Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

The Great American Rewrite: Time to Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution

Opinion

U.S. Constitution

As concerns grow about Project 2025 and a potential Article V Constitutional Convention, the #unifyUSA movement proposes Citizens’ Assemblies and a “Great American Rewrite” to renew the U.S. Constitution through a democratic, citizen-led process.

alancrosthwaite/Getty Images

We are standing at the edge of a precipice—and the Constitution, once a beacon of hope, is being hijacked as a prop in an anti-constitutional power grab.

On June 14, 2025, I watched with a grief-stricken heart as tanks rolled down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. It was billed as a patriotic military parade. But behind the red, white, and blue spectacle lies a dark agenda: a coordinated effort to dismantle our democracy from within. At the heart of this effort is the Project 2025 movement—a sweeping agenda to concentrate power in the executive branch, erode the rule of law, curtail civil liberties, and roll back hard-fought rights. Now, there is growing momentum for a dark money-controlled Article V Constitutional Convention that could place our founding document into the hands of these partisan extremists and anti-democratic dark money interests.


We saw the signs. We've read the playbook. And we say: Not on our watch.

#unifyUSA is a rising inter-partisan citizens' movement committed to a different path. We're not here to defend a broken system. We're here to reimagine it. That's why we've launched The Great American Rewrite—a nationwide effort to hit refresh on the U.S. Constitution through a democratic process rooted in the voice and will of the people.

The foundation of this effort is the creation of State Citizens' Assemblies—deliberative bodies of everyday Americans who reflect the full diversity of each state. Unlike the potential Article V convention driven by political elites, these assemblies aren't run by politicians or pundits. They are guided by the principles of fairness, inclusion, and public trust. While partisan forces seek to capture constitutional change through traditional political channels, the proposed State Citizens Assemblies create an alternative pathway where citizens engage in deep listening, honest dialogue, and collaborative problem-solving about fundamental democratic reforms.

Consider how a Citizens' Assembly might tackle campaign finance reform—an issue that unites Americans across party lines who are frustrated by corporate influence in politics. Rather than leaving this to politicians with conflicts of interest, ordinary citizens could deliberatively examine various approaches, from public financing to transparency requirements, and craft solutions that serve the public rather than special interests.

From Colorado to South Carolina, Maryland to Nevada, citizens are coming together across lines of party, race, generations, and geography to accelerate this work of democratic renewal. We are not alone in this vision. The Grand Bargain Project represents a cross-ideological effort to create consensus on shared constitutional principles, including equal representation, checks and balances, individual liberty, rule of law, ethical governance, and commitment to the common good. These frameworks demonstrate that Americans of different political perspectives can find substantial agreement on democratic fundamentals when they engage in good-faith dialogue rather than partisan combat.

That's why we are calling on every state in the nation to establish and convene a State Citizens' Assembly by April 2026. These assemblies will lay the groundwork for a National Citizens' Assembly and a public vote on a refreshed Constitution by July 4, 2026—our nation's 250th birthday. While this timeline is ambitious, the urgency of our democratic crisis demands we begin this vital work immediately, building momentum state by state until we reach critical mass for national transformation. If we let an authoritarian regime take hold, it could entrench its power for tragic decades ahead.

This movement explicitly welcomes skeptics and conservatives who worry about constitutional changes. We share concerns about preserving what works in our system while addressing what clearly doesn't. The Citizens' Assembly process itself provides safeguards through its emphasis on deliberation, diverse representation, and transparency that traditional political processes lack.

We don't need to tear down the Constitution. We need to breathe new life into it, reclaiming it as a living promise rather than allowing it to become a weapon in partisan warfare. That promise must be forged in public, by citizens—not captured in private by dark money, elites, or extremists.

The Great American Rewrite is not about left versus right. It's about bottom-up versus top-down. It's about ordinary Americans taking back the authorship of our democracy.

Here's how you can join us: Call on your Governor and State Legislators to launch a Citizens Assembly in your state. After signing, you'll be part of a movement that will drive the transformation from a dark money-driven democracy to a participatory citizen-driven democracy. This is how we build the infrastructure for genuine democratic renewal—one citizen, one community, one state at a time.

