The Founders' vision has only been half tested.

Only half of the Founders' vision has been tried, because there were two:

• A self-governing instinct — citizens ruling themselves face to face, as in the New England town meeting. Paine called it “representation ingrafted upon democracy”; Jefferson wanted every citizen “a participator in the government … every day.”
• A cautious instinct — men who feared “the excess of democracy” and built filters between the citizen and power.

The cautious vision won at Philadelphia in 1787. The self-governing half was left unfinished — and for the first time, we can finish it.

Those filters rested on two justifications:

• A.Distance. In the age of the printing press and horseback, the continent couldn't gather to deliberate.
• B.Hope. That representatives would “refine and enlarge the public views” and rise above faction.

The distance is digitally bridged. The hope failed. The “spirit of party” George Washington warned The People against as “truly their worst enemy” has become the very machinery of our governance.

The Founders feared us. Do we fear ourselves? Or are We the People brave enough to fulfill our own destiny of self-governance — without parties, without politicians?

There is a way.

Be the first to find out how →