K9 PRINCIPLES:

Politically, the United States finds itself in a period of unprecedented dysfunction. The Democratic and Republican parties are polarized to the point where the few legislative victories that pass through congress do so on strictly partisan votes, while the majority of items on the congressional agenda are mired in gridlock.  Congress is evenly divided.  Republicans, on the political right, currently have a thin majority in the US House of Representatives while Democrats, on the political left, currently have a thin majority in the US Senate.  But many, if not most Americans identify themselves as moderates, in the political center.  Moderates, unfortunately, have no true representation in Congress. 

Moderates have been disenfranchised by our two-party political system.  And because we have no true representation, those of us who consider ourselves to be moderates are forced to compromise our beliefs every election when we need to choose between a Democrat on the left and a Republican on the right. One obvious solution to giving moderates a louder, more unified voice is an alternative political party, and an alternate political philosophy based upon shared principles at the center of the political spectrum.  And that's where K9 comes in.

Elephants on the right and donkeys on the left have failed, but dogs in the center have the answers to unleashing political gridlock, and it's high time for dogs to take the lead!  K9 is a philosophy of life, the intellectual framework of a moderate political ideology, and a recipe of nine principles for achieving world peace. 

K9 gets it's name because each of the 9 principles is based upon one of the three ideal behavioral attributes of dogs that make dogs so special, those attributes that have earned dogs the moniker of “man’s best friend.”   

Dogs have the remarkable ability to live peacefully with humans, regardless of their political affiliations, nationality, religion, wealth, education, intelligence, sexual orientation, gender, body order, or any other human quality that drives us apart and leads to hatred, conflicts, and wars. 

Harnessing those ideal behavioral attributes

Focusing on politics, we see that congress is gridlocked over passionate disagreements between well meaning representatives from both the political right and the political left.  But when you look at the principles driving those disagreements from the political center, you realize that between the right and the left there actually is a common ground.  Freedom and security are goals that every American voter can proudly support, where-ever you see yourself on the political spectrum.  When we prioritize freedom and security we can incorporate the personal freedoms that the political left advocates with the economic freedoms advocated by the political right.   is given to freedom and security we can construct a philosophy and political platform 

Compared with humans, dogs are simple creatures, and yet they have won over our hearts and integrated themselves peacefully into human society.  They achieved this amazing feet based upon three simple, "ideal" behavioral attributes.  Dogs give humans unconditional love, dogs have simple needs, and dogs are always ready to defend us from danger. 

Human personal relations are analogous to the relationship between humans and dogs.  But human societies have additional layers of complexity due to our organization into communities, municipalities, cities, states and nations that all include some element of governmental authority.  Sovereign nation states are further subject to international governance and international relations.  In order to adapt the ideal behavioral attributes of dogs to human behavior then requires a three layered approach: 

adapted to personal relations (and public policy), the ideal behavioral attributes of dogs becomes:  
                            Loving
                            Lean, and
                            Strong.

Loving is a straight forward adaptation of a dog's unconditional love, and in a broad sense, implies an attitude of appreciation and respect for all of our fellow humans, including ourselves.  Lean is the adaptation of a dog's simple needs and implies both our goal of maintaining a lean body weight, as well as an acknowledgement for the value of keeping our needs simple, and for learning to appreciate what we have, rather than always searching for more.  Strong is the adapting of the ideal canine behavior of readiness to defend, and implies both physical strength, and strength of character. Taken together, living a life that is loving and lean sets us on course to a life of greater happiness, and living a life that is lean and strong sets us on course to optimal health.

Adapted to political relations the ideal behavioral attributes of dogs become:      
                            Social Liberalism,
                            Fiscal Conservatism, and
                            Militarily Preparation.

Adapted to  international relations the ideal behavioral attributes of dogs become:      
                             Religious Pluralism
                             Sovereignty of Nation States, and
                             Unification of Nation States around shared goals.

K9 is a coherent, harmonious, philosophical approach to politics based upon 9 PRINCIPLES that lead us to “the six results” of health, happiness, tolerance, security, peace, and freedom. 

Please help us put an end the the evil forces of tyranny and apathy that are threatening the constitutional fundamentals of this great Nation. Spread the word and share our K9USA.org website with like-minded moderates on social media. Run for a congressional seat in your US Congressional district as a K9.  Volunteer to support K9 candidates and recruit new K9 party members.  Tweet about the K9 Movement.  Contribute inspirational stories to "the paper".  In California, become a registered K9 at registertovote.ca.gov.*

In the simplest of terms, if more of us were guided by the ideal behavioral attributes of dogs that allow them to live at peace with all humans, more of us would get along with each other, we might find are way more easily to meaningful political compromise, and the world would be a safer place. 

Donkeys and elephants have failed.  It’s time for dogs to lead!

Robert Pendleton MD, PhD

K9USA

* at the end of the form on registertovote.ca.gov, choose "other" from the party preference drop-down menu and type in "K9" to become a registered K9.