‘Civic 250’ in America! (Part 2 of 2): What It’s Going to Take for Us to be Seen as a Shining ‘City on a Hill’ in 2026 and Beyond

Preview Summary –

• The ‘Redistricting Genie’ is out the bottle, which will further remove the supporting mechanism that helped to ensure that African Americans weren’t disenfranchised at the voting booth.
• There’s GPS in the tech space, and PGS in the civic space. GPS helps us avoid going in circles during travel. PGS, Public Good Sense helps us navigate towards a more perfect Union.
• ‘Civic 250’ need not be just about the case where “Hometown 1776 Meets America’s 250^th in 2026.” It should also be an effort towards a new vision for America’s next chapter.

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It was the breaking national news story coming from a Supreme Court ruling. Basically, the message was that the ‘Redistricting Genie’ is out the bottle. The decision, which continued to dismantle the Voting Rights Act, was another dagger to the idea of ‘one man, one vote’. It basically further removed the supporting mechanism that helped to ensure that African Americans weren’t disenfranchised at the voting booth. Before the ink could dry or the dust settle, states began moving on redistricting efforts that would minimize the value of the black vote.

For those who haven’t been keeping track or wondering what’s the big deal, let’s do a deep dive. Without getting too much in the weeds, consider the at-home gardener planting a young plant, or the farmer stabilizing a tree that was uprooted by a storm. They’ll try to secure the young plant or the damaged tree with a plant stake. This way it will have support in growing through its young life or coming back from battling strong winds. In a sense that was the purpose of the Voting Rights Act. America as a young nation didn’t allow blacks equal access to voting. There were many hinderance put in the way. Even after the 15^th Amendment, they still battled against disenfranchisement storms like poll taxes and literary tests. So, the Voting Right Act was meant as a kind of ‘plant stake’ to support and value black participation in the electoral process.

Now, usually after a while the gardener or farmer will remove the plant stake as the young tree has grown up or the damaged tree has regained its footing. However, the difference we have here in America is that when we think America has grown up, it goes right back to the old tactics but dressed in a different outfit. History has shown that when that happens, suffrage movements are born to help rally America to live up to its ideals. Over the past 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, that has repeated itself as ‘we the people’ decided on next-level steps in civic engagement, social impact and public good:   

• Human Rights: The ‘Declaration of the Rights of Men’ came out of the French Revolution in 1789 and served as a framework for treating people with dignity and respect.
• Women’s Rights: The ‘Declaration of Sentiments’ from the women’s suffrage movement in the 1860s, made the case for being treated as more than just housewives or handmaid’s tales.
• Civil Rights: Preceding the founding of the NAACP by W.E.B. Dubois, Ida B. Wells and others in the early 1900s, was the Niagara Movement’s ‘Declaration of Principles’ calling for racial equality.
• Political Standards: The ‘Declaration of Conscience’ written by Margaret Chase Smith and other U.S. Senators in the 1950s, rebuked far-right ideology of fear, bigotry, racism and nativism.

How might we work to avoid this repeating cycle of going in circles? In the tech space there’s GPS, and in the civic space there’s PGS. We know GPS means Global Positioning System and is the capability to travel east, west, north and south and not lose your bearing on the way to your destination. Well, PGS means Public Good Sense and is the civic equivalent to GPS. PGS works like a tool, process or capability to help us navigate our way for America’s next chapter, towards a more perfect Union. In other words, PGS is our ‘we the people’ navigation system equivalent to GPS, helping us get to our desired destination.   

Maybe the redistricting climate these days proves that America still has trouble being believed about living up to its ideals. It’s a reminder of the difficulty in having legislation that can be a total stopgap for the schemes in the heart of man. It also shows though that without legislation serving as a ‘tree stake’ in supporting the rights of others, the next political storm or campaign slogan will simply run roughshod by overriding or uprooting previous legislation. That’s how we might understand America in a nutshell over the past 250+ years, as many look to celebrate its birthday with pomp and pageantry. But now that the Redistricting Genie is out the bottle, some real work is needed around America’s:

1. Promise

The idea of equal rights, is in its simplest terms seen in those words from the Declaration of Independence which says, “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Over the years, that promise has battled between Supreme Court rulings and congressional billings. In one breath there’re actions to have equal seen as wishful thinking and in another breath where equal is made to feel like there’s hope for getting there. That back-and-forth was once described as blacks being put in a situation or condition of ‘wrongs with no remedy’.

2. Policy

The Reconstruction period saw new hopes arise. Not long after, those hopes were dashed by policy reversals and back door deals of disenfranchisement. Then came the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy vs Ferguson that formalized what became known as “separate but equal”. That ruling opened the door to policies which gave a turbo-boost to Jim Crow and segregation. It wasn’t until the Supreme Court’s Brown vs Board of Education ruling in 1954 where segregation was outlawed. Here we are in 2026 dealing with a similar cycle, in the opposite direction with the Voting Rights Act on the chopping block.        

3. Prosperity

The Declaration of Independence goes on to say, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. In the draft version of the Declaration, it spoke of “life, liberty and property.” That subtle shift is often overlooked and might speak to the shift America has had to make but at times continues to forsake. Back in the early days, property was the marker for having the right to vote or serve in public office. But since many were left off the property distribution line, they still pursued their happiness based on opened doors in shared opportunity. Today, some Americans are still mad about others getting a chance at the American dream.   

4. Posterity

What happened in America’s early founding was next level stuff. But along the way, there were efforts to hold some groups back where things weren’t a level playing field. The Constitution speaks to an ongoing process that America should live by, which is “to form a more perfect Union.” That might be understood in a family context where with a posterity mindset we try to pass on to our children and grandchildren the opportunity for a better life. What we might take away from the founders 250+ years later is that we gotta strive as a nation to forge next level actions for the here and now as well as for posterity.    

So, ‘Civic 250’ need not be just about the case where “Hometown 1776 Meets America’s 250^th in 2026.” It should also be an effort towards a new vision for America’s next chapter, with a conviction around unity of purpose, voice for social justice and view for a more perfect Union. An important question that needs to be answered in our modern times is whether people really want to deliver solutions or do they simply want to monetize keeping the problem going? Thomas Paine lived as if he worked for the Department of Common Sense. These days we need to live as if we work for the Department of Public Good Sense.

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