Justice Clarence Thomas, widely regarded as one of the Supreme Court’s most principled conservative justices, delivered a call to action Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin, urging Americans “to take ownership of our country” as he warned that other influences are increasingly shaping how Americans think.
He argued, however, that the solution to these challenges lies in education and civic engagement—a simple remedy, but one that is often overlooked.
JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: “I think if we don’t stand up and take ownership of our country, and take responsibility for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think.”
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"If you think it's losing confidence, then you get up and you participate. You don't… pic.twitter.com/hB1jYwGN6V
"I think if we don't stand up and take ownership of our country and take responsibility for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think," Justice Thomas told the crowd.
"I think the beauty of going to school is that you learn how to think for yourselves. You develop the discipline to think things through. If you think it's losing confidence, then you get up and you participate. You don't sit on the sidelines," he said. "You think that the state is being run inconsistent with how you feel, then you get up and you participate. You prepare yourself. If you think that the medical profession is not right, well you become a doctor or be a medical person and you deal with that."
"I think we need to take ownership of our country," he added. "It's our country."
Too often, Americans have begun to feel as though the political world is increasingly out of their control. And while that sense may reflect real frustrations, responsibility still rests in how citizens choose to engage with the system, especially at the ballot box.
Meaningful change rarely comes from passive participation or blind loyalty. In 2016, much of that change was driven by an outsider who reshaped the direction of the conservative movement
But the point isn’t that we need to wait for the next outsider to do it again. It’s that the ability to drive change already exists within the movement itself.
Look at organizations like Turning Point USA, which began as a grassroots effort and grew into a national movement. Even if you agree with its broader goals, there is always room to do things differently or improve on what already exists. The broader point is that civic engagement isn’t limited to choosing between existing options; it can also mean building something new, however small, that reflects your own priorities and perspective.
In the end, as Justice Thomas has argued, the responsibility ultimately rests with the individual voter to take ownership of their role in the system, how they vote, how they participate, and how much effort they are willing to put into shaping the outcomes they want to see.
