We The People

The songs and videos of We The People are entertaining, but they also do a good job of connecting with their intended audience and making the concepts that are sung about stick in young brains.

“We the People” is, at its core, well-meaning. It’s just not especially illuminating in the way it would like to be, having preemptively stopped itself from exploring anything beyond the basics.

The series is directed at young people, so one could argue that a simple, aspirational approach was necessary to garner interest. On the other hand, one needn’t look further than the historic marches in response to the murder of George Floyd — protests organized, overwhelmingly, by very young people — to know that apathy about civics isn’t quite the issue here.

When I say that We the People is, comparatively and qualitatively, a decidedly mixed bag, with one or two standouts, one or two real duds and a bunch of so-so songs in the middle, am I drawing a distinction between my memory of Schoolhouse Rock! or the reality? Probably the former. ... I doubt we’re going to still be singing these songs in a decade, much less in 40 years, but it’s an inspiring hour of Fourth of July viewing and I’d be curious to watch more installments.