America at 250: When You Get Ordinary Americans Away From the Noise, We Still Agree on the Basics

Almost by definition, people agreeing with each other is not “news.” Events are news. Conflicts are news. Crimes are news. 

And who are news junkies? People who are deeply invested in various issues. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that. I am deeply invested in various issues, and what we follow as news matters in fundamental ways to our present and future. News makers and news followers have an outsized impact on everyone’s lives.

But it’s also true that being marinated in these things gives you a fundamentally distorted view of day-to-day life, and of our fellow citizens. When all you see are the conflicts and controversies, it’s easy to forget that most of life happens without anything resembling “newsworthy” events or issues.

That’s one of the reasons why all those videos of World Cup attendees from Europe are so captivating. Their impressions of America are shaped by the “news,” which presents a very distorted view of what America is like. 

America, it turns out, is pretty great. For all its flaws, it is a damn fine country, and it is so because most Americans still agree on some basic principles that make this country unique in the world and in history itself. 

 

Scott Rasmussen has dedicated this chapter of his life to reminding us of the things that make America great, and that the vast majority of Americans still consciously or unconsciously hold the truths our Founders spoke of as “self evident.” 

One irony of things appearing self evident is that we don’t even think about them consciously unless you are forced to. It’s not like we think about gravity when we throw a ball. It’s just part of our mental model of the world. And unless you are engineering something where precision matters, you aren’t inclined to calculate its effects. 

Two hundred and fifty years ago, our Founders WERE engineering something: the principles upon which our country was built. When they declared independence from the United Kingdom, they didn’t just raise their middle fingers at the establishment; they created a blueprint for what self-government should look like, and defined the requirements necessary to make it work. 

Scott’s passion is getting Americans to rediscover the wisdom of those principles, and his major project for the past couple of years has been the “We The People Project,” which brought together five people from every congressional district in America to hash out what shared American principles look like 250 years after the Declaration of Independence was written, kicking off the American experiment. 

Together they created a new “Declaration of American Ideals.”

Here’s how he describes the project:

The “Declaration of American Ideals” is the result of the “We the People” project, an initiative led by the Napolitan Institute.

The conversation included over 2,400 participants, ensuring representation from every U.S. Congressional District. These participants, carefully selected to reflect national demographics, shared over 1.6 million words detailing their views on freedom and equality. Advanced AI models then distilled this extensive dialogue into core summary statements, which form the basis for the ideals presented in this Declaration.

Each substantive element of the Declaration received better than 70% agreement from those participating, and was approved by at least two-thirds of Congressional Districts.

In the video above, Scott presented the Declaration of American Ideals at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, outside of which stands the Liberty Bell. It reads:

250 years ago, 56 delegates from 13 newly independent states gathered to proclaim independence from Great Britain and formally launch an exceptional new nation. But the conversations that built this new nation were not limited to  Independence Hall.

The Declaration of Independence was a formal expression of thousands of conversations held throughout the colonies, creating a true “expression of the American mind.”

Today, we continue on this tradition of conversations and declarations with a new Declaration of American Ideals, highlighting powerful common ground surrounding our nation’s founding ideals of freedom and equality.

This declaration stems from the “We The People” project, a unique national initiative to define shared American values led by the Napolitan Institute leading up to America’s 250th anniversary.

We invite all to read, embrace and amplify this declaration as a continuation of our nation’s founding ideals, and as a guiding document for the nation’s next 250 years and beyond.

It’s not so different than what our Founding Fathers came up with in 1776, because those ideals are baked into the American character.

Of course, it’s not the case that these ideas are bound to endure on their own. However “self evident” they appear to many peo

ple who grew up with them, throughout history, those ideas weren’t considered so self evident to most people. Just as we all have within us the ability to discern, at least within limits, what morality and fairness demand of us, the temptations of taking advantage of opportunities to break with them is too much for many people to resist. 

Tyranny looks great if you are a tyrant. Taking advantage of others is irresistible to many if they can get away with it. The strong are tempted to take advantage of the weak. The world is fallen. 

It’s often easy to justify deviating from principles just this once, either to advantage oneself, or to do some seemingly good thing. That’s how you get seemingly decent people throwing people in jail for “hate speech,” and other seemingly decent people nodding along as if that is a good thing. Many horrible things are done in the name of doing good. Most of all, when power is handed to people in order to create a utopia. 

It’s easier to fight criminals than utopians, but utopians are far more dangerous. That’s why it’s so important to keep reminding people of the principles we take for granted, lest we start excusing violations of them in the name of doing good things. Even in politics, the tyrant, while terrible, has a limiting principle for how far he will oppress people: he only does it if it helps him become richer or more powerful, but otherwise he cares little for what you think or do. 

A utopian wants to control every aspect of your life, including what you think. 

As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, it’s important to recognize that the American people are not nearly as divided as our political system.

They overwhelmingly continue to embrace our nation’s founding ideals of freedom, equality, and self-governance. People don’t talk…

— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) July 3, 2026

As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, it’s important to recognize that the American people are not nearly as divided as our political system.

They overwhelmingly continue to embrace our nation’s founding ideals of freedom, equality, and self-governance. People don’t talk like Thomas Jefferson any more, but the Spirit of ’76 can be felt loud and clear through a 21st century Declaration of American Ideals.

The principles we inherited from the Founding begin with the inherent dignity of the free individual and out of them the principles of governance are derived. Nobody sat down and constructed a vision of what a utopian country would look like, because it is built by the individuals freely working together, not the planners. 

Utopians start from the top down, and try to remake human beings to fit. That’s why utopian projects, like communism always fail. We don’t fit into the round holes because we are square pegs. 

Unfortunately, because the world is fallen, there are two main kinds of enemy to our society built on ordered liberty: the criminals, who want more than they earn or to destroy things for the sake of destroying them, and the utopians, who despise human beings as they are and want to reshape them in their own images. The second are more dangerous than the first, although they often seem harmless enough, even attractive to the unwary. 

Ronald Reagan understood this very well. When he was inaugurated as Governor of California, he spoke of the eternal struggle to preserve our freedom:

To a number of us, this is a first and hence a solemn and a momentous occasion, and yet, on the broad page of state and national history, what is taking place here is almost a commonplace routine. We are participating in the orderly transfer of administrative authority by direction of the people. And this is the simple magic of the commonplace routine, which makes it a near miracle to many of the worlds inhabitants. This continuing fact that the people, by democratic process, can delegate power, and yet retain the custody of it.

Perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle to properly be appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.  And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

Knowing this, it’s hard to explain those among us who even today would question the people’s capacity for self- government. I’ve often wondered if they will answer, those who subscribe to that philosophy: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, in increasing number lately at all levels of government, have sought control even of the means of production as if they could do this without eventually controlling those who produce. And always they explain this as necessary to the people’s welfare. “The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded.”  This was written in 1748, and it’s as true today as it was then.

Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, we are still participating in that great struggle. Utopians are promising that if we surrender our liberty to caretakers, we will be rewarded with ease and comfort, peace and prosperity. 

They call themselves socialists, and millions of people are flocking to them, believing those promises. Sometimes because freedom is hard; sometimes because they are lost and looking for purpose; sometimes because they lust for power. 

The Declaration of American Ideals is a good reminder that America still has a strong foundation of shared principles upon which to stand as we defend self-government. When prompted, most Americans will still speak of liberty and equality in terms that our Founders understood. 

That’s comforting. And reminds us what we have to fight for. 

Editor’s Note: It’s America’s 250th birthday! Help HotAir celebrate the greatest nation in history by honoring its past, defending its present, and preserving its future with reporting you can trust.

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