Welcome to Project 2026

 

Democracy Isn’t Broken.   It’s Unfinished.

 

 

“It is for us the living...to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” — Abraham Lincoln

 

In 1776, America made a radical and timeless promise: that all people are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

As we mark the Semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — we recognize that for too many, this founding promise has never been met. That truth isn’t a cause for despair. It’s a call to action.

 

Project 2026 is a national experiment in democratic renewal — launched by citizens, for citizens, to fulfill that founding pledge. Our question isn’t what went wrong. It’s how to make the founding promise a vibrant reality for all Americans, today.

 

What Project 2026 is

 

Project 2026 is building the essential infrastructure for a thriving 21st-century American democracy: the human capabilities, civic relationships, trustworthy information, practical tools, and accountable institutions that let citizens — and a plural republic — actually flourish.

 

We don’t believe the answer to this moment is less democracy. We believe it’s more: more participation, more voices, more everyday problem-solving from citizens themselves.

 

This isn’t a top-down reform agenda. It’s a shared platform for public renewal, built with citizens rather than handed down to them — organized around three pillars:

 

Democracy, Opportunity, and Citizenship.

 

The Seven Promises

 

The Seven Promises are Project 2026’s public agenda for America’s 250th anniversary and the 2026 election cycle — civic commitments every American can examine, debate, and use to evaluate candidates and institutions:

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1. Foundations for every newborn to flourish — opportunity shouldn’t be decided in the delivery room by a zip code.

2. A government of, for, and by the people — in practice — self-government is a muscle citizens need real tools to use continuously, not just at the ballot box.

3. A vibrant, free, and trustworthy press — journalism as civic infrastructure, not just an industry.

4. A Congress that answers to the people and learns from failure — real accountability instead of recurring crisis followed by recurring amnesia.

5. Consequences when power causes public harm — accountability proportionate to the harm institutions can cause.

6. A government capable of preparing for the future — institutions that anticipate disruption instead of waiting for it to become a crisis.

7. Public money followed to public results — spending tracked all the way to outcomes, not just authorized and forgotten.

 

 

Four questions, and the deliberations built around them

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Project 2026’s work over the coming months is organized around four questions — and around Deliberations, AI-supported structured civic inquiries that bring citizens, experts, and institutions together to examine what’s actually at stake and build practical pathways forward.

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• What does rising polarization put at risk — and what can we actually do about it? Journey from Contempt to Connection is our roadmap for navigating this, beginning with the Civic Ritual for Thanksgiving.

• How do we protect and advance the principles the founders gave us? The Declaration to Constitution Project walks through why the republic was built the way it was — and what strains it’s under now. Alongside it, The People’s Commission for Technology and the American Future is a citizen-led deliberation working through what a new social contract looks like for an AI-disrupted economy.

• What do we owe the next generation? This is the question underneath our entire First 1,000 Days body of work. The People’s Commission to Make Our Children Healthy is the deliberative counterpart — a citizen body working through what those first 1,000 days actually require, being tested first in Montgomery County, PA through Thrive in Montco PA.

• Why doesn’t the richest nation on earth guarantee its citizens the healthcare they need? A civic “Grand Rounds” deliberation on what it would take to build a healthcare system around creating health, not just treating disease.

 

These commissions are one tool in the Citizen Toolbox — not a substitute for elected government, professional expertise, or existing civic institutions. Their credibility rests on transparent selection, clear authority, representative participation, and public documentation.

 

 

How Project 2026 relates to Moonshot Press

 

These two names get mentioned in the same breath often enough that it’s worth being precise:

 

Project 2026 lives inside Moonshot Press.

 

Moonshot Press is the ecosystem — the newsroom, the Citizen Toolbox, the Constitution that governs how everything here operates, including how we use AI. Project 2026 is our flagship initiative within that ecosystem: the year-long, multi-year civic renewal effort — the pillars, the promises, the commissions — that Moonshot Press has made the organizing focus of its coverage and its work.

 

That means Project 2026 isn’t a separate outlet with its own rules. It operates under the same Constitution as everything else Moonshot Press publishes, including the same standing rule — AI recommends, humans decide — and the same commitment to saying so whenever AI meaningfully shapes what we publish. If you trust Moonshot Press’s journalism, you’re trusting the same governance when you engage with Project 2026.

 

Where we stand

 

Project 2026 is nonpartisan, but not indifferent. We don’t endorse a party, a candidate, or an ideological tribe, and we don’t assume that democratic wisdom — or democratic failure — belongs exclusively to the left, right, or center. We evaluate claims, institutions, and policies against consistent civic standards rather than partisan identity. Where the evidence shows a real difference in conduct or consequences, we’ll describe that difference accurately. Nonpartisanship means consistency — it doesn’t mean pretending every claim is equally supported.

 

We do take clear positions in favor of: the principles of the Declaration of Independence, constitutional democracy, equal human dignity, citizen sovereignty, political pluralism, freedom of expression and of the press, government under law, accountable power, protection of minority rights, and the flourishing of present and future generations.

 

Who’s behind this

 

Project 2026 was founded by Shimon Waldfogel. What began as one person’s effort to build a blueprint for civic renewal is meant to grow into a shared, citizen-powered movement — because the work ahead takes more than one person or one team.

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This is your invitation

The real question isn’t “what’s broken?” It’s: what audacious future can we build together?

Democracy was never a finished product handed down from 1776. It’s a promise each generation has to pursue. The founders launched the experiment. It’s our turn to carry it forward.

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• Explore the Seven Promises and the Citizen Toolbox.

• Join a People’s Commission or a local initiative like Thrive in Montco PA.

• Follow ongoing coverage and analysis of Project 2026 at Moonshot Press, the ecosystem it’s part of.

 

The best way to prepare for the next 250 years of American self-government is to build it. Together.

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Subscribe and join the movement →Nothing on this site constitutes legal, medical, or financial advice.

 

The views expressed on Moonshot Press and Project 2026 are the personal views of its contributors and not those of any organization or institution any contributor has been, is, or will be affiliated with.