The Unify America Annual Ideals Day Address

I’ve begun to consider the fourth of July “American Ideals Day.”  

I mean no disrespect to the generation of colonists who published 249 years ago, the document declaring our independence from the British crown. Knowing full well it would lead to invasion by the British military, at the time, the greatest fighting force on the planet, the signing of the Declaration was an act of extraordinary courage. As Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying at the time, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

But…other peoples had “in the Course of human events” dissolved “the political bands which have connected them with another,” as the Declaration puts it. This was not the first time a group of people declared their independence. What makes the American Declaration of Independence among the most consequential events in history, was the ethical assertion upon which the founders constructed their argument for independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

With these words, a new force was exerted on the moral arc of the universe. For the first time, a new nation was born by virtue of an idea: humans are created equal, and therefore any government among them, must be formed and controlled by them.

But…in 1776, the founders mostly excluded all but white male property owners from their moral arithmetic. As they declared the equality of men and their unalienable right to Liberty, many of the Founders were depriving that very right to the dark-skinned peoples that they owned. The painfully disappointing paradox of American history is that the Declaration’s author at 33 years old, Thomas Jefferson, owned over 600 enslaved people in his lifetime. And he knew better. In his “original rough draught” of the Declaration, Jefferson blamed the King of England for the slave trade, the “cruel war against human nature itself…violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people…captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither…[it is an] assemblage of horrors.” According to Jefferson, his condemnation of slavery was deleted from the draft of the Declaration in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia with scant protest from the Northern states.

That women ought to be added into the moral arithmetic of equality seems to have not even been a question pondered. It was nearly another hundred years after the Declaration, in 1870, that African American men won the constitutional right to vote. But for women to gain the same right, it was another fifty years more, in 1920. And then another 44 years, in 1964, for Americans to be guaranteed equal treatment under the law regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age. And still four more, in 1968, before basic civil rights were extended to Native Americans. And another 58 years, in 2022, for queer Americans to be guaranteed, by an act of Congress, the right to marry.

The heavy costs of these accomplishments – the sweat, treasure, and blood – were sacrificed by generations of Americans because they rejected the founders’ behavior, and took them at their word. Indeed, they took them at their word ethically enlarged by including everyone:  All humans are created equal.

This concept was first conceived in the middle ages, and then gestated during the Enlightenment. 

In America, it was finally delivered on to the world’s stage on July 4, 1776.

But…it was still only an idea, a concept, a precept: a newborn that might not survive its infancy. 

Yet, once born, for Americans, that idea became an ideal - a sacred goal that must be achieved for America and for all humanity.

First our independence needed to be won or the newborn American ideal would not, in fact, survive its infancy. That happened thanks to the Continental Army of merchants, mechanics, and farmers – black men among them – who regularly had no weapon with which to fight had they not brought one from home. “Miracle” is not too strong a word to describe the improbable victory of General George Washington against the largest, most well equipped, professionally trained military the earth had ever seen. But miracles can happen when a people are driven by a moral ideal.

Our Declaration of Independence and the Winning of Independence through the Revolutionary War is now more than two centuries behind us. 

What we continue to pursue are the American Ideals born on that July 4th.  

Remembering the history and lessons from our break from the British Crown still matters. But the anniversary of the Declaration should - I believe - be centered on the courageous efforts, in the ages since, of Americans forcing our nation to live up to our Ideals. This is a day to celebrate the courage of our founders, and also Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Harvey Milk, and millions of other Americans - most lost to history -  who have pushed and pushed America toward our Ideals. 

While we have Memorial Day to pay our gratitude to the Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, Ideals Day ought also to recognize the veterans of the Civil War who fought to end slavery.  Ideals Day ought to honor how Franklin Roosevelt and the greatest generation upheld our ideals in defeating Fascism - an idea that presumes certain groups of people are intrinsically superior to others based on race, religion, ethnicity or nationality - the very antithesis of the American Ideal.

And…American Ideals Day is also a day to look forward. Responsibility for continuing the work of pulling America toward its Ideals is now in our hands. We need to lock the gains of previous generations against backsliding. What’s more, we are living in a time of new never-before-seen threats to our Ideal. 

I speak not of the incessant threats to what we might consider the First of the American Ideals, that we are all created equal. Threats to the right to vote, manipulation of electoral campaigns through misinformation, and the lack of transparency on their funding…none of this is new.

What we have not seen since the Civil War is a threat to the Second of the American Ideals, which follows logically from the first: 

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Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Our government, more and more, seems unmoored from its source of power. 

In recent months, the aggressive pace and scope of executive actions by the new administration have brought this unmooring into sharper focus. While some applaud the boldness, others—including many who supported the President—are concerned over the lack of deliberation, the questionable legality and constitutionality of key actions, and the administration’s repeated ad hominem attacks on judges and other checks on its power. The President’s approach has raised concerns not just about outcomes, but about the integrity of our system of separated powers. This moment highlights the fragility of a system in which, in many instances, one person seems to be able to act unilaterally, without engaging the People’s broader will.

