In 2019 the Bridge Alliance held its annual summit of over 200 political and social change agents/leaders. The theme was strengthening democracy and evolving into a multicultural, pluralistic society that our founders envisioned but could not enact.
In preparation for the summit we turned to pop culture to build the connection between participants who didn't know each other, but who represented diverse backgrounds and opinions. We did so by crafting an agenda based on two songs from the Broadway show "Hamilton": "I'm Not Throwing Away My Shot" and "In the Room Where It Happens."
These two songs embody the political necessity that we found ourselves in two years ago and still do today. Those in the room felt the fierce urgency of our times coupled with the empowerment to make a difference in the nation and the world for the betterment of all.
We were all in The Room Where It Happened, a room where we felt the energy and collectively understood that we are a diverse nation and to thrive as a people we must provide room for more diverse perspectives.
In an interview about "Hamilton," Lin Manuel Miranda said: "The story of Hamilton where the biggest heroes of our revolutionary war for independence were a Scotsman from the West Indies, named Alexander Hamilton; a Frenchman, named Lafayette; and a gay German, named Friedrich von Steuben, who organized our army and taught us how to do drills. Immigrants have been present and necessary since the founding of our country. I think it's also a nice reminder that any fight we're having right now, politically, we already had 200-some odd years ago."
Our country needs more inspiration, such as provided by "Hamilton."
In many ways "Hamilton" expresses the daily struggle we witness in our country today, a struggle over the divisions separating us as a people. We take sides, blame others, and treat each other without love or a sense of empathy. How effective could we be if we took a stand for the health of our national family?
The Bridge Alliance summit in 2019 created a roadmap to a multicultural, pluralistic democracy and the songs of Hamilton helped set the tone.
We must embrace our diversity as the operating system of our nation. Despite our many frailties, America is exceptional because from the outset its citizens saw themselves as participants in an experiment that would have implications for all of mankind. Our task is far from complete.
Hamiltunes has engaged millions of young Americans and is a powerful tool in engaging Americans of all ages in our democratic process.
Please listen to two "Hamilton songs," "My Shot" and "The Room Where it Happens" and offer us your thoughts:
- What is your shot and how can you make a difference?
- What is your vision for healthy self-governance?
- How else were you inspired by those songs?
And who can forget the warning of King George III, the authoritarian our founders threw off? Let's figure out how to get along and self-govern.
You may email us at pop-culture@fulcrum.us.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.