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/
"FDR demonstrated what can happen with a landslide election."
So did Reagan. There is a straight line between Reagan and Trump. It was decades in the making, but the causal connection is plain to see
Teri Kanefield
Dave Braze
Big Head Tales