Introduction

Question:
What is the People’s Party?

Answer:
For citizens who want to limit government and to include God in government, the Utah People’s Party is a better alternative than either the Republican or Democratic parties. The People’s Party seeks to conform to the teachings of our state’s majority religion that relate to politics or public policy. Because many churches teach similar moral standards and urge similar, faith base approaches to life, the People’s Party is the closest fit for many believers in other religions as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will neither endorse nor oppose the People’s Party because doing either would conflict with the Church’s political neutrality policy, which says that the Church does not endorse or oppose Political Parties. (see political neutrality on LDS.org).

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. (Doctrine and Covenants 101:80)

Note that the Lord here claims that the Constitution was his doing. Thus limiting government to the powers the Constitution provides for is doing our Lord’s will and restoring constitutional limits on government is an act of devotion to Deity. This site describes the People’s Party as it will be in the near future. The Party now exists only in one state, Utah. The Utah People’s Party is under development and will have a ballot line of its own after the 2012 elections. During the 2012 elections, all People’s Party candidates are write in candidates. The word “Peoples” is intended to be possessive not plural. It is the party belonging to the people not the party of multiple Peoples, but the apostrophe is not allowed in a website address. In the future, when we get our ballot line, an alphabetical list of parties as they appear on the ballot might look something like this: Constitution, Democratic, Libertarian, People’s and Republican.

Question:
How is it beneficial to welcome God into public affairs?

Answer:

For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil. (Alma 5:40)

Since everything that is good comes from God, doesn’t good government come from God?

In church we hear more about our duties than we hear about our rights. Doing one’s duty is essential to a happy and worthwhile life. The existing parties seem to assume that good government can be and should be provided to the citizens by a wise and virtuous elite. We see candidate after candidate making claim after claim about the great things he has given the people or will give them. This encourages citizens to assume that the right politician can and will solve all the their problems. In contrast, the most wise and righteous citizens know that they

…have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. (2 Nephi 31:19)

The wisest thing for us to focus on is doing our duties as citizens. A good government is a blessing to all the people under its jurisdiction. Blessings come only to those persons who comply with some sort of principle or standard.

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (Doctrine and Covenants 130: 20-21)

We need divine intervention. Therefore the greatest concern of every citizen should be his own worthiness and willingness to receive that intervention. The teachings of the prophets, ancient and modern, about the duties of citizens show us what we must do to receive the blessing of good government. We have more information about the duties of Citizens on the page called Citizens.

Question:
What is your stand on freedom of religion?

Answer:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. (Articles of Faith 11)

We must allow each person living among us to choose his religious beliefs and practices according to the dictates of his own conscience. This right, like all other morally valid rights, is a gift from God to each person. The right to choose religious beliefs and practices is the right to make one’s own choice regardless of whether that choice is right or wrong. Furthermore, the freedom of speech is the right to share one’s opinions with others without interference from government no matter how certain government officials feel that the opinions in question are wrong, offensive or dangerous. It is good that both our federal and our state constitutions protect freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The practical value of the protection any constitution provides to individual rights depends on concerned citizens insisting that constitutional limits on the powers of government are binding rules not mere suggestions. Any government official that disregards a constitutional limit on his powers violates his oath of office. The recent trend of more and more people claiming that religion is a private matter, not to be spoken of in public is a harmful trend. Our Lord urges us.

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. (3 Nephi 18:24)

In order for our Heavenly Father to save his children, those who know the gospel must share their knowledge with every person who is willing to listen without government interference. While all persons of every faith have the rights just mentioned, it is those of the majority faith that have the most votes, so it is those of the majority faith that can most effectively resist the current trend of militant secularization. Furthermore, precisely because of the potential political clout of those in the religious majority, secular zealots tend to focus their attacks on the freedom of those in that majority. Our efforts to defend our own freedom of religion and freedom of speech will indirectly protect the rights of all citizens of every faith because we will be trimming back the unconstitutional powers which threaten all faiths.

Question:
How can this new party you are building consistently be better than any that exists already?

Answer:

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.(Matthew 9:17)

If we used an existing party as a model we would eventually have the same limitations and flaws as the party we were mimicking or in other words a conventional party lets true principles run out and go to waste. Therefore the twenty-first century People’s Party can only out perform other twenty-first century parties consistently by being different from them. We do not merely have a different position on some issue or other, rather most aspects of how we function internally are very different from any of the parties on the ballot already. All of the pages of this site say something about how our party works differently than traditional parties and why those differences enable us to out perform them consistently. When we say out perform other parties, we mean that our candidates will stand for the right while theirs may stand instead for whatever seems politically expedient. Here are some examples of our differences.

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. (3 Nephi 18:24)

At all of our meetings, we let the brilliant light of the restored gospel shine. We pray, sing hymns and testify that Jesus Christ not any politician is our savior.

