the people, or that otherwise waste taxpayer dollars.
9. Ensure the responsible use of technology. The rise of artificial intelligence and the constant improvement of sophisticated technologies present both great opportunities and great dangers. For example, current initiatives to phase out the use of cash and make all financial transactions electronic and traceable pose a very real danger of government control over an individual's personal finances and transactions. Thus, we oppose the elimination of cash transactions. We support the freedom of Americans to use cryptocurrencies and support the use of decentralized and transparent public ledgers known as blockchains. We support protecting the privacy of the financial transactions and personal data of individuals, while supporting transparency in the financial transactions of, and communications within, government agencies. We believe that government must play a role in setting ethical boundaries and regulations over the use of AI, to ensure that it remains a tool to enhance our lives rather than control them. We oppose efforts to impose digital ID requirements on the American people. More generally, we must work to ensure that new technologies are used to empower the people, not subjugate them.

To these nine core Kennedy principles, we add a tenth, of particular relevance in Illinois:

10. Support free and fair elections. We agree that overly burdensome ballot access restrictions, especially those imposed on minority party, new party and independent candidates, must be repealed. Voters deserve more choices and more competitive elections. We also support election integrity. This means support for reasonable measures to ensure that only eligible voters are permitted to vote, that votes are cast on paper ballots that can be preserved and recounted for accuracy as needed, and that reasonable measures be carried out to ensure that only legitimate votes are counted and counted accurately. The process of collecting and tabulating ballots should be open to public scrutiny and verifiability.