This publication has been direct about its perspective. This issue is different. This issue is an invitation — to every Pacifican, regardless of party, affiliation, or political identity — to consider what we still hold in common. Not as a political maneuver. As a genuine question.
The conversation about Pacifica's future will go nowhere if it belongs only to people who already agree with each other. The rancher in Eastern Oregon and the software engineer in Seattle, the fourth-generation farmer in the Central Valley and the union carpenter in Tacoma, the libertarian in Bend and the democratic socialist in Portland — all of them are Pacificans. All of them live downstream from the same mountains, drink from the same watersheds, and send their children to schools that share the same regional sky.
What follows is a list of statements. We wrote them carefully, in language intended to hold meaning across the political spectrum. We believe most Pacificans — most people — would affirm most of them. We may be wrong. We want to know.
At the bottom of this piece, we ask for your response. Tell us which statements you agree with. Tell us which ones miss the mark. Tell us what we left out.
The Pacifica Common Ground Declaration
01
We are stewards of this land, not just its occupants.
The forests, the rivers, the coastline, the volcanic peaks, the high desert, and the fertile valleys of the Pacific Coast were here long before any of us. They will need to be here long after. Stewardship — responsible, humble, long-term care of natural systems — is not a political position. It is an obligation that comes with living here.
Libertarian
Conservative
Progressive
Indigenous
Agrarian
02
Clean water is not a political issue. It is a survival issue.
Whether the water flows from the Columbia, the Sacramento, the Willamette, or the Sierra snowpack — Pacificans across every political tradition depend on it. The farmer, the city dweller, the fisherwoman, the brewer, the winemaker, and the hiker all share the same upstream. Clean water requires protection regardless of who is in power.
Rural
Urban
Agricultural
Environmental
03
Our national parks and protected wild spaces belong to everyone — and must remain that way.
Crater Lake, Olympic, Rainier, Redwood, Lassen, the Cascades, the Oregon Coast — these are not commodities. They are not leverage. They are among the most significant things any government has ever set aside for the permanent use of ordinary people. Their protection is one of the clearest examples of government doing something genuinely right. That achievement should be guarded regardless of political affiliation.
Conservative
Libertarian
Progressive
Outdoor community
04
Liberty means freedom from government overreach — in all directions.
The government should not tell you what to do in your home, in your body, in your faith, or in your community — unless you are directly harming others. This principle is one that libertarians, classical liberals, and civil libertarians across the spectrum share. It applies to federal surveillance, to immigration raids at hospitals and schools, to restrictions on speech and assembly, and to interference in personal and medical decisions. Liberty is not partisan. Overreach is not partisan. The defense of one and resistance to the other should not be either.
Libertarian
Civil libertarian
Progressive
Conservative
05
Justice should be equal under the law — not distributed based on who you are or where you come from.
The promise of equal justice — regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, sexuality, or economic status — is not a progressive invention. It is the stated foundation of the American legal system. When that promise fails, it fails everyone who depends on the rule of law for protection. A system of justice that applies differently depending on who is applying it is not justice at all. Pacificans across every tradition have an interest in a fair legal system — because anyone can find themselves needing its protection.
All traditions
Rule of law conservatives
Civil rights advocates
06
Our neighbors — regardless of where they were born — are part of our community.
The people who pick the fruit in the Yakima Valley, who build the houses in the Portland metro, who staff the hospitals in Sacramento, who run the restaurants in Seattle — many of them were born elsewhere. They are also the people who live next door, whose children attend the same schools, and who contribute to the same regional economy. Community is defined by who shows up every day, not by the paperwork they carry. This is not a policy position. It is an observation about how communities actually work.
Agricultural communities
Faith communities
Labor
Urban
07
Every child deserves a decent education, regardless of their ZIP code.
The quality of a child's education should not be determined by the property tax base of the neighborhood they were born into. This is a statement that parents, teachers, and community members across every political tradition have made — in different words, with different proposed solutions, but from the same fundamental recognition that children do not choose their circumstances and should not be penalized for them. The disagreements are about how to achieve it. The goal itself is shared.
Parents
Teachers
Conservative
Progressive
Libertarian
08
People who work full-time should be able to afford to live where they work.
