There is a line in the Declaration of Independence that every American learns but too few Americans remember:
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Not from the consent of the party. Not from the consent of the donors. Not from the consent of cable news anchors or algorithm-fed outrage machines. From the governed. From us.
This is not a partisan statement. It is the founding premise of the United States of America.
And right now, it is under threat — not from any single president, any single party, or any single ideology, but from a system that has trained us to fight each other instead of holding our government accountable.
Actually Govern exists because we believe it is time to remember what we were given — and what we are losing.
I need to be honest with you about something. EJ and I didn’t start this because we have all the answers. We started this because we couldn’t sleep. Because we kept watching people we love — smart, good, decent people — stop talking to each other over politics. Because we watched the same thing happen across dinner tables and comment sections and family group chats all over this country. We felt the frustration growing, and we began to lose hope.
But one night, instead of doomscrolling through another round of people screaming past each other, I started refreshing myself on American history and what the Founding Fathers actually intended for this nation. I went back to the source — the actual words of the people who built this thing. I discussed it with EJ, and he read up on it too. And what we found made us furious. Not at our neighbors. At the system that convinced us our neighbors are the enemy.
Because here’s what they don’t want you to realize: we aren’t nearly as divided as they need us to be. More Americans now identify as Independent than as Republican or Democrat — by 18 points. The division isn’t the reality. It’s the product. Take a moment and really think about that.
This project is our answer to that fury. It’s a website, a pledge, and a civic journalism project — and a stubborn refusal to pick a team. It’s ours, and now it’s yours too.
The Founders Warned Us. We Didn’t Listen.
The men who built this country did not agree on much. They argued bitterly about the size of government, about states’ rights, about foreign policy, about the economy. But on one thing, they were remarkably united: political parties would destroy the republic if left unchecked.
John Adams, our second president, wrote in 1780:
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
— John Adams, letter to Jonathan Jackson, 1780 (Adams, 1780, as cited in C. F. Adams, 1856, p. 378)
Thomas Jefferson, Adams’s greatest political rival, agreed:
“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.”
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789 (Jefferson, 1789, in Boyd et al., 1958)
Alexander Hamilton, who disagreed with Jefferson on almost everything, also saw the danger:
“Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.”
— Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787 (Hamilton, 1787/1904)
And George Washington devoted nearly a third of his Farewell Address — the most important political document of its era — to warning his fellow citizens about what he called “the baneful effects of the spirit of party.” He wrote:
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
— George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796 (Washington, 1796, as published by the U.S. Senate Historical Office)
Washington was not speaking hypothetically. He had already watched the rise of the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans tear at the fabric of the nation he had fought to create. He warned that “the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension… is itself a frightful despotism” (Washington, 1796).
Read that again. A frightful despotism. Not democracy. Not self-governance. Despotism — wearing the mask of freedom.
The Numbers Tell the Story
The founders’ warnings were not idle fears. They were prophecy. And the data proves it.
Americans are abandoning both parties in record numbers. According to Gallup’s 2025 annual survey of over 13,000 U.S. adults, a record-high 45% of Americans now identify as political independents — surpassing the previous record of 43% set in 2014, 2023, and 2024. Only 27% identify as Democrats and 27% as Republicans (Gallup, 2026).
Among Gen Z adults, the number is even more striking: 56% identify as independent (Gallup, 2026). An entire generation is looking at the two-party system and saying, no thank you.
Americans don’t trust their government. According to Pew Research Center’s long-running trust tracker, only 22% of Americans said they trust the federal government to do the right thing “just about always” or “most of the time” as of 2024 — compared to 73% in 1958 (Pew Research Center, 2025a). A staggering 85% of Americans say elected officials don’t care what people like them think (Pew Research Center, 2024a).
Americans don’t like either party. A record 28% of Americans hold unfavorable views of both the Democratic and Republican parties — up from just 7% two decades ago (Pew Research Center, 2024b). Just 15% say the Republican Party has “a lot of good ideas,” and only 8% say the same about the Democratic Party (Pew Research Center, 2025b).
And yet — Americans actually agree on far more than they realize.
When you strip away the party labels and ask people what they actually believe, the divisions shrink dramatically:
- 87% of Americans support congressional term limits — including 86% of Republicans, 80% of Democrats, and 84% of Independents (Pew Research Center, 2023; University of Maryland School of Public Policy, 2023).
- 77% say there should be limits on the amount of money individuals and organizations can spend on political campaigns (Pew Research Center, 2018).
- 62% say reducing the influence of money in politics should be a top priority — with 65% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans agreeing (Pew Research Center, 2024c).
- 73% rate strengthening the economy as the top policy priority, with large majorities of both parties agreeing (Pew Research Center, 2024c).
The division is the product. It is manufactured, marketed, and monetized. And it works — not because Americans are fundamentally divided, but because we have been sorted into teams and taught that the other side is the enemy.
Lincoln’s Promise. Our Responsibility.