Another difference is that we expect to work in a multiparty environment. A conventional party in the USA is designed to work in a two-party environment. When there are only two parties, the two must be rivals, so each is reluctant to ever admit that the other did something good. In contrast, when there are multiple parties, some parties will be closer ideologically to our party than the others and we see the closer parties as allies not rivals or enemies. Since we know that some other parties agree with us on many important issues, we expect to do much of our campaigning in cooperation with allied parties. We even propose that we and our allies make a formal organization to facilitate cooperation in campaigning and some other areas. We are humble enough to admit that we can never have a monopoly on goodness, wisdom, or honesty. Such a monopoly would require that we could somehow guaranty that others would never make any correct decisions which is not only unrealistic, it is even undesirable.

Another key difference is our process for selecting candidates to stand for public office. A party essentially is an organization that nominates candidates for the public to choose from on general election day. In order to nominate excellent candidates consistently, a party must base its selection process on true principles. One of those true principles is that a humble person makes a better leader than a prideful person. A humble person is much more likely to follow guidance from the Lord because he recognizes that he needs guidance from someone wiser than himself. Pride is a sin in and of itself and furthermore it is the parent of other sins. Traditionally, the major parties have expected candidates to appoint themselves to run for the party’s endorsement. When two or more candidates of the same party seek the same public office, the rivals have been expected to compete for the support of the party’s delegates. The delegates have been expected to choose one of the rivals and endorse him. If that were the best way to choose a leader then why has the Lord never used that system to select a prophet or any other officer of his church? The office should seek the man not the man seek the office. Ancient scripture shows examples of the office seeking the man and not the man seeking the office, with respect to political office as well as religious offices. Saul was chosen as the first king of united Israel without volunteering or doing any competing. In those ancient days, the people of Israel had a prophet whose name saw Samuel.

Samuel anoints Saul to be captain over the Lord’s inheritance—Samuel manifests the gift of seership—Saul prophesies among the prophets, and the Lord gives him a new heart—He is chosen king at Mizpeh.( 1 Samuel 10: summary )

When Saul was king and his performance was not satisfactory, his replacement, David, was chosen without volunteering or doing any competing.

The Lord chooses David of Bethlehem as king—He is anointed by Samuel—Saul chooses David as his companion and armor bearer. (1 Samuel 16: Summary)

Question:
 The Church now has a political neutrality policy that indicates that the Church does not endorse political candidates. Surely none of those whom we sustain as prophets, seers and revelators now days will tell you whom to chose as your candidates. So how will the office seek the man and not the man seek the office?

Answer:

Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil. (Doctrine and Covenants 98:10)

The party members choose a candidate nominating committee. The committee searches for the persons with the qualities that Government officials should have. For each government office that will be up for election, the committee chooses one person to recommend to the party members. Finally the party members decide to follow the committee recommendation or to do something else.

The committee finds talented and virtuous but typically not famous candidates. The members of the People’s Party can reject the committee recommendation and choose another candidate if they wish. This process makes it possible for the party to place candidates in many races for many years at a time without any self-appointed candidates for public office. If any rivals do enter a particular race, as often happens in the major parties, the People’s Party members decide which candidate the party will endorse, so the committee will not really be able to impose its will on the party members. The part members chose the committee members so that their will tends to match the will of the party members so that the party members will be likely to accept the committee recommendations. Of course, neither our Candidate Nominating Committee nor our party members can install a person into government office. Only the general citizenry can do that. Learn more details about our candidate selection process by visiting our Candidates page.

Question:
Why is it called the People’s Party?

Answer:
We are not building a totally new party. We are using as a model a political party that existed right here in Utah from about 1870 to 1890 (which was shortly before Utah became a state). The organization back then was called the People’s Party and we have reused the original name to stress the connection between the original and the modern versions. Back then the party defended constitutional government and the majority religion of Utah Territory.

We reject the notion that God ever gave any one a right to rule over others. Rather we agree with the most famous sentence in the 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 to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed…. (Declaration of Independence)

We believe that just political power comes from the consent of the governed (the people), and that just rights come from God. The Constitution is the formal, official statement of the powers that the people consented to let their government have. We aim to do a better job of advocating Constitutional limits on the powers of Government than any existing party. A party that is committed to the moral principle that legitimate political power can only come from the people should be called the People’s Party. The page called Origin & Purposes provides more detail on the nature and importance of Constitutional Government. That page also provides more information about the nineteenth century People’s Party and about its resurrection in the twenty first century.

Question:
Is the People’s Party better than other parties in every respect?

Answer:
If the People’s Party is something you should embrace, if the Party is something good for you and for other citizens–only by faith can you embrace it.

21 And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing.

…
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. (Moroni 7:21,25)

Back to your question, “Is the People’s Party better….”, our response is, come and see. Visit the other pages of this site. The pages are listed in suggested viewing order but can be viewed in any order. Any post of our blog can be accessed from the side bar on the right side of any page. To see any other page, click on one of the links on the right side of any page. If after prayerful consideration, you feel that the Party is worthy of further investigation or that you should participate, please use the contact page to communicate with us.