For all the huffing and blowing we get about rugged

“For all the huffing and blowing we get about rugged individualism, the American spirit and the American experiment always have had at their heart the notion that the government is all of us and that, therefore, the government may keep things in trust for all of us.” Thus spoke Charlie Pierce, a modern voice of conscience, piercing through the noise of pride and politics to remind a forgetful nation of its oldest truth — that government is not a distant master, but a shared covenant, and that the freedom we prize is not the gift of isolation, but the fruit of cooperation. His words breathe life into a vision both ancient and enduring: that liberty and unity must walk hand in hand, and that the power of a people lies not merely in their independence, but in their willingness to hold something sacred together.

From its first breath, the American experiment has wrestled with two great forces — the cry of the individual and the call of the community. The settlers who crossed oceans came seeking freedom from kings, yet when they arrived, they discovered that survival demanded fellowship. The frontier myth of rugged individualism has long inspired courage, but courage alone cannot bind a people. What Pierce reminds us of is that America’s greatness was never built by lone heroes, but by the shared labor of millions, guided by the idea that what we build together must be kept in trust for all.

Look back to the founding of the Republic. When the Constitution was forged, the question was not whether men could live free, but whether free men could live together. It was the recognition that the government is all of us — not a ruler above, but a structure of ourselves — that gave rise to democracy. The founders did not create a machine of power, but a living agreement, a trust among citizens to preserve the common good. They knew that liberty untempered by responsibility becomes chaos, and that order untempered by compassion becomes tyranny. Thus was born the sacred balance: self-government, the art of freedom bound by mutual care.

Consider the story of the Tennessee Valley Authority during the Great Depression — a moment when the nation faced darkness not only of spirit but of light. The rivers of the South flooded fields and drowned farms, while poverty bound entire regions in despair. Then, through the vision of a united government — which was, in truth, the will of the people made manifest — came the dams, the power, and the hope that restored a generation. The TVA was not charity from rulers, but an act of collective stewardship — proof that government may keep things in trust for all of us, when it serves not power, but people.

Pierce’s wisdom challenges the false idol of isolation. He warns that in the worship of rugged individualism, we risk forgetting the fabric that holds our freedom together. For when each man lives only for himself, the common house crumbles. Roads are not built, waters are not clean, justice is not served, and truth becomes a private thing, bartered and broken. True independence is not the rejection of community — it is the maturity to sustain it. A free nation is not a field of scattered stones, but an arch of interlocking ones, each supporting the other.

And yet, this lesson must be learned anew in every age. The world grows loud with voices that scorn the very idea of a shared good. They mistake government for tyranny and responsibility for burden. But Pierce reminds us that government, rightly understood, is not “them” — it is “us.” When we vote, we govern; when we serve, we govern; when we defend the rights of others, we keep the promise of the republic alive. To deny this is to abandon the trust that binds generation to generation, and to leave the inheritance of our children unguarded.

Therefore, let us remember: the American spirit is not a lonely flame, but a torch passed from hand to hand. It burns brightest when each citizen bears their share of its light. To care for the weak, to protect the land, to honor the law — these are not acts of submission, but of sovereignty. For in doing so, we affirm that the government is all of us, and that together, we hold the future in trust.

So, O listener, take this to heart: live as both free and faithful. Cherish your liberty, but also your duty. Speak not only for yourself, but for the unseen neighbor, the unborn child, the silent earth. Remember that what we keep, we keep together — and that the strength of the republic lies not in how fiercely we stand apart, but in how bravely we stand as one. This is the true American experiment — not isolation, but unity, not possession, but stewardship — a freedom shared, and therefore made eternal.