My thinking on what must happen to save democracy has evolved.
Fact: The United States has been a backsliding democracy for some time.
Fact: We are in an information disruption.
Because democracy requires facts and an educated population, the question is whether enough people will develop the media literacy needed in this new age of information quickly enough.
1/
How much time we have depends on what happens in the next election.
If the Democrats win again with small margins, the backsliding can be stalled.
If the Democrats win big, the we will buy more time. There were not big enough majorities in the Senate in 2020 to do much, and then the Democrats lost the house.
I am putting together a long reading list for my blog.
Even countries that slide into authoritarianism can (and have) gotten out without war.
2/
FDR demonstrated what can happen with a landslide election.
Looking back, he brought about rapid changes that entirely changed the face of the nation.
At the time, the progress felt painfully slow. For the first few years, the Supreme Court was nixing his legislation.
Even a big win will create lots of rage in people who don't understand how slowly a large and complex system moves and this is by design: It also slows down autocratic power grabs.
3/
@Teri_Kanefield You are spot on. People are not willing to learn why the government is not working for them. Instead they buy into "all politicians are evil" and keep flip flopping between the parties.
Even if Dems are able to bring big legislative changes, it will be uphill with the stacked Supreme Court. Every little thing will be challenged, dragged out. Will people realize we need patience to enact change?
Teri Kanefield
Not A Bird