To begin… let us reflect on the solemnity of this undertaking. Let us reflect on its importance to you, to me, to our families and communities, to the nation we are to be.
At its best, government is a agreement between the members of a community – taken of their own free will and with solemn intention – to abide by certain institutions and structures that will protect and enhance the life of the community in general. At its best, government is more than an institution that operates with the consent of the governed – government is the governed, it is the community acting in concert to best secure the blessings of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for its members, present and future – in short, a covenant between the members of community, undertaken with all of the seriousness that the term implies.
Here we have quoted two definitions of the word “covenant”, and we are using the word in a way that combines both: And if you do not believe in a supreme being, please stay with us, for we speak of God in a way that is founded not in a specific institution or belief system, but in the universal longing of the human heart that our lives reflect the highest and best aspirations of the human spirit… in other words, to live “in the image and likeness of God”, whether God is defined by a religion, a personal spiritual path, or by a set of values passionately held, and coupled to a commitment to make the world a better place by virtue of our having passed through it.
– Abraham Lincoln
The second definition of covenant speaks of “promises made to humanity by God”… and while this will not be mentioned elsewhere on this site, it forms an invisible foundation for all that is to follow: We hold that all human souls are equally precious in the eyes of our Creator, and equally entitled not just to the same rights and privileges, but also to the same opportunities to realize the full potential of their gifts and abilities – and that through this, God’s love for humanity is expressed in the world. We seek to create institutions that will, through our commitment to each other, reflect God’s commitment to each of us.
We believe that America’s founders were inspired by these same principles. We invite you to join in this covenant – this sacred commitment – to build the new America for the twenty-first century and beyond – and at the same time to finally, at long last, create the original America of our founders’ vision, that could not be fully realized in their time.
We will propose changes to the United States Constitution – changes that go beyond amendment, that are fundamental and structural – which we will call the Covenant Constitution of the United States, or Covenant Constitution for short. We do not take lightly the idea of replacing the existing Constitution with a new one – we fully recognize how unsettling this idea can be, we who have lived our entire lives with the security of a stable system of government. But we have also lived with the growing dismay, year after year, of seeing our government become more remote, of feeling less and less that it represents We the People, that it is willing and able to respond to the needs of our society, that it embodies the shining ideals that our nation can and should represent. And so, we invite you, with the support of your friends, neighbors, fellow citizens, to venture into the unknown in the service of rediscovering our country’s true greatness.
What we will not change is the Preamble, because it is perfect in its original form, because it states the principles that guided our founders and will guide us as well. We invite you to read on and lend your vision and your voice to this process.
Welcome to the Covenant for a New America.