The shared principles
The 12 Traditions
Keep the fellowship focused on its purpose—and larger than any personality or political tribe.
Our common purpose comes first.
Personal political defusion depends on preserving a space where people of different beliefs can examine themselves honestly and without fear of persuasion or judgment.
Our leaders are trusted servants; they do not govern.
For our group purpose, no person, faction, party, or ideology is the final authority. Each group is guided by its group conscience and by the recognition that truth stands above tribe.
The only requirement for membership is a desire for greater political honesty and perspective.
No political belief, affiliation, ideology, religion, background, or level of political involvement is required.
Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups or Politics Anonymous as a whole.
Groups may determine their own meeting formats and local practices so long as they preserve the basic purpose and Traditions of Politics Anonymous.
Each group has one primary purpose: to provide a safe place for people seeking political defusion.
Our purpose is to help people examine the relationship between politics, identity, judgment, and tribe—not to change anyone’s political beliefs.
Politics Anonymous should never endorse, finance, oppose, or lend its name to any candidate, party, campaign, cause, advocacy organization, media organization, or outside enterprise.
Money, influence, political access, and prestige must never distract us from our primary purpose.
Every Politics Anonymous group should be fully self-supporting through voluntary contributions from its participants.
No one should ever be required to pay to attend. Groups should avoid financial dependence on political organizations, major donors, or outside interests.
Politics Anonymous should remain fundamentally nonprofessional.
Facilitators are fellow participants, not political authorities, therapists, experts, or ideological referees. Necessary administrative or technical work may be performed by paid workers when appropriate.
Politics Anonymous should remain lightly organized.
Service committees or administrative bodies may exist only to support the groups and should remain directly accountable to the people and meetings they serve.
Politics Anonymous takes no position on political issues.
Individual members may hold and express any political beliefs they choose, but no member, facilitator, group, or service body may claim that a political position represents Politics Anonymous.
Our public outreach should be based on invitation rather than persuasion.
We explain what Politics Anonymous offers and allow people to decide whether it is useful to them. Personal anonymity should be protected in public communications unless an individual freely chooses otherwise.
Anonymity is the foundation of Politics Anonymous.
It reminds us that the program is not about founders, influencers, politicians, experts, or personalities. We place principles before personalities, truth above tribe, and the purpose of the fellowship above personal recognition.
Think clearly without thinking alone.
You provide a room and the willingness to start.