The future is calling. We can be the answer. This is our moment to choose authorship over apathy.

America. Under New Management. Ours.


Dr. Paul Zeitz is the Co-Founder of #unifyUSA, an inter-partisan citizens' movement dedicated to Hit Refresh the U.S. Constitution through Citizens’ Assemblies and author of Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution: A Revolutionary Roadmap for Fulfilling on the Promise of Democracy and Revolutionary Optimism: 7 Steps for Living as a Love-Centered Activist.

Read More

Capitol Building.

An in-depth examination of the erosion of checks and balances in the United States, exploring Project 2025, executive overreach, and the growing strain on constitutional democracy—and the critical role of citizens in preserving it.

Getty Images, Rudy Sulgan

The Mirror Has Cracked: How the Three Branches Failed America

James Madison warned that the government would always mirror human nature — its virtues and its flaws. “What is government itself,” he asked, “but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” The United States was built on a radical promise: a participatory government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Today, that mirror is cracking in real time. What once reflected a nation striving toward freedom and equality now reflects something far more chaotic — a government drifting from its constitutional purpose and reshaped by loyalty tests, political revenge, and a blueprint designed to consolidate power.

In 2026, that reflection is unmistakable: a government shaped not by three independent branches, but by a president’s loyalists and a coordinated plan to remake American democracy from the inside out. The framers built guardrails — separation of powers, checks and balances, and independent institutions — to prevent the rise of authoritarian rule. Yet the country now faces a blueprint, Project 2025, that overrides those protections by placing independent agencies under presidential control, replacing civil servants with loyalists, and weaponizing the Department of Justice. This is not drift. It is design. And it has left the nation with a government that no longer reflects the people but instead reflects the ambitions of those who seek power without accountability.

Keep ReadingShow less
Independents and Republicans May Hold the Power in Los Angeles – If They Actually Vote
Image: Jamie Phamon Alamy. Image licensed obtained and used by IVN Editor Shawn Griffiths

Independents and Republicans May Hold the Power in Los Angeles – If They Actually Vote

Los Angeles voters are heading into a June 2 primary that may settle far more than who advances to November.

Under the Los Angeles City Charter, any candidate who clears 50% of the primary vote wins outright. No runoff. No November election. That rule turns the June primary into the only election in several of the city's most closely watched contests.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Hidden Infrastructure of Democracy: Professionalizing and Diversifying Election Staff

Dr. Shaniqua Williams, assistant professor of political science

The Hidden Infrastructure of Democracy: Professionalizing and Diversifying Election Staff

Earlier this year, the Bridge Alliance and the National Academy of Public Administration launched the Fellows for Democracy and Public Service Initiative to strengthen the country's civic foundations. This fellowship unites the Academy’s distinguished experts with the Bridge Alliance’s cross‑sector ecosystem to elevate distributed leadership throughout the democracy reform landscape. Instead of relying on traditional, top‑down models, the program builds leadership ecosystems—spaces where people share expertise, prioritize collaboration, and use public‑facing storytelling to renew trust in democratic institutions. Each fellow grounds their work in one of six core sectors essential to a thriving democratic republic.

Below is an interview with Dr. Shaniqua Williams, Assistant Professor at West Virginia University. Her research focuses on state politics, race and ethnicity, Black political behavior, Black women’s descriptive and substantive representation, and election administration. She is also a Research Fellow with the Center for Election Innovation and Research, where her work focuses on election administration, workforce development, infrastructure, and policy.

Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy Isn’t Eroding. It’s Evolving. The Question Is: Toward What?
a group of flags

Democracy Isn’t Eroding. It’s Evolving. The Question Is: Toward What?

I fell in love with democracy before I fully understood it.

In high school civics classes in the 1990s, I learned about a system that was imperfect in its origins but evolving toward something better. I believed in that evolution. I believed that democracy, if nurtured, could become more inclusive than the one it started as.

Keep ReadingShow less