THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 39

NATIONAL SERVICE & CIVICS EDUCATION: STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

To the People of the United States,

A Republic cannot survive without an informed and engaged citizenry. A democracy cannot function when its people no longer understand their rights, their duties, or the weight of their own voice. A nation cannot endure when its people are divided, when civic ignorance breeds distrust, and when service to the country is seen as someone else’s burden, rather than the shared responsibility of every American. The United States once knew these truths. It understood that democracy is not self-sustaining, that it must be nurtured, taught, and reinforced through duty and education. But today, we have abandoned this understanding. We have let civic knowledge decay, allowed patriotism to be hijacked by blind partisanship, and forgotten that service to country is not an obligation of the few, but a calling for all. No more. The Washington Union Party will restore civic education and national service as pillars of our democracy, ensuring that every citizen understands, participates in, and strengthens the Republic.

Look around at what we have become. Schools that once taught the Constitution now barely mention it. Students graduate knowing how to take a standardized test but not how their own government functions. We have raised generations who do not understand their own rights, who cannot name the three branches of government, who have been taught to treat politics as a team sport rather than the solemn duty of a free people. The consequences are everywhere—low voter turnout, blind partisanship, and a growing sense of disillusionment with the very system our ancestors fought to create. A people ignorant of their own democracy cannot defend it. A citizenry that does not understand its own power will surrender it without resistance. And those who seek to rule rather than serve count on this ignorance.

This is not by accident. This is not neglect. This is deliberate sabotage, a slow and systematic dismantling of civic knowledge designed to create a passive, obedient, and ignorant public. The enemies of democracy do not need to burn books when they can simply erase history from the classroom. They do not need to silence voices when they can ensure that entire generations never hear them in the first place. This is what is happening right now—under the banner of “patriotic education,” under the guise of “protecting children,” under the falsehood of “removing bias.” The far right, those who masquerade as defenders of the Constitution, are leading an all-out assault against education, gutting the very knowledge that makes democracy possible.

They do not want students to learn about the Constitution; they want them to memorize a whitewashed version of history where the Founding Fathers were infallible, where America was always just, where questioning the government is seen as radical rather than essential. They do not want students to understand the struggle for civil rights, for women’s equality, for LGBTQ+ rights, because these stories prove that democracy is only as strong as those willing to fight for it. They do not want students to know that America’s history is one of both triumph and oppression, because to acknowledge injustice is to demand its correction.

The push to erase Black history, to censor books that tell the stories of those who were enslaved, lynched, and segregated, is not just an academic debate—it is a direct attack on civic awareness. Because a nation that does not teach its people about its own sins will repeat them. The stripping of women’s history from curriculums, the removal of LGBTQ+ figures from textbooks, the rewriting of civil rights struggles into sanitized, feel-good narratives—these are not just attacks on education, they are attacks on democracy itself. When students are denied the truth, when they are taught a mythology rather than history, they are easier to manipulate. They are easier to control. And that is exactly the point.

Thomas Jefferson warned that "an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." And yet, we now live in an era where education is under siege, where facts are labeled as “woke” and where teaching history is treated as an act of defiance rather than a necessity. The goal of these efforts is clear: keep the public ignorant, keep the people divided, keep the ruling class unchallenged. Because a people who do not know their history will never fight for their future.

This is why civic education is more than just a school subject—it is the foundation of democracy itself. The Washington Union Party will not allow history to be erased. We will not allow politicians to rewrite reality to serve their own power. We will demand that every student in America learns the full, unvarnished history of this nation—the good, the bad, the struggles, and the victories. We will ensure that every American understands their rights, their role in governance, and their power to hold leaders accountable.

The decline of civic education is not an accident. It is not a coincidence. It is the deliberate consequence of decades of neglect, the product of a society more interested in churning out workers than citizens. It is the result of a political class that benefits from apathy, that thrives when the people remain disengaged and uninformed. This is a national disgrace. A Republic that does not teach its own people how to govern themselves is not a Republic at all—it is a slow-moving aristocracy, where power consolidates in the hands of the few while the many drift into passive obedience. This will not stand.

