You've named the hard part. A marriage assumes both sides still want the union—so "renewing vows" sounds naive when one has walked out.
But the Declaration was never only a vow. It was also a divorce filing—grounds for dissolution when a government turns "destructive of these ends."
So here's what must be done: a government is temporary—vote it out and constrain it. The neighbors aren't. The irreconcilable actor isn't the citizen who disagrees with you; it's the rigged maps, big money, and outrage machine that make us look further apart than we are. Outlast it, dismantle those distortions—and refuse to treat your fellow citizens as the thing that's broken.
Sadly, renewing vows only works if both sides are trying to save the relationship/republic.
You've named the hard part. A marriage assumes both sides still want the union—so "renewing vows" sounds naive when one has walked out.
But the Declaration was never only a vow. It was also a divorce filing—grounds for dissolution when a government turns "destructive of these ends."
So here's what must be done: a government is temporary—vote it out and constrain it. The neighbors aren't. The irreconcilable actor isn't the citizen who disagrees with you; it's the rigged maps, big money, and outrage machine that make us look further apart than we are. Outlast it, dismantle those distortions—and refuse to treat your fellow citizens as the thing that's broken.