Keepers Of Our Republic
Americans Coming Together In One Nation, Never One Way
Keepers Of Our Republic
Americans Coming Together In One Nation, Never One Way
A Preramble around
a Declaration for Interdependence
Most thoughts about civics have already been thunk. Even our revolutionary Declaration of Independence was rooted in both Roman and Enlightenment ideas that were popular at the time. The following Declaration for Interdependence also includes ideas professed by many citizens today but, more and more, our efforts to maintain an interdependent connection don’t seem to be working. The ever-changing balancing act that is our American Republic appears to be way out of balance. Why? That’s a question we need to thunk about.
We seem to have become a very un-United States. Maybe that’s because we think unity is hiding somewhere out there in a dangerous no-man’s-land between our hostile political trenches, when it’s actually someplace a lot closer. Since 1782, our Nation’s motto has been E Pluribus Unum: “From Many, One”. Before we start imagining we’re a hopelessly divided “many”, we should first remember that we’re an interdependent “one”.
In a letter between ex-presidents, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson that our Revolutionary War wasn’t the start of our revolution; it was the end of it. The revolution had begun fifteen years earlier in the minds of people who, together, began to envision it. The Founders hoped we would keep the new Union and preserve that vision. Today’s political scene, though, is stuck in a polarized infighting that too often grows into self-righteous debates, arguments, and even violent battles fought against supposedly subversive fellow citizens. Many people think interdependence isn’t possible any more. Other people are looking to overcome this disunity. John Adams might say that before any solution is possible, citizens must first come together and, despite differences, envision a common cause. What might that cause be?
The following Declaration is concerned with civics, not with politics, and it makes a critical distinction between the two. Civics is about the process; it’s about how government operates: the structure, the rules, etc. Politics is about the content; it’s about all the hubbub that happens inside that civic structure: the lawmaking and the partisan opinions, etc.
This Declaration isn’t a political statement. Instead, it suggests that our first step toward a common cause is to focus on the civic health of the nation, and to put politics second. Here’s an example: some people are worried about voter fraud, and others are worried about voter suppression. Pick a side, it’s a civics problem that’s been turned into an all-out political brawl that serves the few of us who gain something by dividing the most of us. But if we ask each other, “Should the structure of our electoral process be updated so that there’s no possibility of either fraud or suppression or any other kind of corruption?”, then the vast majority of us would say yes, of course, let’s do it.
Politics these days seem to intentionally divide and manipulate us, but by restoring the civic health of the Republic we can re-empower ourselves. Citizens fed up with all the crippling political infighting need to join others who realize that getting along with each other is the most essential piece of our American Experiment.
Spoiler Alert. The following Declaration re-envisions our civic playing field and game rules by asserting, in part, that:
- our independence as a Republic depends upon our interdependence as citizens;
- the Constitution’s “more perfect Union” doesn’t exist in the past or the future, but is always evolving now, in the present;
- our Union is more process than content, and patriotism is more behavior than speeches or emotion or display;
- the bi-polar model of party politics we’ve adopted can alienate us from our neighbors and ourselves;
- our experiment in self-government requires us to both conserve what is good and progress toward what is better;
- collaborative cooperation serves us and satisfies us far more than competitive opposition;
- and, most importantly, the civic every-man’s-land between our political trenches deserves our primary allegiance, because that’s where E Pluribus Unum happens.
Hopefully, this Declaration will be viewed with as unprejudiced and unpartisan an eye as the reader can manage. Sometimes, individuals can find it difficult to accept parts of their own nature. In the same way, citizens can find it difficult to accept the views of their fellow citizens. In both cases, though, this is exactly what healthy self-governance requires.
Keepers of our Republic can resolve to learn more about the history, principles, virtues and challenges of this government we own. We can commit to actively protect the healthy functioning and the continuous perfecting of our Union. Sharing this resolve and this commitment is critical, and it can re-introduce us to ourselves.
Productive politics will come only after we remember that we need each other for this experiment to work, because working together is the American Experiment.
E Pluribus Unum
(From Many, One)
<-------
vs.
------->
Meus Modo Vel Via
(My Way or the Highway)
Which direction leads to
a more perfect Union?
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