National Constitution Center

America at 250

“The Declaration was just the beginning.”

“The revolutionary ideas of 1776 and the national framework established in 1787 laid the foundation for America’s story—chapters that continue to shape our nation today. This toolkit gives you everything you need to explore the founding documents and the enduring vision they set in motion.” ~ The National Constitution Center

At the National Constitution Center located in Philadelphia you will find an entire curriculum for 2026 that you can use to explore the history of and the ongoing shaping of our self-government. We the people at every decade have been the force and the protector or our self governing experiment.

Several years ago, I discovered the National Constitution Center and have been an active participant in their programs through the podcasts, the archival papers, and the lively discussions free of politics. Conservative and liberal voices and scholars debate our history, the meaning of our founders’ documents, the functioning of our three branches of government: the checks and balances.

Reader and friends, this is a place of refuge for all the fraught and worried public no matter your political persuasion. Here, we carry on the processes and scholarship that not only defines American but also charges all of us to read and study and debate our current governance.

I’m looking forward to dipping into this curriculum. and I plan a year of focus and study about the American path and promise.

Democracy Will Not Die in America.

Undaunted: courageously resolute especially in the face of danger or difficulty: not discouraged. Merriam Webster.com

***History and Justice***. Photo by Susan Feathers

A Golden Resource for Americans Who Cherish “Little d” Democracy –

The National Constitution Center Town Halls and Podcast

On the website above scroll down to the Founders Library. The Center has all the key writings by the Founders to understand how this country is founded in wisdom and scholarship about how to govern so that we can pursue our dreams.

A great book, is Our Ancient Faith, Lincoln, Democracy, and The American Experiment by Allen C. Guelzo, Historian.

According to our ancient faith, Lincoln said in 1854, “the just powers of the governments are derived from the consent of the governed…. Lincoln translated…to mean “that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. I say that is the leading principle—the sheet anchor of American republicanism.” From Our Ancient Faith by Allen C. Guelzo, Chapter 1: The Cause of Human Liberty, p. 26.

Freedom, Nation’s Capitol. Photo by Susan L Feathers, 2013

Citizens, those who love and cherish the ideals of our democracy, make it a weekly practice to write to your Senators and Representatives and to members of Key Committees. Here is mine today to Senator Elissa Slotkin who is a member of the U. S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

Ltr to Senator Elissa Slotkin_AG Comm Download

We can never know whether what actions we take are heard but I have faith that if millions of freedom loving American write, call, email or visit their Congresspersons, the flame of democracy will never die in America. She may flicker now and then when despots blown in on hot air and untruths, or when we are temporarily fooled, but freedom has its way, always. We must remain undaunted!

High Crimes and Misdemeaners

The Constitutional Legacy of Watergate

Today’s publication of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from An American (on Substack) takes readers back to when President Richard Nixon engages in a cover up of crimes and abuse of his power. It begins when a break in at the Democratic Party offices occurs in June of 1972. As the investigation moves forward, the nation learns that officials in Nixon’s leadership and operations staff were the perpetrators. Richardson describes the subtrefuge and lies perpetrated by Nixon and the subsequent deliberations in Congress during a House Impeachment investigation.

At the time, two articles of impeachment were brought forth by the House of Representatives : 1: the cover up, and 2) the abuse of power. Both are relevant in our time: former President Trump and crimes in office and a subsequent interference with the peaceful transfer of power.

The recent attemps by President Trump to alter election results and his actions while in office that spurred citizens to an insurrection at the Capitol have not been adjudicated because Republicans no longer have the ability to think beyond political affliliation. A partisan Supreme Court has recently ruled that the President has almost complete immunity for acts commited while in office and to some extent afterwards. It is an outlier. It changes us from a democracy to an autocracy and it is very dangerous.

Below is a link to a new podcast from the National Consitution Center in which legal scholars and historians discuss Watergate and the House and Senate investigations in light of the current discussion about abuse of power. At that time in the early 1970s, the President was held responsible for his acts while in office. Even the President is not above the law our representatives declared. That was a time when many Americans and legislators on each side of the aisle were clear about our Constitutional principles.

We the People Podcast on August 8 from the National Constitution Center.

Protecting the Union. Photo by Susan L Feathers

History in the Making

Just when you think the sky is falling…

Biden stepped away from running for a second term, nominates Kamala Harris. Harris gains unprecedented support from youth, from communities of color, from Republican lawmakers worried the MAGA extremists could destroy the democracy each generation has striven to keep. Netanyahu visits and delivers an unapologetic address about the war in GAZA promising not to stop or turn back. Harris comes forward strongly in defense of Gazans in the line of fire while asserting support for Israel as long as it abides by human rights principles. She wants to see a two state solution.

Women from all sectors of the nation are galvanizing behind Harris as the clearest defender of women’s rights in her time in politics (Women for Harris). We have a wave of democratic actions happening and consequent outpouring of funds in record time. Men have galvanized to support her as evidenced by White Dudes for Kamala! Many institutions and nonprofits and civic leaders have voiced their support for the current Vice President.

