Our Mission

America had everything going for it, but over the past 50 years it’s been slowly drifting towards failure. We can turn it around. We just need to think about the root causes of our discord and choose to approach the situation—and each other—more constructively.

This goal shouldn’t be hard to achieve. Americans are friendly, helpful, collaborative by nature. Research shows there’s more we agree upon than most of us have ever imagined.

The Post-Partisan Network was formed to gather up the many ways we agree and can collaborate on improving our country. We make that knowledge accessible and then take that message of hope out to our communities.

Sure, it’s work. It requires time. But it makes us feel like we’re doing something good for each other, which is better than sitting by, watching problems fester and defeat us.

The New American Narrative

National narratives are powerful tools for uniting people. They paint with just a few words a vision of where we can go as a country if we start working together. For no other reason than to communicate effectively, every political candidate and activist group should present their narrative to the public.

The Post-Partisan Network drafted such a narrative after six months of public meetings in 2023. We believe it communicates much about what we see as our mission, so we’ve listed it below. This first version is a great start, but we’re sure it can be updated and improved. Use the comments button to leave your suggestions on how to make it better.

Who We Were
After World War II, America was the land of opportunity. Ordinary people could afford to buy a house, raise a family, and send their kids to college. People still had to work hard to get ahead, but working people got a fair share of the economy’s riches, and there was reasonable government help for those who fell on hard times.

What Undermined Our Progress
During the 1970s, the billions we wasted on the Viet Nam war made our economy weak. When the OPEC oil embargo hit, big business and conservative elites used the crisis to install a new philosophy that said:  

  • Corporations have no obligations except to maximize shareholder value

  • Send jobs overseas and bust up the unions at home in order to maximize corporate profits

  • Working people should rely only on themselves, taking on debt if they want an education

  • The government should eliminate social programs, then shrink itself further and even disappear

  • Take all the money we used to spend on people and send it to the rich via tax cuts

This gutted the vibrancy of the American heartland, ignited runaway inequality, and left most of us fighting over whatever scraps the rich let fall from their banquet tables.

To Make the U.S. Vibrant Again, We Need To…

  • Revitalize capitalism by protecting the public from scoundrels and market failures

  • Reinvest in good government…not big, not small, but right-sized and effective

  • Focus on economic opportunity by expanding extremely affordable, quality education

  • Reverse the monopoly capture of everything including our government, courts, and media

  • Reward the public with ownership when they subsidize or bail out the corporations

  • Make the tax system fair by taxing excesses in wealth and passive income, not work

Where It Will Take Us
With this new approach, we will…

  • Revive the engine of prosperity that American energy and optimism has created

  • Restore a sense of fairness and ownership among ordinary Americans

  • Allow hard working people to take chances and thrive, catching them when they fall

  • Allow young people to grow and take their place without first suffering debilitating stress

  • Eliminate the divisiveness that’s driving American to the brink of civil war