ELECTORAL REFORM

The people of Virginia deserve a better system of choosing their representatives, and we need to break the cycle of fearing that a choice outside of the old establishment parties will enable the “greater evil” to win. The Commonwealth needs more choices and more voices in the legislature speaking for all of Virginia’s points of view. Therefore we call for:

  • The institution of Ranked-Choice Voting for all races with a single winner,
  • The removal of restrictions on ballot access (lowering or abolishing signature requirements) for new parties and independents, and
  • The institution of Top-Up Proportionality in the House of Delegates, which is the practice of adding additional seats after an election for that session to make the final partisan composition of the House equal to the partisan share of the first-round Popular Vote.

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

The culture war fight over our children’s education has grown to a fever pitch and continues to impede the actual purpose of our schools – educating the next generation. To short circuit the culture war, we call for implementation of school choice throughout the commonwealth:

  • Counties and Cities should move to funding students rather than systems, and allow funding to travel to schools based on the decisions of families rather than bureaucrats;
  • Currently existing public schools should no longer have geographic exclusivity in attendance zones, and should allow for choice throughout a county or city;
  • The state should cease its insistence on test-centric and test-metric educational models and instead help move all localities toward Teaching to Mastery;
  • Teachers should not be subjected to micromanagement from state officials nor subjected to police-state level surveillance, but instead schools should be directly accountable to the families they serve;
  • We strongly oppose censorship in school libraries and other government-funded or controlled institutions, including book bans, any literary media, etc., and oppose all political control over access to information.

BODILY AUTONOMY

All born people have the right to individual autonomy over their own bodies regardless of their race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, or related medical conditions and that no individual, organization, or state agency may interfere with that person’s decisions about what is on or in their body or about medical or cosmetic procedures that the individual chooses to have. As a result, we call for:

  • Legislative protection of individual rights to personal choice regarding fertility, sexual health, and reproductive healthcare including abortion, birth control, and gender affirming care;
  • New legislation and free market solutions which increase access to and availability of such medical procedures as listed above;
  • A reaffirmation that all individuals within the Commonwealth are possessing of equal dignity, worth, and civil rights, and no law aimed at diminishing those individuals should be allowed;
  • Decriminalization of compassionate euthanasia;
  • No government vaccine mandates, or any other medical intervention as a requirement for basic participation in civil society or as a condition for work;
  • Decriminalization of the consumption of substances, artificial or natural, by adults in the Commonwealth;
  • Decriminalization of sex work and sexual activity between consenting adults in the Commonwealth

SELF DEFENSE

The individual right to effective self-defense is fundamental, and the constitutionally protected right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  Peaceful citizens of the Commonwealth should be allowed to carry arms for personal protection and should be secure in their possession of firearms from state confiscation without criminal conviction after due process of law. We therefore:

  • Support full Constitutional Carry in the Commonwealth;
  • Reject all so-called “Red Flag” laws and any law that would seek to seize firearms from citizens without due process under a presumption of innocence;
  • Support the restoration of Second Amendment rights to former felons who have served their time and have returned to peaceful society;
  • Call for the strict tailoring of any proposed public safety regulations on firearms to the communities where safety is a problem, and reject any and all blanket statewide restrictions on firearms absent a strict and compelling public safety need in a specific locality.

END THE DRUG WAR

The Drug War has been a disaster for all communities and people within the Commonwealth, through the explosion of incarceration, police militarization, seizure and forfeiture laws, and other numerous ill effects, without stopping or even curbing the use of drugs and the social ills of addiction and overdose rates. We therefore call for the immediate end of the Commonwealth’s participation in the drug war, including:

  • A full and unconditional legalization of the personal use and commercial sales of Marijuana and related products, with no special or additional burden of taxation or regulation.
  • Decriminalization on a state level for all other “hard drugs”, and an official policy of non-cooperation with Federal Drug Enforcement operations.
  • Pardons and clemency for state prisoners serving time for non-violent drug-related crimes, and official sealing/expungement of records of any drug-related convictions.