The nation has awakended and perhaps the clouds, spewing misinformation and nasty digs from the throats of Rump and Rants, will soon part to let in some truth. I’ve been shocked and pleasantly surprised and again recall the edict: the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Well, our eyes are open wide.

Biden has set in motion efforts that will address the extreme rulings and unethical acts of justices on the current polarized Supreme Court. His bill would set standards for justices to hold them accountable for their actions like the rest of us; overturn the presidential immunity ruling just passed that grants immunity to a president for almost any action made while in office and to some extent afterward. Biden calls for shortening the term of justices from life to 18 years. The recommendation dovetails with Constitutional scholars and historians who recently discussed how to reform the Supreme Court to avoid what has become jerrymandering of the Court.

Watch the discussion among scholars invited by the National Constitution Center to review the 2024 Supreme Court.

Anti-Defamation League and the National Constitution Center

Listen to two constitutional scholars discuss President Biden’s new proposal for Supreme Court reforms on We the People Podcast at the National Consitution Center.

Civic Virtues and the Founders

I highly recommend readers take time to listen to this session of We the People podcast from the National Constitution Center and how the founders read from Cicero’s The Tusculan Disputations in their quest for personal virtue – which none achieved but strived toward, followed by historians and writers reflecting on civic virtue in maintaining a democracy.

Think for yourself and the ability to reason – these must be resurrected.

Panelists include Jeffrey Rosen, Director of the National Constitution Center, and University of Chicago Professor Eric Slauter, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will; and Melody Barnes, executive director of UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.

The Founders and the Pursuit of Happiness, and the Virtuous Life

Cicero’s The Tusculan Disputations

Getty Images Link

Who was Cicero? Link to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Do We Have a King?

A Coup on American Democratic Institutions

From the National Constitution Center

Dispatch Podcast July 1, 2024

National Constitution Center We the People Podcast

Heather Cox Richardson

A major blow to our democracy has been delivered to the American people who are even more disempowered than before. Let no one diminish the fact that everything is weighing on the American people now to make sure a man with poor character and a history of criminal acts and record of insurrection against the USA, never gets into the Presidency again.

Everything rests on this. And now that all the checks and balances are gone EXCEPT the people, we must act and assure a future for our children.

Ship of State on Rough Seas

What keeps a ship from toppling over with strong winds and rough seas? The force of gravity pulling down and the force of buoyancy acting upward.

What is the force of gravity that keep the ship of state upright? Answer: the Rule of Law and Dynamic Balance among the Branches of Government: the Lesgislature, the Executive, and the Court.

What keeps a ship from sinking? The force of bouyancy pushes upward against the force of gravity. Bouyant forces of Democracy are citizens, civic groups, local and state houses of governance; churches, educatonal institutions, the freedom of the press, and collective political and social norms conducive to a democratic nation. The ship is safe as long as dynamic balance is maintained through checks and balances and a crew that agrees on basic rules and principals in the conduct of deliberation: personal ethics, collaboration and an ephemeral quality in current culture – character.

A Rising Wave of Dissonance

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Let us never forget this.

A History of Rough Seas and Smooth Sailing

Consider then that our Ship of State is as steady in rougher waters as a dynamic balance between forces: our institutions of governance, the ballast, and the winds and rough seas our collective beliefs and actions in living out our creed.

Any student of American history can chart that course over the 248 years of our voyage. We have come close to toppling the ship of state during the Civil War, and at times when men of poor character or despotic nature rose briefly to Captain the ship. We course corrected and repaired our great vessel once more to sail together toward that perfect union.

Every adult American is responsible for this voyage, but some more than others. 2024 is proving to be another storm with dangerous forces threatening the Ship of State.

Our upcoming choice of captain and crew is an opportunity to come together to sustain the course as a free, democratic nation. Outside forces seek to overcome us. Autocratic winds blow around the globe seeking our demise.

This election will go down in history. Let’s make sure it doesn’t take the whole ship down with it.

Check out Defending Our Democracy Together.

National Constitution Center: https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/podcasts/can-the-constitution-serve-as-a-document-of-national-unity

Confused? Seek truth.

The National Constitution Center, a place for citizens to learn and to engage with scholars on American history and constitutional law, is a quiet sunny island in an otherwise turbulent stream of contemporary life.

Clarity and Purpose

When all of us rise to a new day only to open a fire hose of information from our phones, home stations, and television, I turn a lot of that off now. I go to the library and check out David McCullough’s 1776, a gritty and personal record of the people and places, and gestalt of colonial America and 18th Century England. What were they thinking? These are the deep roots of our Constitution. We observe our heroes and heroines just as confused as we are in times of tumult and an uncertain future. It lends some comfort as well as reflection.

RX: Attend a Town Hall at the NCC

Click here to watch the Town Hall debates on relevant topics to the state of U.S. politics and how historians and Constitutional scholars understand short comings in our three branches of governance that are not meeing the needs of today’s Americans and why Originalism can trip us up.

David McCullough brings the Road to Revolution alive!