07/05/2026
Nearly every major Founding Father warned us about one thing: putting political party ahead of the Republic.
George Washington
“The spirit of party… serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.”
“The alternate domination of one faction over another… is itself a frightful despotism.”
James Madison
“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.”
“Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.”
Madison didn’t believe factions could be eliminated. He believed our Constitution should prevent any one faction from dominating everyone else.
Thomas Jefferson
“If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
John Adams
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.”
The irony of American history is that many of these same leaders eventually helped organize political parties because they believed they had become necessary. But none of them believed party loyalty should come before principle, conscience, or country.
More than 250 years later, their warnings feel remarkably relevant.
At United Kansas, we believe disagreement is healthy. Tribalism is not.
We believe Kansans should be free to support the best ideas and the best candidates, not be forced into one of two political camps.
Political power belongs to the people, not the parties.
The goal isn’t to eliminate differences. The goal is to build a system where those differences lead to better solutions instead of deeper division.
“All political power is inherent in the people.” — Kansas Constitution, Bill of Rights, Section 2
Let’s build a politics worthy of the Republic they entrusted to us.
