Revitalizing the American Commonwealth National Civic Review Back to Summer 2025: Volume 114, Number 2 By Harry C. Boyte In today’s political climate—dominated by division, privatization of public goods, and deepening distrust—what alternatives do we Americans have? An enduring answer lies in our own civic history: commonwealth politics—a tradition rooted in the idea that citizens are central in caring for the public good, also known as “the commons.” Defending the Commons: A Republican Stands Up for Public Lands Ryan Zinke, Republican representative from Montana and former Secretary of the Interior, stripped an amendment from the budget bill that Republican Mark Amodei had advanced putting 500,000 acres of public lands up for sale. Zinke didn’t act out of ideological fealty to either markets or big government. He was rather motivated by his love of the commons. Calling his stand “my San Juan Hill,” Zinke said, “God isn’t creating more land. Once it’s sold, we’ll never get it back.” His actions halted a sale pushed by fellow Republicans, an inspiring example of how care for public goods can transcend partisanship. As Michelle Nihuis wrote in the New York Times, “America’s public lands – the approximately 600 million acres overseen by the National Parks Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service – are owned by the American people.” The spiritual dimensions and awe-inspiring beauty of public lands are celebrated in the song, “America the Beautiful,” and conveyed in a new documentary about the famous song by filmmaker John de Graaf. There is also another element: public lands are beloved because they represent something everyday citizens have protected and worked for over generations. Far from pristine objects venerated at a distance, public lands have been shaped by We the People. Sometimes citizens work in concert with federal agencies. Sometimes they work independently. In either case, people’s love of public lands is deeply rooted in their own role in shaping them. The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps A powerful example of the commonwealth in action was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal-era program that enrolled more than three million young people from struggling families over its nine-year history. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC planted more than two billion trees, erected 3,470 fire towers, helped to end soil erosion on more than 20 million acres, and built much of the national park system.