The People, by an overwhelming majority, want our government to solve problems. A poll conducted by Vanderbilt University in June of 2023 found that 79% of Americans wanted their elected officials to work with members of the opposing party – even if that meant compromising on some partisan values.

Yet, for decades, we have been unable to do that. We've been unable to work together to systematically address our most pressing challenges, from education, to climate, to violence, to immigration, to abortion, to energy, to healthcare, and on and on. And now, we have Artificial Intelligence to contend with.

Oh, and by the way, the threat of nuclear annihilation hasn’t disappeared.

In its approach to solve long-standing challenges, the current administration has doubled down on unilateral action, confrontation, and vilification of opponents. This will lead to change. But if you push the pendulum too hard in one direction without building consensus, it doesn’t just stop—it swings back with equal force.

We've been swinging the pendulum for a long time in the United States.

We cannot stop that pendulum without working together. 

This chronic inability to work together to solve our problems has left Americans despondent about the future of our government of the People. Based on the acrimony and gridlock of our national legislature; the lock on power that majority parties in state legislators have created by gerrymandering; the partisan ideology that has infected our judiciary; and the shameful immaturity on display in our presidential debates, it is understandable that democracy itself is in question. Or to be clear: that Government of the People is in question.

It is easy to blame politicians. But we, the People, are the ones who install them in positions of power. Distrust between Americans who vote for different political parties continues to climb. The division and antipathy among politicians reflects the divisions and antipathy among the People…or at least the small group of the loudest, most angry Americans, who have far too many of us convinced of the iniquity of the “other side.”

We have the most powerful military in the world, but there is no threat from a foreign adversary that compares to the threat within our own borders.

In January of 1837, twenty-seven year old Abraham Lincoln, whose license to practice law was not yet five months old, gave an address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. He was prescient about the growing internal divisions in America in his era, and also in ours:

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.

This is the challenge of our time. Shall we find our way back together? Or will government of the People, for the People, by the People perish in America?  If it does, I tremble to imagine what that will mean for the rest of humanity.

Since our founding, our struggle has focused on living up to our First Ideal, by adding to the founders’ moral arithmetic: making sure every American has the same rights as any other; making sure there are no second-class citizens; that in the land of opportunity, every American has a real opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That struggle is not over, but now, we must also attend to the Second Ideal by restructuring the crumbling foundation by which We the People run our government.  If we fail to do so, the centuries of work on the First Ideal will be for naught.

The heart of the problem, it seems to me, is that we, the sovereigns of this nation, have abdicated our power by allowing ourselves to be divided. We have been divided by what the author, Amanda Ripley, has called the Conflict Entrepreneurs: those in politics, media, and social media, who gain for themselves by sowing division among us. Politicians win support by convincing their base that the other side is evil. Media companies fatten their bottom line through biased reporting and pundit programming that confirms the beliefs of the echo chambers of Americans off whom they profit. Social media influencers boost their own ego and self-righteousness by attracting hordes of followers who cheer on these digital rage-casters as they identify and eviscerate political enemies.

The Conflict Entrepreneurs, on both sides of the political spectrum, appeal to our fears, our self-righteousness, and our worst instincts.

But…we have, as Lincoln noted, “better angels of our nature.” Human beings have the capacity to overcome our worst instincts. Yet, in the face of this onslaught of fear-mongering through our screens, we lack the institutions to bring us back together. We are so distracted by political personalities and one or the other party’s policies, that we cannot see what is right in front of us: the vast majority of Americans have the same aspirations for the country.

Six years ago in July of 2019, I began a tour through parts of America that were the most foreign to me. I interviewed Americans from all walks of life including those on the extremes of the political spectrum. What I found was that Americans are already unified around the end results most all of us hope to achieve:

• Everyone should have access to high quality affordable healthcare
• The U.S. should be able to know and determine who is coming in and out of the country
• Along with other countries, done legally, we should be a haven for those fleeing their own countries to save their lives.
• We should be working together to reduce unintended pregnancies
• Those who are released from prison should leave with the tools and opportunities they need to become productive citizens.
• Working with other countries, we should reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere while preparing for the impact of climate change on human society.

These are just six of three dozen American Goals, covering nearly every issue area, around which I discovered we have a staggering level of agreement.

You may be thinking: “Well, sure, but we don’t agree on HOW to reach these goals. The devil is in the details.” 

The devil is in the details. 

Or is it?

The way our lawmakers address problems skips the critical step of establishing a shared goal. Instead, each side leaps to champion a favored solution, like passing a Green New Deal or deporting more unauthorized migrants. And the other side, in turn, determines that it despises that solution. So, then there’s a fight. You are either for or against. Debate, at least on the weightiest issues, is a show, packaged up for the news and social media. 

