By John Broderick
Our Founding Fathers were very sober in describing what they artfully crafted and finalized in Philadelphia that hot July day 250 years ago. Upon leaving Independence Hall Benjamin Franklin was believed to have declared that the Founders had given us a Republic, if we could keep it. The Declaration, proudly signed at incredible personal risk that historic day, advanced and identified deeply held grievances, made unyielding commitments to freedom, and included ambitious acknowledgements. Chief among them was that all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Despite the raw power and boldness of the Declaration of Independence nothing in its extraordinary content was self-executing or even fully extant in the daily lives of the colonists.
What followed that July day was seven more years of agonizing war against very long odds with heavy casualties. Our Constitution that was ratified with New Hampshire’s vote in 1788, five years after the Treaty of Paris had successfully ended America’s bloody conflict, organized the structure and authority of our new three-branch government, and the limits of its centralized power. But the aspirational and bold proclamation of the Declaration of Independence on individual rights remained largely unscripted. The Founders left it up to the people to make them real. Our ancestors acted.
The Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, amended the newly-passed Constitution, to provide important and ground-breaking content on the rights and privileges of America’s citizens—or at least some of them. Over time more amendments would follow with the goal of empowering and protecting every single citizen.
But one thing was clear from our founding documents: in our new democratic republic citizens—eventually to include all of us—were to be its exclusive sovereigns with steadfast allegiance to our Constitution. It was incumbent upon us, the people, to fulfill its promises and make real its aspirations. We were in charge. And with that awesome power and responsibility came reciprocal obligations. Foremost among them was for us to be, and remain, informed. There were truths, some but not all self-evident, hard facts and realities. To survive we needed to know them and honor them.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” In sum, he believed that a nation could not long exist both ignorant and free. Jefferson was prescient. He was forecasting that if we were not vigilant and engaged in the hard work that citizenship demanded of us, freedom would not survive. The unique character of our nation was to reflect the character of its citizens. Knowledge, widely-shared information and good faith were its essential pillars.
As a nation today, we seem less informed, less engaged and less vigilant than history instructs us to be. In a recent CATO Institute survey only 50% of people under age 30 could identify the three branches of government, 67% did not know why the colonists declared their independence and 52% couldn’t identify the nation from whom we broke to establish a new country. Forty-six percent of adults didn’t know what America was celebrating on its 250th Anniversary.
A recent national survey also confirmed that 60% of registered Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen. Sixty-one courts found otherwise and the Republican Attorney General of the United States after a thorough investigation concluded as the courts had.
America’s greatest challenge is not foreign adversaries or domestic and foreign terrorists but our growing, smug ignorance at home. Unless we come together as a nation with honesty, respect, understanding, humility, reliable information, and a willingness to face our common challenges with facts, truth, and good faith, we might just make Jefferson’s worse fear come true. Democracy is not guaranteed.
John T. Broderick Jr. is the founder of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Policy at UNH Law and formerly served as Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Most recently, he co-founded Pivot Point Mediation, a trauma informed private practice.