Sixty-seven years after Washington’s Farewell Address, Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg over the graves of thousands of Americans who had died fighting each other. In ten sentences — the most consequential ten sentences in American history — he redefined what the war was about and what the nation owed its dead:
“…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863 (Lincoln, 1863, Bliss copy, Library of Congress)
Government of the people. By the people. For the people.
Not of the party. Not by the donors. Not for the re-election campaign.
Lincoln’s words were not poetry for its own sake. They were a challenge — to every generation that followed — to ensure that the principle of self-governance survives.
That challenge has never been more urgent than it is right now.
What We’re Doing About It
Actually Govern is not a political party. We are not asking you to join a team, donate to a campaign, or hate your neighbor.
We are a civic movement built on something radical: the belief that Americans are smart enough to think for themselves, brave enough to reject tribal loyalty, and powerful enough to demand a government that actually works.
The Drop the Party pledge is how we find each other — a public commitment to vote for people over parties, think independently, and hold every elected official accountable regardless of the letter next to their name. The Briefing is how we stay informed — sourced, cited, non-partisan civic journalism on the issues your civics class skipped and cable news won’t touch.
We are not here to tell you what to think. We are here to remind you that you should think — and then act.
What You Can Do Right Now
You don’t need us to save democracy. You need each other. But here is where you can start:
Think. Before you share, before you react, before you let the outrage take hold — ask yourself: Is this true? Who benefits from me being angry? Am I being informed or manipulated?
Speak. Talk to people who disagree with you. Not to convert them. Not to win. To understand. Jefferson wrote, “Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth” (Jefferson, 1815, letter to P. H. Wendover). That only works if we are willing to have the conversation.
Vote. Not for a party. For a principle. Study your local candidates. Read their actual positions. Vote in every election — especially the primaries and local races that actually shape your daily life.
Hold them accountable. Every single one of them. Regardless of the letter next to their name. They work for you. Remind them.
Drop the Party. Add your name to the record. Not because we asked you to — but because 45% of Americans have already figured out that the two-party system isn’t working for them, and the only way to change that is to stop pretending it does. Take the pledge here.
The Bottom Line
The Constitution begins with three words: We the People. Not “We the Republicans.” Not “We the Democrats.” Not “We the Algorithm” or “We the Outrage Machine.”
We the People.
The founders gave us the tools. The Declaration gave us the principle. The Constitution gave us the framework. Washington warned us. Lincoln reminded us. And 45% of Americans are already telling pollsters they’ve had enough of the partisan game.
The question is: what are we going to do about it?
We think it starts with remembering who the government works for. And it starts today.
Welcome to Actually Govern. The division is the product — and we’re not buying it.
References
Adams, J. (1780). Letter to Jonathan Jackson, October 2, 1780. In C. F. Adams (Ed.), The works of John Adams (Vol. 9, pp. 510–511). Little, Brown and Company, 1854.
Gallup. (2026, January 12). New high of 45% in U.S. identify as political independents. Gallup News. https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx
Hamilton, A. (1787). The Federalist No. 1. In H. C. Lodge (Ed.), The works of Alexander Hamilton (Federal ed., Vol. 1). G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904.
Jefferson, T. (1789). Letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789. The papers of Thomas Jefferson (J. P. Boyd, Ed.). Princeton University Press, 1958.
Jefferson, T. (1815). Letter to Peter H. Wendover (draft), March 13, 1815. In A. A. Lipscomb & A. E. Bergh (Eds.), The writings of Thomas Jefferson (Vol. 14). Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1905.
Lincoln, A. (1863, November 19). Gettysburg Address [Bliss copy]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/mal4356500/
Pew Research Center. (2018, May 8). Most Americans want to limit campaign spending, say big donors have greater political influence. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/05/08/most-americans-want-to-limit-campaign-spending-say-big-donors-have-greater-political-influence/
Pew Research Center. (2023, September 19). How Americans view proposals to change the political system. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/how-americans-view-proposals-to-change-the-political-system/
Pew Research Center. (2024a, June 24). Americans’ dismal views of the nation’s politics. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/americans-trust-in-federal-government-and-attitudes-toward-it/
Pew Research Center. (2024b). Political parties and polarization research. https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/politics-policy/political-parties-polarization/
Pew Research Center. (2024c, February 29). Stronger economy is Americans’ top policy priority for 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/29/americans-top-policy-priority-for-2024-strengthening-the-economy/
Pew Research Center. (2025a, December 4). Public trust in government: 1958–2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/12/04/public-trust-in-government-1958-2025/
Pew Research Center. (2025b, October 30). How Americans see the parties on key issues. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/10/30/how-americans-see-the-parties-on-key-issues/
University of Maryland School of Public Policy. (2023). Survey on congressional term limits [Report]. Program for Public Consultation.
Washington, G. (1796, September 17). Farewell address. U.S. Senate Historical Office. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf
Actually Govern is a project of Whimsy Books LLC d/b/a Actually Govern. We are non-partisan, unaffiliated with any political party, and committed to civic education over political tribalism.
