Indeed, every day we see neighbors working together to improve their lives, their communities, and the country.
Earlier this year, hundreds of residents of San Marcos, in Hays County, Texas, packed into public meetings with concerns about a new data center. The Caldwell/Hays Examiner, a local paper, summarized the sentiment: “Electricity bills may soon spike while access to clean water diminishes drastically, given the unfathomably giant data center on its way.”
The local government rejected the unpopular project, and similar efforts are taking place across the country. In every place the message is clear: the people who live there, not a distant tech company, should be in charge of the community’s resources.
Rural communities are also taking on Big Ag. For example, Grassroots Organizing of Western Wisconsin brought residents together and passed local safeguards that limit threats from factory farms and support family farmers, clean water and local infrastructure.
Iowans won a big victory against a global manufacturer of the pesticide glyphosate. Knowing their state’s unusually high cancer rates, Iowa Farmers Union mobilized from the bottom up and blocked a law that would have shielded Bayer, a billion-dollar corporation from accountability.
These patriotic efforts help fulfill the promise of “We the People.” They also show what’s possible when people come together to shape the decisions that affect our lives.
Unfortunately, few Americans feel in control right now. We face an unpredictable economy, cuts to health care, cruel and reckless ICE raids, and attacks on mail-in ballots. Even that recent win in Iowa was short lived—on June 25 the Supreme Court voted to sheild the German-based Bayer national immunity from lawsuits.
These are all symptoms of a single disease: a nation where too much power rests with an elite few rather than with ordinary Americans. That’s exactly what researchers at Topos Partnership found. After listening to nearly 5,000 Americans, we heard one idea emerge: The people are supposed to be in charge.
The real story isn’t Democrats versus Republicans, or newcomers versus citizens, or some fabricated clash of civilizations. The real story—the one that unifies and energizes—is about who decides. Do “We the People” govern ourselves, or are we ruled by concentrated power?
Most Americans in our research recognize that the answer to that question is complicated, but also that being reminded of our defining story could help heal a fractured nation. As one moderate Colorado man expressed, “When everyday people don’t feel in charge, it creates anger, frustration, bitterness. But when everyday people feel like they’re having an impact, it creates a sense of belonging.”
When ordinary people organize, mobilize, and refuse to accept the dictates of an elite few, America moves forward. We’ve seen it in workers establishing safer workplaces and the civil rights movement expanding “who counts” in our country. We decided our nation belonged to us—and acted like it.
Let America’s history and recent successes be the inspiration. This July 4, the most patriotic thing we can do is remember whose hands this country is supposed to be in: ours. When we come together, the people are in charge.
Meg Bostrom is the co-founder of Topos, a D.C.-based communications firm that operates on the principle that every communication either reinforces problematic ways of thinking, or advances transformative ideas that move our society forward.
Michael Chameides is Rural Democracy Initiative’s Communications and Policy Director and supports a rural network to engage communities and advocate for meaningful policy. As deputy minority leader on the Columbia County, NY, Board of Supervisors, he led successful affordable housing and public transit initiatives. He is the recipient of the 2023 Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation Friend of Labor Award. In 2022, the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement recognized his advocacy for immigrants and named him an Anniversary Honoree.
Elaine Meiji is a narrative and communications strategist for justice and the common good who is based in Faison, Duplin County, North Carolina.
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