A movement built by and for the sensible majority of Americans.
Seth Russell didn't set out to start a political party. Like most Americans, he set out to find one that made sense—and came up empty.
Born in Quincy, Illinois, and raised in small Midwestern towns before his family settled in St. Louis, Seth has spent nearly three decades in the family IT business. He bought it from his father at full price—no family discount—and spent ten years paying it off. Today he and his wife, Nicole, run it together, along with a handful of investment properties he still works on himself, while raising their three kids.
He's never held office and doesn't want a career in politics. He's turned down private-equity buyers more times than he can count, and turned down awards and speaking invitations to stay focused on his family and his work. What he never turns down is a chance to learn: there are more than 250 books in his Audible library, and he'd rather solve a problem than talk about one.
After years of watching both parties cater to their most extreme members while the pragmatic majority went unrepresented, Seth decided that waiting for someone else to fix the problem was no longer an option.
"I don't ask you to agree with me on everything. I ask you to agree that common sense should be the starting point for every policy decision."
If you followed us early on, you saw the byline Silence Dogood. That was Seth’s pen name while this movement got off the ground.
The name has a proud tradition in American politics: it’s the pen name Benjamin Franklin used at 16 to publish sharp, witty commentary that challenged the establishment. We kept our founder anonymous at first for a simple reason. We wanted the ideas judged on their merits, not on a biography, and we wanted the platform to stand on its own before anyone attached a face to it.
We promised that when the movement was strong enough to stand on its own, the mask would come off. That day is here.
Every post on our blog now carries Seth’s real name, including the ones he wrote as Silence Dogood. Same ideas, same voice. Now with a name you can hold accountable.
In the spirit of the transparency we demand from others, here's exactly where we stand organizationally: The Common Sense Party is currently operating as a Political Action Committee (PAC). We are not yet an officially recognized political party.
We're being upfront about this because creating a new political party in the United States is extraordinarily complex. The legal barriers, state-by-state ballot access requirements, filing thresholds, and organizational infrastructure needed are enormous—and they're expensive and time-consuming to navigate. The system, frankly, was designed by the two existing parties to make it as difficult as possible for a third one to emerge.
Here's our roadmap:
2028: Support a slate of independent candidates who align with our platform and values. Show America what common-sense governance looks like in practice by getting pragmatic, qualified people into office.
2028–2032: Work through the legal, financial, and organizational requirements to establish the Common Sense Party as an officially recognized political party at the state and federal level.
2032: Run candidates under the Common Sense Party banner as a fully established party.
This is a long road, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. But building something real takes time, and we'd rather do it right than do it fast. The two-party system took generations to calcify—breaking it open won't happen overnight. But it starts now.
Most of America's problems are serious but chronic. Three run on short clocks—and all three are still very winnable if we start now.
One tangled problem. Interest now tops $1 trillion a year, long-term rates just hit their highest since 2002, and the dollar's global share is slipping. Neither party will make the trade both sides need. We will.
China's military has a 2027 target date, and its partners are working together more closely. America and its allies are the strongest deterrent on Earth—if we keep our word and keep them close.
AI is moving faster than the rules. Get the guardrails right now, and it could be the productivity boom that helps solve the debt, too.
Good ideas don't belong to a party. We evaluate every issue on its merits, not its political label. That means some of our positions look conservative, some look progressive, and we're not apologizing for either. The middle isn't lukewarm—it's where the best ideas from both sides live.
We'll tell you what we think and why. No spin, no talking points, no pretending economics works differently than it does.
Bullying and intimidation have no place in government. Disagreement is fine; dehumanization is not.
Policy should be driven by data and outcomes, not ideology and election cycles.
Politics has become a blood sport. We argue hard on the issues and still treat the other side as fellow Americans, not enemies. Lowering the temperature in Washington is how anything gets fixed.
Washington loves quick fixes that win a news cycle. We ask “and then what?” and go after the underlying problem, not just the symptoms.