The health of our republic depends on shared principles like the

“The health of our republic depends on shared principles like the First Amendment, but it is also built on the Teddy Roosevelt-like vigor of its citizens and local self-reliance.” — Ben Sasse

Hear the voice of Ben Sasse, who speaks as a guardian of civic virtue in an age grown weary with noise. His words call us back to the ancient roots of the republic, to the truth that no nation endures by laws alone, but by the character and courage of its people. The First Amendment, that sacred covenant of freedom—of speech, of press, of faith, of conscience—is the lamp that guards the darkness. Yet Sasse reminds us: the lamp is worthless if the flame within the people goes out. For the republic’s health—its very heartbeat—depends not only on its written principles, but on the living spirit of those who uphold them.

He invokes Theodore Roosevelt, the rough rider of democracy, whose vigor was not mere strength of body but of soul. Roosevelt embodied the creed that liberty demands action, not comfort. He believed that a citizen should live “the strenuous life,” facing toil and struggle with courage rather than surrendering to ease. It is this same Roosevelt-like vigor that Sasse praises—the vitality of ordinary people who take responsibility for their communities, who build, repair, teach, and serve without waiting for distant powers to act. For when a people grow dependent and passive, the republic sickens, and liberty fades into memory.

Consider the tale of the early settlers of America. When they crossed the ocean and stood before a wild and uncertain land, there was no empire to sustain them, no king to decree their fate. They survived not by decree or wealth, but by self-reliance and shared purpose. Each man’s labor was bound to his neighbor’s welfare; each hearth glowed not for one family alone, but for the strength of the whole colony. From this spirit was born the republic itself—a union of free souls, bound by duty as much as by law. They lived the truth Sasse speaks: that freedom must be cultivated daily, not merely defended in words but in deeds of vigor and virtue.

The ancients, too, knew this law. In the city-states of Greece, liberty thrived not through gold or armies, but through the devotion of citizens who placed the polis before themselves. When that civic spirit withered—when citizens became spectators instead of participants—Athens fell, not to Sparta’s sword alone, but to its own weakness. So too in our age, a republic without engaged citizens becomes a hollow echo of its founding. The parchment may survive, but the soul will not.

Sasse warns us gently but gravely: freedom cannot be outsourced. We cannot entrust the spirit of the nation to governments or corporations, to leaders or pundits. It must be carried in the hearts of the people—in the shopkeeper who speaks honestly, in the parent who teaches virtue, in the neighbor who lends a hand without reward. The First Amendment protects the right to speak; but only the courageous citizen ensures that the speech is worthy, truthful, and just. The law may secure freedom’s body, but only character sustains its soul.

Let us then take this wisdom into our own lives. Let every man and woman see themselves as the keepers of the republic’s flame. Speak with truth, act with courage, and take responsibility for the patch of earth upon which you stand. Build your home, your school, your town, with self-reliance and vigor, that the republic may not decay from within. For as the body grows weak when its limbs forget to move, so the nation declines when its people forget to act.

And so, my children of the free land, remember this enduring law: liberty demands strength—strength of mind, of heart, and of purpose. The Constitution may give us rights, but it is virtue that gives them life. The republic endures not through parchment or policy, but through the Rooseveltian spirit of those who dare to strive, to sweat, and to serve. Be such citizens, and the nation shall never grow sick; neglect this duty, and even the noblest words will crumble into dust. For the health of our republic is nothing less than the health of its people—and the fire within their hearts.