Your Civic Duty As America’s New Majority

Welcome back to Independent Times. With trust in government at a record low of 22%, it's time to ask a critical question: What is our civic duty in fixing this mess?

Host Lisa Singer, along with co-hosts Leyla Gullen and Bryan Gallo, explores the "core covenant" of American citizenship, from George Washington’s promise to the JFK ideal. We argue that the independent majority is now responsible for restoring the republic.

We unpack:

• The Core Covenant: The history and definition of the bargain: government provides protection and liberty, and citizens provide accountability and engagement.

• Duty vs. Responsibility: We examine the crucial role of independent voters in revitalizing a self-governing republic by fulfilling their civic duty and responsibility through active engagement, drawing inspiration from historical movements that leveraged the First Amendment to demand accountability.

• The First Amendment Superpowers: We demonstrate how independent changemakers throughout history, such as the Women's Suffragists and Civil Rights Protestors, activated their rights to force systemic change and hold officials accountable:

• The Ongoing Fight: We examine the modern threat to voting rights, including the 79 restrictive laws passed since 2020 and the persistence of closed primaries in 22 states.

The Independent Majority is now the largest voting bloc, and we are the key to overcoming partisan infighting and forcing solutions.

Independent Hero of the Week: The League of Women Voters (LWV), a non-partisan organization founded by suffragists in 1920, empowering citizens through election information at VOTE411.org.

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Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro: George Washington's Core Covenant of Citizenship

• 02:30 The Paradox of Apathy (Why Citizens Check Out)

• 04:00 The Price of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance

• 06:30 The Purpose of Government is Human Happiness (Jefferson's Metric)

• 08:00 Demanding Inclusion (The Frederick Douglass/Lincoln Lesson)

• 10:00 Superpowers of the American Citizen (The First Amendment Toolkit)

• 12:00 Civic Duty vs. Civic Responsibility (Formal vs. Proactive)

• 15:00 History Proves Engagement Works (Voting and Protesting)

• 17:00 Peaceably Assemble: The Civil Rights Movement Triumph

• 19:00 Free Press: Watergate and Accountability

• 21:00 Petition the Government: The Women's Suffrage Victory

• 24:00 The Living Fight: 79 Restrictive Voting Laws Since 2020

• 26:00 Shelby v. Holder and the Weakening of the Voting Rights Act Clip

• 28:00 LBJ's Call to Action (Framing Voting Rights as a Universal Duty)

• 30:00 Independent Hero: The League of Women Voters

Chapters

• (00:00:01) - Independent Voters: These Are Independent Times
• (00:01:59) - Independent Times: Low Trust in our Government
• (00:03:57) - The role of independents in the 2020 election
• (00:09:41) - Civic Duty and Civic Responsibility
• (00:15:15) - Why Americans Should Get Out to Vote
• (00:18:53) - Non-violence
• (00:20:36) - The Fight for Voting Rights
• (00:29:34) - A Centennial Celebration of the League of Women Voters