Out of Many, One: Writings on American Universalism
A collection of essays by a remarkable group of leaders is central to the launch of Catalyst for American Futures, a new organization purpose-built for this moment
In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln defined America as a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Honoring the devotion of those who gave their lives in a single battle of the Civil War, he also defined the larger and lasting American project. This is the “great unfinished work” that falls to each generation, to ensure “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
We are building Catalyst for American Futures to equip a united front with the tools, strategies, and narratives needed to defeat authoritarianism and forge a new pathway forward for the nation’s great unfinished work. Central to the launch, we asked 27 Americans—including campaigners, builders, entrepreneurs, journalists, theologians, and historians—to offer personal reflections on the universal and radically democratic values at the heart of the American project. We asked them to consider what they mean to us at a time when an authoritarian takeover threatens to end American democracy.
Given the urgency of our situation, it may seem counterintuitive to step back and reflect. But these core values have animated every great movement in our history. They inspired the fights to end slavery, recognize women’s right to vote, win workers’ rights, confront concentrated wealth and power, and defeat Jim Crow segregation. At this time, when the country needs a new movement strong enough to defeat authoritarianism and write democracy’s next chapter, we believe it makes perfect sense to remember what inspired the people who came before us, who managed time and again to defy tyranny and move the project forward.
“We are building Catalyst for American Futures to equip a united front with the tools, strategies, and narratives needed to defeat authoritarianism and forge a new pathway forward for the nation’s great unfinished work.”
The authoritarian right claims to be leading a revolution. Unlike the American and French Revolutions, which paved the way for unprecedented freedoms, this dangerous movement would do the opposite. The threat is deadly serious, and we can already see how the attempt to overthrow liberal democracy is sparking a major reaction from the American people. Accelerating, shaping, and strengthening that reaction is the most powerful strategic response the nation can have. We must counter efforts to divide us and ensure that the people’s reaction sparks a pluralist and inclusive movement—uniting a majority around a vision that inspires and helps us believe that “a new birth of freedom,” a new and better America, is possible.
We challenged the authors to consider how a commitment to America’s universal values can help catalyze that reaction, inspire a new movement, and inform a winning vision. The result is an expression of the American spirit: cultures, experiences, and perspectives that come together to create something new; agreements and disagreements that inform us with nuance and complexity; stories that move and challenge the reader; and ideas that chart a path forward between the alienating extremes of our polarized politics.
It’s our time to take on what Lincoln called “the great task remaining before us.” We must apply the nation’s core values to new challenges, repair inherited faults, and hand the project to the next generation in better shape than we found it. We offer the anthology in the humble hope that it will help us remember the simple, radical American idea that we, the many, can also be a single powerful force for good—a people dedicated to the proposition that we are all created equal and free.