Why my New Political Party is called the “Citizenship” Party?

By Sunny Sharma                                                                               July 21-22, 2026

What are political parties? What is citizenship? What is the spirit of faction? These are fundamental questions highlighted by many serious thinkers and layman alike. There are challenges involved not just in defining these terms, but in the implementation of their ideals in the real world. To justify not necessarily why I started the Citizenship Party, but why I named it as such requires an explanation and exposition of the origins of the idea and its application in the modern era. I seek to convey that the name of the party is just as significant as the reason for starting it because the label of “Citizenship” both reveals the foundational promise of this country that rests in America’s founding ideology.

            Before the founding of America there were no citizens only subjects. These colonists were subjects to a crown, a monarchical rule that over decades and centuries after the original charter of their states were established became less important to the lives of the colonists, but became increasingly overbearing and suppressive as that tenuous link was starting to become questioned as legitimate by these subjects. At the root of the colonial experiment/project was an inherent hypocrisy whereby British landowning subjects were politically represented as capable citizens through the citizenship ideas originating from the Enlightenment political philosophical theories of consent of the governed while colonial subjects thousands of miles away were relegated to second class status. What is indeed inherent or self-evident was a new creed of the equality of all man that wasn’t entirely foreign from the British system; in fact, the British common law system and many Enlightenment thinkers both conservative and progressive held similar ideals touting a constitutional system resting on eternal vigilance against deception and delusion even if it was not an exported promise to other chartered colonies. Enough exposition has been done to attempt to address some of the fundamental questions I raised.

            If you were to ask the American founding fathers (or perhaps any founding generation) political parties and their inherent spirit of faction are vehicles for the insane and misguided. Then one may ask, why was the existence of political parties a reality in America rights from its inception as the first Constitutional Representative Republic in the world? Some pundits like to claim that America was never meant to garner or produce a democratic system of governance. This is difficult to assess in hindsight, but for two keen political examples of which there are many being questioned today are the institutions of the Supreme Court and the Senate. The Supreme Court as nominated by the president has become an undemocratic tool used by either political party for their own political agenda which has historically went against the better interests of the people. Similarly, the senate only became chosen by the popular vote of the people in the early 20^th century and it only allows for two representatives from each state regardless of population. In the case of both of these institutions, these political appointees were selected rather than elected. There has been a consistent effort for a call to abolish these institutions and perhaps make some well needed reform: some have suggested raising the amount of the Supreme Court by double or triple or even replacing it with a higher appeals court which is populated through a lottery system that includes qualified judges in its roster; by abolishing the senate many people have recommended increasing the number of representatives to correspond with increasing population in America, something which hasn’t been done for a very long time. From these two popular examples (of many) it is clear that some of the founding generation may very well have doubted the genius of the people in perfecting the union, but there was certainly plenty of disagreement on this matter among leaders in the past and those of today. However, one thing is certain America was never meant to be fully democratic and this can lead to temporary or a more permanent despotism. The answer to solving this problem is ironically the formation of new political parties.

            Political parties have always led the way in advancing the interests of those marginalized and ignored, but at the same time and more frequently they have served the agenda of powerful vested interests. For this reason, vested interests frequently take precedent over the demands of human rights. That’s where political parties come into play. New political parties have always sought to organize American citizens against vested interests by making citizens invested in the American democratic project of self-governance. Although the two party duopoly system has undermined the very value of democracy, new political parties have rejuvenated the very ideals of democratic self-governance. History is a testament to this truth. Throughout American history, political parties have placed fundamental demands and grievances in every era by organizing against status quo politics. In doing so, they have offered new public policy ideas which in some cases reformed long held systemic challenges or set the foundations for revolutionary politics in the here and now or even decades later under leaders who read the messages in the sand and followed their path. Some of these challenges included centralized political power challenged by the Democratic-Republican party at the founding of America, the institution of slavery challenged by the Republican Party formed by a coalition of former parties right before the Civil War, immense economic centralization and wealth inequality challenged by the Socialist and Bull Moose Party in the early 20^th century, community crisis and degeneration caused by injustice challenged by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s, the lack of black representation challenged the New Alliance Party in the 1980s etc…These are just a handful of the political parties that are solely responsible for the profound political, social, and economic transformation of America during a time when change seemed hopeless without organized capacity. Change is in the air; all that is needed is a significant push from the bottom. That is why I chose to start a political party now at the 250^th anniversary of the American Republic.

It is essential that we start building the infrastructure for a new political party now even as we continue to support other organizing efforts and the Citizenship Party requires out patient attention. The Citizenship Party is a three part/point platform: 

1. The Reformation of our Broken Electoral System in America to level the playing field and enhance political engagement which will inevitably lead to economic justice that other more creative minds have already imagined. This Reformation of the many electoral laws will facilitate both….

   
   

2. The End of Mass Incarceration specifically the abolition of prisons especially for low level drug offenders, offering cheap computers to facilitate education and written communication for prisoners, and eliminating the school to prison pipeline by engaging with citizen ideas for how to improve the underlying economic conditions of poor communities.

   
   

3. An End to Homelessness is the only means of achieving the Beloved Community.

I believe that this 3 point platform will lead to an abolitionist spirit which will overcome the spirit of faction that leads to sectarianism. Due to the moral salience of these three issues, America can unite under a new ethical impetus for a social movement to transform the politics of our broken electoralism, eliminate the for-profit economic motive of the prison system, and end the socio-economic crisis that is homelessness.