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Michael Compton — Citizen Action Press

Keeping
the Republic

A Citizen's Guide for the Next 250 Years

The issues are the battlegrounds. Citizenship is the war. A practical guide for Americans who are ready to stop watching and start governing.

Keeping the Republic — A Citizen's Guide for the Next 250 Years, by Michael Compton

"America will not survive another 250 years because the right politicians give the right speeches. America will survive only if citizens recover the duties of self-government."

From the Introduction

The Republic Doesn't Preserve Itself

In 1776, Americans declared independence from a king. In 2026, Americans must declare independence from apathy, managed decline, and the comfortable lie that someone else will save the Republic.

Keeping the Republic is part declaration and part handbook. It argues for first principles — that rights come from God, that government exists by consent, that power must be limited — but it also makes citizenship practical again.

This book is for Americans who know the country is in trouble and want to do more but don't know where to begin. Who should I call? Which meeting matters? How do I read a bill? How do I know whether a candidate is telling the truth? Those are not foolish questions. They are the questions a serious citizen asks when outrage is no longer enough.

19 Chapters covering every front where the Republic is at stake
7 Practical appendices — tools, checklists, and templates
12 Month action plan to become an effective citizen
250 Years of inheritance worth defending

A Citizen's Declaration

States plainly what many Americans still believe but have been pressured to soften — rights from God, limited government, family as the first institution.

What We Have Forgotten

Examines every front where the Republic is being weakened — elections, education, taxes, free speech, privacy, justice, borders, and more.

What Citizens Must Do

Moves from agreement to action. A practical job description for citizens — who to call, which meetings matter, how to judge a candidate.

Ready-to-Use Tools

Seven appendices including a candidate questionnaire, meeting checklist, election integrity guide, and a sample open-records request.

Every Front Where the Republic Is at Stake

From founding principles to local action, from election integrity to foreign policy — a complete citizen's guide.

1
Part I — Declaration
A Renewed Declaration for America's Next 250 Years
2
Part II — What We Have Forgotten
The Republic Was Designed for Citizens, Not Spectators
3
Part II
The Party Is Not the Republic
4
Part II
The Administrative State & the Consent of the Governed
5
Part III — The Battlegrounds
Election Integrity & the Consent of the People
6
Part III
Campaign Finance — When Representation Is for Sale
7
Part III
Education — The Republic Is Lost One Generation at a Time
8
Part III
Taxes, Debt, and the Moral Cost of Government
9
Part III
Life, Family, and the Moral Foundation of Liberty
10
Part III
Free Speech, Censorship, and the New Public Square
11
Part III
Privacy, Technology, and the Surveillance State
12
Part III
Justice, Lawfare, and Equal Protection
13
Part III
Borders, Citizenship, and National Survival
14
Part III
Foreign Policy — A Republic, Not an Empire
15
Part III
Food, Energy, and Economic Independence
16
Part IV — What Citizens Must Do
The Citizen's Job Description
17
Part IV
The County Strategy
18
Part IV
How to Judge a Candidate
19
Part IV
A 12-Month Citizen Action Plan
We do not need every American to wake up at once. We need enough citizens in enough counties, churches, families, precincts, school boards, courthouses, and state capitals to remember who they are.

Michael Compton — Keeping the Republic

Seven Ready-to-Use Appendices

Mark up the pages. Adapt them. Put them to work in your community.

A

A Citizen's Declaration

A Renewed Declaration of Duty for the Next 250 Years

B

Candidate Questionnaire

Question every candidate on government's role, the oath, life, taxes, education, elections, and privacy

C

Local Meeting Checklist

Before, during, and after — including red flags to watch for

D

Election Integrity Checklist

What to watch before, during, and after Election Day

E

Voter Questions Guide

What every citizen should ask before casting a ballot

F

Sample Sunshine Request

A ready-to-send open-records request letter with follow-up guidance

G

Recommended Reading

Founding documents, liberty, economics, family, and practical citizen tools

Michael Compton

Michael Compton

Michael Compton is the co-founder of Act for Missouri, a volunteer-led civic engagement organization that over the last few years has been tracking legislation, publishing legislative scorecards, and building practical tools to help citizens engage with their state government — from reading a bill to watching a floor vote to holding a legislator accountable.

Much of that work has happened at the Missouri State Capitol — in committee hearings, in the gallery during legislative sessions, and in Patriot groups and citizen assemblies across the state, where Compton has spoken on what he has learned and how ordinary citizens can get meaningfully involved.

That experience — and the discomfort of recognizing how much he himself had not known — is the burden behind this book. Compton writes not from a comfortable distance from politics, but from inside the process, where the real work of self-government either happens or fails to happen.

Keeping the Republic is published by Citizen Action Press.

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