This is not a radical statement. It is a description of how economies are supposed to function — and increasingly do not, in Pacifica's most productive cities. The nurse, the teacher, the firefighter, the tradesperson, and the small business owner are all essential to the communities they serve. When they cannot afford to live in those communities, both they and the community are diminished. The causes are complicated. The problem is not.
Labor
Business
All incomes
09
The health of Pacifica's economy depends on the health of its ecosystems.
The fishing industry depends on healthy rivers. The wine industry depends on stable climate. The outdoor recreation economy depends on intact wilderness. The tourism economy depends on clean coastlines. The agricultural economy depends on reliable water. These are not environmental arguments. They are economic arguments — and they are ones that business owners, farmers, and community leaders across Pacifica's political spectrum have been making for generations, because they have seen what happens when ecosystems degrade.
Business
Agricultural
Tourism
Fishing
10
No level of government should use public resources to punish people for their political beliefs.
The use of federal funding as a weapon against political opponents — regardless of which party does it — is an attack on democratic governance itself. When a government withholds disaster relief, healthcare funding, or infrastructure investment based on how a state voted, it has abandoned the pretense of serving the public. This principle — that government resources should serve people, not punish political enemies — is one that conservatives, progressives, and libertarians have all articulated at different moments in American history. It applies now. It applies here.
All traditions
Rule of law
Anti-authoritarian
11
We believe in democratic accountability — the idea that those who govern must answer to the governed.
Elections should be free, fair, and their results honored. Courts should function independently of the executive branch. The press should be free to report without fear of government retaliation. Peaceful protest is a right, not a threat. Government officials should be subject to the same laws they enforce. These are not progressive positions or conservative positions. They are the minimum conditions for any democratic system to function. Their defense is everyone's interest.
All traditions
Constitutional
Democratic
12
The money Pacificans earn should be invested in Pacifica's future.
We are not opposed to contributing to a national project. We are opposed to contributing to a national project that punishes us for our contributions. The fiscal relationship between Pacifica and the federal government should be fair, transparent, and reciprocal. When it is not — when the taxes paid here fund programs there, while programs here are cut — the legitimacy of that arrangement deserves to be questioned. This is not a partisan position. It is an accounting question. And the books should balance.
Fiscal conservative
Taxpayer
Progressive
Business
13
There is more that unites Pacificans than divides us — and we are willing to find out if that's true.
The political conversation in America has become so dominated by what divides us that it has almost forgotten to ask what doesn't. This publication believes — as a starting hypothesis, not a certainty — that the people of California, Oregon, and Washington share more foundational values than the current political climate suggests. We may be wrong. We want to find out. That is why this issue ends not with a conclusion, but with an invitation.
All Pacificans
Your turn
We wrote this list. Now tell us if we got it right.
This declaration is a first draft. It was written by people who hold a particular perspective — and who know that a declaration written by only one perspective is not a declaration at all. It is a monologue.
We want to hear from Pacificans across the political spectrum. What did we get right? What did we miss? What statement would you add? What statement do you disagree with, and why?
Send your response to the contact below. We will publish the most thoughtful responses — agreements and disagreements alike — in a follow-up issue. The conversation is more important than any single version of it.
Which of these 13 statements do you affirm without reservation?
Which ones feel incomplete, one-sided, or wrong to you — and what would you change?
What shared value or belief is missing from this list?
What political tradition do you come from — and does this list speak to it?
The political labels will still be there tomorrow. The question is whether there is something underneath them that can hold a region together when the labels aren't enough.
The Pacifica framework — in all its forms — will only work if it is genuinely inclusive of the full range of people who live here. A Pacifica that speaks only to the urban progressive coast is not a regional movement. It is a neighborhood association with ambitions above its station.
The farmers of the Central Valley, the ranchers of Eastern Oregon, the tribal nations of the Pacific Coast, the fishing communities of Washington's coast, the veterans in the suburban inland, the faith communities in the smaller cities — all of them are Pacificans. All of them have a stake in whether this land is governed well or poorly. All of them have values that deserve to be named and honored.
This list is an attempt to begin that naming. It is imperfect. It is incomplete. It is the start of a conversation that this publication believes is more important than any of the arguments we have made in any previous issue.
Because in the end, the case for Pacifica is not an economic argument or an electoral argument or even a constitutional argument. It is a human one. It is the argument that people who share a land, a sky, a watershed, and a future have more in common than the current political climate allows them to acknowledge — and that acknowledging it is the first step toward building something worthy of what they share.