The American Values Alliance is a nonpartisan, web-based citizen's alliance promoting civil discourse, respect for evidence, and fair play as true American values.

The Alliance was formed to explain and affirm the core values of liberty, equality and human dignity that inform the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, including the following:

• Equal treatment and fair play for all citizens.

• Respect for the rule of law, and an insistence that the government is not above that law.

• Respect for the equal rights of others, whether we agree with them or not.

• Open minds, respect for dissenting voices, respect for our human capacity to reason, and public deliberations based upon evidence, reason and civility.

• Civil liberties and inclusion.

These are moral as well as civic beliefs, and they have made America great. These principles have made our country a beacon of liberty and an example to be emulated. When we abandon them, we lose America.

Even in dark times, America has meant hope rather than fear. America’s great strengths have been tolerance, goodwill and generosity of spirit, and the refusal to divide our country into “we” and “they” in pursuit of political or other advantage.

Alliance members will monitor political and media discourse and respond to the use of “wedge” issues, mischaracterizations or misrepresentations, and other political debate or legislation inconsistent with basic American values.