It literally was an idea ahead of its time.
Before his unexpected death in 2025, Setti Warren envisioned celebrating the nation’s 250 birthday with a series of conversations exploring the past, present, and future of the American experiment in his beloved John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Institute of Politics (IOP), where he served as director.
To honor the nation’s birth, and the legacy of Warren, the IOP created The Consent of the Governed: America at 250 and Beyond.
“Setti asked me to host the series,” said Jill Lepore, “because he believed the occasion of the 250th called for a historical vantage.” As a professor of American History at Harvard University, Lepore loved the idea, especially at this moment. “My goal is straight talk during hard times,” she said.
Working with Ned Price and Beth Myers, interim co-directors of the IOP, Lepore developed themes that focused on American endurance: the forces of polarization, union, and disunion; the origins, evolution, and future of American constitutionalism, the separation of powers, and the rule of law; the importance of a well-informed citizenry; and the ways that government decision-making, environmental stewardship, and rapidly advancing technologies will intersect to shape America’s collective future.
“We’re delighted to partner with preeminent historian Jill Lepore and to bring together some of the nation’s leading thinkers across a range of issues over the course of this semiquincentennial year,” said Myers. Price agreed. “We’re confident that our students, as well as the broader Harvard community, will benefit from these discussions,” he said.
The first conversation in the series, which will run through the end of 2026, covered unity, disunion, and the future of democracy. The panel featured former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg; 28th President of Harvard University Drew Gilpin Faust; and Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University Eddie Glaude.
“I am delighted to host not only this event but this series for the IOP,” said Lepore. “We’re hoping to have challenging conversations with a whole range of people.”
Lepore began by showing maps dating back to the founding of the country. “It’s a very big country we live in and many doubted whether it could be one country,” she said. The various maps depicted the divide throughout American history, first based on the ideology of slavery, later based on geography, the North and South, and even later on political views, Republican and Democrat.
Faust, a historian as well, recalled another map of 1861, one that was sold to benefit the suffering soldiers of the Union Army. “It was a map of the distribution of the enslaved in the southern states,” said Faust.
“Lincoln used this map to figure out where he would have the biggest impact when troops moved into certain areas and emancipated those areas.” The map went from Virginia, South Carolina, to the Mississippi Delta. She pointed out that Harvard economist Raj Chetty created the “Opportunity Atlas,” which outlines the U.S. counties in which people have the most opportunity to move from poverty to a level of middle or higher income. “It is almost identical to Lincoln’s slave map,” said Faust.
“If one generation has more of its hands on the pulleys and levers of government than others, that is likely to create a problem of intergenerational justice.”
Glaude, in turn, emphasized the whole nation’s responsibility for slavery. “It’s not simply that slavery existed in the south,” he said. “As if Rhode Island didn’t have something to do with it, as if Massachusetts didn’t have something to do with it.”
“The maps on a certain level actually feed the myth that the moral problem resides there [in the South] as opposed to in the heart of the nation,” said Glaude.
Buttigieg, who had an electoral map of the U.S. on his dorm wall while at Harvard, said division does not have to be our legacy. “We’re actually in one of those rare moments which for all the pain and the pathology of being an American right now, could also be an incredibly fertile moment for different patterns, different coalitions, and perhaps a very different electoral map in the near future.”
Despite this optimistic outlook, Lepore argued that division remains because we are living in the shadow of the Electoral College: “If there wasn’t an Electoral College, there would not be red states and blue states.”
What began as a discussion on disunion, turned to a wide-ranging reflection on inequality, democracy, and the challenge of building a more unified society in the United States. Glaude cited a “value gap”—the persistent idea that a person’s worth is tied to race, particularly that white people are implicitly valued more than others. He explained that this gap is not just moral but material, shaping how benefits and burdens are distributed across society.
The conversation broadened to consider other forms of division, especially generational inequality. Buttigieg emphasized that younger generations have the most at stake in political decisions but often lack proportional power in shaping them. “If one generation has more of its hands on the pulleys and levers of government than others, that is likely to create a problem of intergenerational justice,” he said.
Faust reflected on the University’s mission to expand inclusion, while acknowledging its failures—especially rising financial barriers and the growing divide between college-educated and non-college-educated Americans. “I think that’s a challenge that extends beyond universities,” said Faust. “It’s about broader disparities in wealth, where it becomes possible to install yourself in a gated community, fly your private plane, and never have to deal with other people.”
That unity—or “union”—does not happen automatically was a recurring theme. Faust stressed that throughout American history, unity has required struggle, sacrifice, and collective commitment. “Leadership is one extremely important part of this, and I can tell you I don’t think we have the right leadership now,” she said.
Buttigieg offered a more optimistic vision grounded in shared experiences, such as military service or civic leadership. He described how a common purpose—especially in challenging circumstances—can foster trust across differences.
“In the time that I was in student politics at the IOP, there was a custom bordering on an unwritten rule, that if you were going to run for the student presidency, your running mate would be from the opposite party,” said Buttigieg. “The whole point of a space like this was that we could navigate and negotiate those differences with an understanding of shared fidelity.”
Lepore concluded by asking who, outside of politics, is helping build this sense of moral vision and belonging today. Faust cited Bryan Stevenson MPP/JD, 1985 LLD 2015 and his Equal Justice Initiative. Glaude noted Reverend William J. Barber II and Reverend Liz Theoharis for their work in justice and antipoverty movements. Buttigieg agreed that faith leaders play a powerful role in emphasizing moral responsibility and human dignity across divisions.
The conversation shifted to amendments, and a student in the audience, reflecting on the idea that the Constitution is a living document rather than an historic one, asked what a “dream amendment” would be.
“Reform or abolition of the Electoral College is the most frequently proposed amendment beginning in 1803 by New Englanders,” said Lepore. “The impetus for a wholly new constitution in 1969 to solve the consequences of the Vietnam war and the tumult of the civil rights movement was quite significant.”
An expert on the topic, Lepore recently authored We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, about the many attempts to amend the Constitution, and created The Amendments Project, an archive of the full text of nearly every amendment to the U.S. Constitution proposed in Congress between 1789 and 2022.
Buttigieg thought an amendment addressing money in politics could be powerful. “If you can’t tackle money in politics without a constitutional amendment,” he said,” “Then let’s do a constitutional amendment. And if it is true that it takes a whole generation to do this, that’s all the more reason we should be underway now.”
The complete discussion is available on the IOP YouTube page. The next Forum event in the series will feature Lepore in conversation with former Senator Mitt Romney on democratic governance.
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Photographs by Martha Stewart