HEALTHCARE REFORM

Healthcare in Virginia is beset by a mismatch between high demand and low supply. This is due in part to state regulations that prevent providers from offering more healthcare services and more healthcare facilities. To resolve this crisis of supply and to bring prices down we call for:

  • The elimination of Certificate of Need laws at the state and local levels
  • Allowing Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners to evaluate patients including examination, diagnosis, ordering and interpretation of diagnostic tests, establishing a treatment plan, and prescribing medication.
  • Elimination of restrictions on cash-based / non-insurance based practice, to allow Virginians to procure care without being forced into the insurance bureaucracy.

TAXES AND ECONOMIC REFORM

As the sole purpose of government is to protect the inherent natural rights of all individuals and freedom of trade and commerce being critical to those ends, the proper scope and role of government is to maintain a fair and impartial rule of law in which individuals and commercial enterprises compete. We therefore call for:

  • The prohibition on state or municipality granting special privileges or general subsidies or tax breaks to specific corporations to entice them to locate or do business;
  • The reduction of government spending on any and all non-essential functions, especially those duplicating or competing with private enterprise;
  • Focus on attracting business from within and outside of the Commonwealth by easing regulatory burdens, and clear and reasonable tax rates.

Taxation should be as low as possible, and in the most voluntary mode possible, with a strong preference for use-taxation over income and property taxation. We therefore call for:

  • Replacing income taxation with a general state sales tax, modeled after the FairTax proposal;
  • Opposition to any overall increase in taxation;
  • Ending all taxation that requires state knowledge of personal business dealings and personal property;
  • Cessation of the taxation of real property, especially residences, which could result in the seizure of that property by the state.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

The people of the Commonwealth are entitled to swift and speedy trials by juries of their peers, but are often denied one due to the sheer number of cases overwhelming courts and the heavy handed practice of Commonwealth’s Attorneys overcharging and excessive cash bail to induce plea bargains, to get out of jail and to avoid longer prison sentences. To restore justice to the people of Virginia, we call for:

  • An end to cash bail for all nonviolent crimes and for defendants who are not flight risks;
  • Elimination of laws in the state code that criminalize actions or behaviors that have no victim;
  • Restorative justice in lieu of incarceration for non-violent crimes, as well as diversion to rehabilitation or other care services; and non-violent criminals currently in prison, either commute their sentences or release into restorative justice programs.
  • Restoration of voting rights for all citizens of the commonwealth, including convicted felons, once their time has been served.
  • Police and Sheriff’s departments have been militarized and warped from their original purpose to serve the people and keep the peace, instead often acting as an occupying force in their communities. To help restore law enforcement professionals to their proper role in the community, we call for:
    • Ending Qualified Immunity in the Commonwealth;
    • Eliminating civil asset forfeiture.

OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING REFORM

Occupational licenses are too often merely protectionism set up by the state to artificially restrict supply and give boons to special interests at the expense of the people of Virginia. We call for:

  • Full reciprocation of licenses granted in other states and commonwealths;
  • The elimination of licensing requirements unrelated to health or safety;
  • The streamlining and expediting of any health or safety related licensing process that may remain, so as to achieve its desired aim with the absolute minimum possible burden on applicants;
  • Elimination of restrictions on cash-based / non-insurance based practice, to allow Virginians to procure care without being forced into the insurance bureaucracy.

HOUSING AND COMMERCIAL REFORM

The high price of housing has made it impossible for families to live near their work in city centers, and has encouraged sprawl further and further from municipal services in order to find affordable housing. We call for the state to:

  • Simplify zoning regulations statewide, allowing for dense in-fill construction close to existing urban centers;
  • Removal of all regulations making small house construction unprofitable, including prohibitions on so-called “tiny houses”;
  • Removing other regulatory obstacles to the construction of new commercial enterprises;

LGBTQ+ Rights

Respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals is a fundamental principle that brooks no exception. We support LGBTQ+ people’s right to live openly with open rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association without discrimination, either by the state or state-like entities, and call upon the Commonwealth and all subordinate jurisdictions to protect the equal rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. To that end, we

  • Reject all legislation targeting LGBTQ+ individuals for specific legal discrimination based on their identity, especially bills targeting transgender individuals;
  • Reject the efforts to pression school systems to suppress or deny the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals;
  • Support a constitutional amendment to emphasize equal protection under the law for LGBTQ+ individuals in the Commonwealth, without exception.