The Washington Union Party will make civic education a national priority once again. We will ensure that every student in America graduates with a deep, unshakable understanding of their government, their history, and their rights. We will restore the teaching of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the great struggles of this nation—not as dry relics of the past, but as living lessons that define who we are. We will ensure that no child leaves school without understanding how to vote, how to engage with their representatives, how to participate in the great experiment of self-governance. We will not raise another generation of passive spectators. We will raise a generation of active citizens.

But education alone is not enough. A nation must be bound by something stronger than knowledge alone—it must be bound by duty, by service, by a shared commitment to the greater good. For too long, we have treated national service as something only for those in uniform, as a burden borne by the few while the many watch from the sidelines. This is a failure of national vision. Service to country must not be an option for the few—it must be an opportunity for all.

A nation that does not instill a sense of duty in its people is a nation that will decay from within. A Republic that does not demand something from its citizens is not a Republic at all—it is an empty shell, a place where privilege is inherited but responsibility is ignored. For generations, Americans understood this. The call to serve was not a suggestion, it was an expectation. John F. Kennedy did not ask if service was convenient when he declared, "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." The Founders did not build this nation on passive citizenship, but on active participation, on the belief that democracy is a contract that must be upheld by every generation.

Yet today, service is a relic, an afterthought. Fewer than one percent of Americans serve in the military. Public service programs limp along, underfunded and neglected. The concept of duty has been twisted into an obligation for only the poorest, while the privileged are handed a free pass. This is a betrayal—not just of those who do serve, but of the very concept of a national identity. A country where only the few carry the weight of duty while the many reap its benefits is not a nation—it is a house of cards, waiting to collapse under the weight of its own complacency.

This is why we must restore national service—not as a punishment, not as a forced conscription, but as a unifying force that binds the American people together in common purpose. This does not mean only military service. National service means teaching in underfunded schools, building homes in struggling communities, conserving public lands, assisting in disaster relief, caring for veterans, and strengthening the civic fabric of this nation. It means an America where every young person has the opportunity to serve—not for profit, not for partisan advantage, but for the good of their fellow citizens.

We do not need another generation of passive consumers. We need a generation of builders, of leaders, of citizens who understand that democracy is not a spectator sport. The Washington Union Party will fight for a National Service Corps, where every American is given the opportunity—not the obligation, but the opportunity—to serve for one or two years in a program that strengthens both the individual and the nation. We will ensure that those who serve are rewarded, with educational benefits, job training, and a lifelong commitment to the idea that democracy is not just a system, but a duty.

There will be those who resist. There will be those who sneer at the idea of service, who balk at the notion that they should be asked to give something back to the nation that has given them everything. To them, we say this: America is not a privilege to be inherited. It is a duty to be upheld. And those who refuse to serve in any form have no right to claim the full benefits of a system built on the sacrifices of others.

A nation that does not teach its young to serve will raise a generation that expects everything and gives nothing. That is not democracy. That is decline. The Washington Union Party will not stand for it. We will forge a new generation of Americans—not just citizens in name, but citizens in action. We will build a country where service is not an obligation but a point of pride, where the act of giving back is not left to the few but embraced by the many. The time for passive citizenship is over. The time for action is now. And we will not stop until service to country is restored as the highest calling of an American.

This is not a radical idea. It is the very principle upon which this nation was built. The Founders knew that a Republic survives not by the virtue of its leaders, but by the virtue of its people. The greatest generations of this nation were forged in shared struggle, in common purpose, in the knowledge that democracy is not something one observes—it is something one defends, one builds, one strengthens. This is what we have forgotten. And this is what we will restore.

Let those who resist reform be warned: the American people will not wait for you to act. The decline of civic knowledge, the erosion of duty, the corrosion of national unity—these are not abstract threats. They are the seeds of national decay. We will not let this nation fall into apathy. We will not allow democracy to wither in the hands of a disengaged people. The Washington Union Party will not stand by while this Republic drifts into ignorance. We will restore civic education. We will establish national service. We will ensure that every American knows not just their rights, but their responsibilities.

A Republic that does not demand participation is a Republic already lost. The Founders did not carve out a system of self-governance for a passive people, for citizens who simply exist within its borders but do nothing to uphold its principles. James Madison warned that "a popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy." That tragedy is unfolding before us now. We are witnessing a nation where people demand freedom but reject the responsibility that comes with it. Where rights are shouted about, but duties are ignored. Where political engagement is reduced to social media outrage rather than active participation in governance. And those who seek to consolidate power, those who wish to rule rather than serve, count on this. They count on the people knowing nothing, doing nothing, questioning nothing.