But in real problem solving, establishing a shared goal is the obvious first step. If a group of people have a shared goal, they do not need to demonize each other as they look for shared solutions together.

And how might we do that…look for shared solutions together?

Our civic roots in the earliest years of the Republic revolved around town halls and voluntary associations of citizens formed to solve problems. Citizens did not outsource all of the work of governing to elected officials, as we do now. They got together and reckoned through their differences to figure out how to address their common problems. 

If we - we, the People - want to reclaim our power as sovereigns of this nation, we must return to our civic roots. We can no longer limit our citizens’ toolbox to voting, donating, and advocacy. We must add to our toolbox a power tool that institutionalizes and expands upon the town hall. 

That power tool is called a Citizens’ Assembly.

Such Assemblies bring together a group of citizens chosen randomly but who, as a body, are demographically and politically representative of the population. They do not need to be elected or re-elected. They can act entirely according to their conscience.

Unlike in a political process, the Citizens’ Assembly begins either with a common question or a shared goal.  

Unlike in a political process, where everyone involved operates with whatever information happens to come their way, partisan and fact-free as it may be, the delegates of a Citizens’ Assembly, like a jury, are all presented with the same body of information, sourced for accuracy and a wide range of perspectives. 

Unlike in a political process, where there are often only two choices: supporting one side’s solution or opposing it, a Citizens’ Assembly deliberates through many different solutions, some developed by experts, others conceived by the citizen delegates themselves.

Unlike in a political process, where the support of 51% of a legislature is considered a victory, even when the other 49% wait for the next election to amass the power to overturn it, in contrast, a Citizens’ Assembly requires at least two-thirds of the delegates to adopt a solution - so that every solution adopted has broad support.

Given our civic history and flair for innovation, it is no surprise that the underlying concept for Citizens' Assemblies was first conceived in the United States. However, the most robust demonstrations have emerged elsewhere, particularly in Europe. France provides a recent and notable example. On May 27, 2025, the French National Assembly passed a landmark bill legalizing assisted dying for adults with incurable illnesses, under strict conditions. This legislation was directly informed by the recommendations of a Citizens' Assembly—a group of 184 randomly selected, representative citizens from across France. Over four months, they deliberated for 27 days, ultimately producing 67 recommendations, endorsed by 92% of the citizen delegates. The bill now proceeds to the French Senate for further debate, with final approval anticipated in the coming months.

It is unlikely that this 92% supported every one of the recommendations. More likely, they believed that they’d participated in a legitimate process, with solid information and manifold perspectives. They had the opportunity to listen to, and disagree with, their fellow citizens not to win a debate...but to learn from each other and thereby create collective wisdom. I believe it was in respect to the collective wisdom they created that the full package of recommendations earned their near consensus support.

You may have never heard of them before now, but Citizens’ Assemblies are happening all over the world, including in the United States. Rather than limiting our participation as citizens to joining the cage match that is politics, Citizens’ Assemblies offer Americans a way to participate in our democracy by working cooperatively with fellow Americans who hold different opinions. They can be held by nations, states, cities and towns. Any jurisdiction that has intractable problems, can turn to its own people for aid in finding a wise, broad based solution. 

But Citizens’ Assemblies are not just a solution for central government bodies. School boards, library boards, recreation districts, cultural institutions, economic alliances, community foundations, healthcare systems, police departments – any institution or organization that aims to serve the People – can take advantage of Citizens’ Assemblies to work collaboratively with the People to solve problems or plan ahead to avoid them. 

Furthermore, Citizens’ Assemblies seed a culture of participation.  Once a community runs an Assembly, the vision becomes clear as to how citizens can participate directly and meaningfully in governing themselves

In the United States, if we want to achieve our Second Ideal of instituting among us a government that exercises power that is just – that is reflective of our will, well-informed, then We, the People, need to participate directly in solving our own problems.

That is, after all, the very basis of a democracy - that we do not need a king, queen or authoritarian to solve our problems for us. 

But we do need to be organized. We do need a process to manifest the better angels of our nature in cooperative pursuit of the common good. And that process needs to be institutionalized – woven into the fabric of our democratic republic.

And it can be…if we turn off the conflict entrepreneurs, and recognize our shared goals, and our shared humanity.

We, Americans, are not condemned to trying to solve our problems by fighting each other.

There is another way. A better way. 

In the name of the millions before us who sacrificed so much to bend the moral arc of history in these United States, let us now, in our generation, exert our energies with courage to continue the virtuous work of pressing America to live up to our sacred ideals.

May Ideals Day be a day we all celebrate together - as one people, different in opinion, but unified in spirit.

If you are interested in participating in a poll about actually making American Ideals Day an official third name, alongside July Fourth and Independence Day, click here to vote!

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