Chang is the co-founder and CEO of GenUnity, a civic wellbeing nonprofit. Reid, a rising senior at Yale majoring in history, is a special assistant to the CEO.
The Fourth of July was painful for many Americans. The first half of 2022 brought the war in Ukraine; mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and across the country; and most recently the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. In the midst of these upheavals, feelings of celebration felt out of touch with this somber moment in our nation’s story.
At the same time, this week provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the legacy of July Fourth as the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a visionary statement of not only what the United States of America can become but how we can build our more perfect union.
Our Declaration of Independence sets out a revolutionary vision: equality as the bedrock of freedom. In pronouncing independence, the founders justified their revolutionary action with universal principles of human equality. Not only that we are all created equal, but each of us is the best judge of our own happiness. And, as a result, it is only through the practice of understanding each others’ lived experiences and engaging as equal co-owners in the design of a system of self-governance that we can build a society free from oppression and tyranny.
A community for everyone has to be built by everyone. Recently, however, this foundational principle feels evermore distant due to extreme attacks on voting rights, rampant gerrymandering and the everyday exclusions of those who may not share our views – whether in schools, social settings or the workplace.
Fortunately, as the Declaration lays out, we have the power to change this through the practice of everyday democracy:
- Take your passion for an issue and seek out those across your community who are experiencing or addressing it.
- Reflect carefully on whose perspectives you haven’t heard and ask yourself whether your understanding of someone else’s perspective is rooted in proximity to their lived experience.
- Build diverse relationships rooted in compassion for each others’ shared humanity.
- Act strategically to drive change with the best of what you know today, while welcoming continuous feedback and the opportunity to learn from those most proximate to the issues
With each rep, you’ll strengthen your democratic muscle, deepen feelings of agency, purpose and resilience, and spark positive change in your community.
Admittedly, in the context of our hyper-polarization and the fierce urgency of now, the practice of everyday democracy can feel like placing a feather on the scales of justice. The hard truth is this is what democracy demands. Democracy asks us to be vulnerably honest about our differences, to extend compassion in conflict, and to believe that the honest effort of millions working together to build a better society will actually result in one. There is no escape from this uncomfortable truth.
Yet in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds, we find faith in an equally powerful truth – that we have no choice but to try.
We can do what we must because we must do what we can. In choosing to practice everyday democracy, we persist and invite our fellow Americans to join a lifelong project to uphold our inextricable ideals of equality and freedom.
Americans across the political spectrum have continued to ask about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections among the political elite. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.