Two hundred fifty years ago today, 56 men who did not agree on much sat in a room in Philadelphia and did something almost unthinkable. They pledged not to a king, not to a party, not even to a set of policies they all endorsed, but to each other. Their lives. Their fortunes. Their sacred honor. Not to the people who agreed with them. To each other.
Today is that day. July 4, 2026. The semiquincentennial. Two hundred and fifty years since a group of farmers, lawyers, merchants, and printers, who argued fiercely with one another over what kind of country they were even building — signed their names to a single piece of paper and bet everything on the idea that free people could govern themselves.
Think about the full gravity of that for a minute; because a day like this doesn't come around twice in a lifetime. None of us were here for the 100th. None of us will be here for the 400th. Every generation before us has had to decide, in its own way, whether the experiment was still worth carrying forward: through a Civil War, through Depression, through World Wars, through so many decades none of us lived through, and now through our own. Today isn't just a celebration of what happened in 1776. It's a checkpoint. A moment to ask honestly: is the pledge those 56 men made still alive in us?
Just last weekend, a few days ahead of this milestone, nearly 900 delegates gathered in that same city of Philadelphia for the 2026 Braver Angels National Convention to wrestle with exactly that question. I can tell you, without hesitation, that the answer is YES.
An Experiment, Not an Inheritance
One of our speakers said something during the convention that I keep thinking about: the Founders "were willing to cross the divide in the service of establishing a more perfect union… to forge a compromise that has sustained us across 250 years of the American experiment." That word — experiment — matters, especially today. An inheritance just sits there, passed down whether we tend to it or not. An experiment requires participants. It requires renewal. It requires people willing to show up, generation after generation, and keep testing whether self-governance among free and disagreeing people can actually work.
Our convention theme carried delegates through that exact arc: Inheritance and Responsibility, what has been handed down to us, and what this moment now asks of us. Renewal Begins with Me, the recognition that before we can change our political culture, we have to look honestly at our own habits and our own willingness to listen. Action at Scale, when courageous citizenship moves from a personal practice into shared action. And finally, Renewal Happens Together, the reminder that none of us carries this work alone.
Humility, Hope, and the Courage to Rebuild Trust
I had the honor of moderating on of our main stage conversations this year with Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. John Ioannidis, two scientists who have publicly disagreed, sometimes sharply, choosing to sit across from each other and talk honestly. Not because it was comfortable, but because it was necessary.
Near the end, Dr. Collins offered this: when things feel discouraging, "look at 1776, what those folks were facing at that point. And yet they had boldness. They had courage." He reminded the room that nostalgia isn't a strategy, our task isn't to return to some imagined past, but to imagine something better together. Dr. Ioannidis added his own charge: to defend freedom first for the people we disagree with, and to keep listening, because the only way to build a brighter future is to learn from what others have to contribute.
That, in a sentence, is courageous citizenship. And it's what today asks of every one of us.
A Pledge, Renewed
More than 200 delegates and members worked together over several weeks to draft a mutual pledge, starting with seven competing drafts and narrowing them, together, into one. Someone on our drafting team described the process with a phrase that now feels like the whole story of this convention, and honestly, of this whole nation: e pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
On the convention's final afternoon, all 900 delegates stood together, read it aloud, and voted to ratify it as a body:
"I pledge to be a courageous citizen — to choose curious listening over contempt, to build alongside those with different politics, and to embrace our shared duty to renew America's civic culture."
That is not a pledge to agree. It is a pledge to each other — the same pledge made in that room in Philadelphia 250 years ago today, renewed for our own time.
Seeing Ourselves in the Shared Story
There will always be people eager to convince us that our disagreements make us enemies – that the loudest, angriest voice in the room speaks for the rest of us. We watched hundreds of Americans, from every corner of the political spectrum, prove that narrative wrong last weekend. Republicans and Democrats and independents, first-time delegates and longtime volunteers, debated hard questions — including a live, nationally broadcast Coliseum debate on immigration, and left the room still committed to each other.
That is the American experiment still running exactly as designed. Two hundred and fifty years in, it still has plenty of gas in the tank. But it only works if enough of us choose, deliberately and on a day like today, to see ourselves in the shared story. Not as spectators watching from partisan corners, but as co-authors with a stake in how it turns out.
Braver Angels exists to make that kind of citizenship the honored norm in America — not a nice idea reserved for a convention weekend or a national birthday, but a daily practice in our homes, our workplaces, and our public life. If today moves you the way it's moved us, we'd be grateful to have you alongside us in that work. [Learn more →]
Watch: A Pledge Renewed
I put together a short video reflecting on this pledge, this convention, and what this exact day — 250 years removed from that room in Philadelphia — asks of every one of us. It felt right to share it with you today of all days.
[Watch: A Pledge Renewed — narrated by Wilk Wilkinson]
Two hundred fifty years ago today, a small group of people bet on each other. Today, it's our turn.
— Wilk Wilkinson, Director of Media Systems & Operations, Braver Angels and Host of the Derate the Hate podcast
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