Origin Story

Nearly a year ago, I spoke to a room of folks about the current state of affairs, about democracy and what is at stake. In my preparation, I reflected on a couple of key national documents, yet was most impacted by re-reading the Declaration of Independence. Most of us are familiar with the Preamble to the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [people] 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….” But after the preamble and introduction, there is a list of grievances. Those grievances rang true for me. They became the focus of my speech. I wanted to highlight the declared grievances (against the King) that helped motivate a country to issue a Declaration of Independence, and to compare them to this administration’s behavior.

Here are a few:

  • “He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly”. We see this in the effort to override elections (GA), disempowering local officials, and pushing conspiracy theories and theorists to silence and distract the majority. These actions dissolve trust in our representative governments whether at the federal, state or local level.
  • “He has erected multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance’” That was DOGE and the callous firings and the hollowing out of our federal agencies and still no efficiencies obtained. Just chaos. I also liked this one because of “hither swarms.”
  • “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” That’s current and ongoing ill-conceived tariff policies without Congressional approval.

The most chilling: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us….”  That was January 6th.

There’s more, and the similarities are sobering.

Though the speech went well, I got frustrated.  But it can’t all be about speeches. What should come next? Coincidentally, I had just read my friend Paul Sparrow’s book Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR’s War of Words with Charles Lindbergh and the Battle to Save Democracy. I got what he was saying about today, yet through the lens of history. I had to reach out and get coffee to discuss this with him, his book, and the current environment we have found ourselves in. We got together at a local restaurant in Lewes, Nectar, and ordered a couple of juices. We chatted, we talked about history, FDR and the state of affairs then and now, and how we are missing key voices right now in our nation. Voices that show us the best in us, elevate us all for the sake of community, remind us of our potential, and keep us focused on what drives us forward together rather than tear us apart. We are far stronger when we focus on hope, optimism, and the creation of a more perfect union than when we listen to fake strongmen who profit from our division, use it to instill fear and keep control. It’s not a state of mind that’s healthy or instills the promise and brightness of what tomorrow could bring. It’s exhausting. It’s tedious. It’s unworthy of our energy when we have so much we should be thankful for and striving for as a community, country, and as a people. At the end of that meeting, Paul suggested I reach out to two others who would have a good perspective on what I was struggling with and what comes next.

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But first: the Trump administration had just labeled Delaware a sanctuary state. That declaration was made because last year Delaware passed a law that prohibits our local law enforcement from engaging in 287g agreements with federal immigration authorities, such as ICE. That bill passed our General Assembly with bipartisan support in both chambers. Those agreements don’t make our communities safer. It just pulls local resources away from local jurisdictions doing the actual police work we need them to do. Also, recent reports have linked it to Senate Bill 27, which just passed the State Senate unanimously with all Senators signing on as co-sponsors, that created an Office of New Americans. The declaration from the federal administration does not reflect what’s happening in our own state, and it is a direct threat to Delaware and Delawareans, regardless of party affiliation. It only reflects fear and obfuscation by the Trump administration because of their failed policies and ineffective leadership.

With that declaration, the violence by federal immigration authorities in Minnesota, the breach of a building in Chicago, and the waste and abuse in how this federal administration is conducting this and other business were clearly increasing my frustration, along with many others. It made me wonder whether we needed a reaffirmation of the principles in our original Declaration of Independence. It’s frustrating to see the country we are all proud of be treated this way. We can’t all make our way to Minnesota, Chicago, Maine, or wherever we are seeing injustices. Or not even injustices, but just the way we are, as far as treating each other as fellow Americans and as human beings. We are all in this together. Not just our country but the world.

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Around the same time, Lewes, Delaware, was preparing for a Thomas Paine event on the 250th anniversary of the original publication. Ron Collins organized the event with Representative Sarah McBride introducing our guest, Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional scholar and fan of Thomas Paine. I was to introduce Representative McBride for this event, as she was a former colleague of mine in the Delaware General Assembly. Lewes’ mayor, Amy Marasco, also took part in the event. A funny remembrance for me is seeing the emails back and forth with the teams, and Ron Collins and Representative Raskin spoke so personally of Thomas Paine; he was usually referred to as just Tom in their exchanges. They had a delightful and informed exchange about Common Sense. It was a well-attended affair in Lewes despite the hard rain and cold weather. I believe it was perhaps the only Thomas Paine event in the country celebrating the 250th anniversary of the moving publication of Common Sense.

I remembered my conversation with Paul over juices at Nectar and decided, “Why am I waiting to get this group together to discuss my frustrations with what’s happening?” These are patriots who have told stories, shared experiences, and understood the moment we are in. I wanted to share with them the project I was working on, the Reaffirmation of American Principles, a reworking of the Declaration of Independence, but for today, for now, for what this country is going through under this administration. I was frustrated that I couldn’t be in Minneapolis. I was frustrated by the hollowing out of our institutions. I was frustrated and thought we should do more. Sharing frustration and concerns among friends, colleagues, and neighbors can be healthy. It can help provide focus. It can help release frustration.

So we met at our local library to discuss this and what could be next. I had shared an initial draft of the Reaffirmation of American Principles. We talked about Paine’s Common Sense. We talked about how that work inspired Thomas Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence and the throughline to the Constitution many years later. There were common elements, themes, and thoughts leading one to the next. What could we do at this moment that could help us feel as if we are contributing in some small way to the great American experiment and our democracy? Why not embrace the past and use it as a guidebook for today? Let’s create a new Common Sense revolution and share with folks what we see as examples of people, institutions and movements that reflect our values. Values we all hold dear: we reject authoritarianism, we believe in natural equality, we believe in the rule of law, and we firmly believe in representative democracy.  Therefore, we settled on putting our efforts into drafting Common Sense in the Age of Trump, a revised pamphlet inspired by the original published 250 years ago this year.

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That was an exercise for us. It was an outlet. It was a way for us to connect with something larger than ourselves. We didn’t set out to publish anything. We were working on a project that could help us process. But then our thoughts expanded. Ron, Paul, and Amy are all published authors and thought we had something worth sharing. Ron approached a publisher about the concept and came back to the group and said: “Yes, this is something that has merit and is worthy to share.” We then set out to create a more robust pamphlet, the one you see today. Inspired by the original work of Thomas Paine, our book is a recasting of Common Sense for the moment we are in right now. We want to share what others are doing, so here we are now with a webpage we hope to be a repository of hope. A place where we can share stories that uphold not only Common Sense, but the through-line it created from the creation of the Declaration of Independence to our Constitution.

Many brave patriots believe our best days are ahead of us. That hope endures – the hope that the injustices of yesterday, today, and tomorrow will help create the more perfect union to which we all aspire. The great American experiment is not over; it lives on! E Pluribus Unum.