They want a generation of Americans who do not know how to vote, who do not understand the Constitution, who cannot see through the manipulation of those who wish to divide them. They want an electorate that can be controlled, not one that can challenge them. This is not just neglect; this is a war against an informed citizenry. Every attack on civic education, every effort to strip service and sacrifice from the national character, every move to turn Americans against one another is a deliberate assault on the Republic itself. A nation of apathetic, disengaged citizens is a nation that is ripe for the taking.

The Washington Union Party will not allow this. We will restore civic education not as a formality, but as a pillar of national survival. We will ensure that every student in this country knows not just their rights, but their role in defending them. We will instill a sense of duty in every American—not through force, but through the undeniable reality that democracy does not survive unless the people fight for it. We will make service an opportunity, not a burden, a unifier, not a divider. We will ensure that this nation is not just populated with citizens, but with patriots in action, engaged in their communities, invested in their government, and relentless in their defense of liberty.

To those who resist this, who seek to weaken the Republic through ignorance and division, understand this: we will not stop. We will not let democracy be hollowed out by apathy. We will not allow civic duty to be seen as an outdated relic. We will reclaim what has been lost. And when the history of this era is written, it will not be remembered as the time when America surrendered to ignorance, but as the moment when the American people fought back and rebuilt their Republic with knowledge, duty, and an unshakable commitment to democracy.

The time for complacency is over. The time for action is now. This Republic will not fall—not on our watch.

The time for neglect is over. The time for action is now. We will strengthen democracy. We will teach every citizen what it means to be free. We will ensure that this Republic does not merely survive, but thrives for generations to come. And we will do it not with words alone, but with action, with education, with service, with the unbreakable will of a people who refuse to let their nation fail. This is the fight before us. And we will not lose.

A democracy that does not evolve is a democracy that is already dying. A Republic that does not adapt, that does not renew itself with the participation of its people, will crumble under its own weight. We have seen this before—great nations, mighty empires, once thought invincible, rotted from within because their people became complacent, because their leaders chose stagnation over progress. Rome did not fall to an invading army—it collapsed under the burden of corruption, of civic decay, of a people who abandoned their responsibility to govern themselves. And now, in the 21st century, the United States stands at that same precipice. The question before us is not one of left or right. It is not a question of old ideologies or partisan games. The question before us is whether we will move forward or fall backward into the abyss of failed democracies.

The time for performative patriotism is over. The time for blind allegiance to parties, for empty slogans and mindless tribalism, must end. This is not about being a Democrat or a Republican.

It is not about choosing a side—it is about choosing the future. We are not fighting for an agenda; we are fighting for the continuation of self-governance itself. We are fighting against ignorance, against apathy, against a political class that would rather see the people divided and docile than informed and engaged. This is not radical. This is survival.

We will not let this Republic die in darkness. We will not allow it to be strangled by a political elite that thrives on dysfunction. We will educate, we will serve, and we will build a new American era where every citizen understands their power and wields it with purpose. Every revolution in history has been driven not by those in power, but by the people who realized that power belonged to them all along. From the patriots who defied the British crown to the suffragists who shattered the chains of disenfranchisement, from the civil rights leaders who faced down oppression to the workers who built this nation from the ground up—progress has always come from those who refused to accept decay. And now, it falls to us.

We will teach every American that freedom is not inherited; it is earned. That democracy is not a birthright; it is a duty. That the Republic is not preserved by the government alone, but by the people who demand that it works for them. And we will not wait for permission. We will not wait for corrupt politicians to fix what they have broken. We will fix it ourselves. We will take this country forward.

The enemies of progress will sneer. They will say that civic education, national service, and engaged citizenship are “too idealistic.” They will say that an America where people serve and learn, where they fight for their own democracy, is too ambitious. They will say that unity is impossible. To them, we say: watch us.

We are not asking for permission. We are not waiting for a savior. We are not looking to the past for answers. We are moving forward. The Washington Union Party stands for one thing above all: the survival and renewal of the Republic. And we will see it through. We will build a stronger democracy. We will forge an America that is more informed, more engaged, and more resilient than ever before. The time for waiting is over. The time for excuses is gone. The time to act is now.

This is not left. This is not right. This is forward.