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Strengthening Democracy

A collection of 56 issues

An Easy Thing We Can Do For Each Other Right Now

At the play on Saturday evening, the man wearing a guayabera shirt sits in the front row. After the jokes, he laughs the loudest. After the songs, he's the first to cheer. And after the grand finale, he starts the standing O. The man just turbocharged love to

What Motivates Us in Hard Moments

I once heard a wildly successful athlete say that you can be motivated by one of two things: fear or love. I'd piggy back on to that – the first can get you pretty far, pretty fast. But the second will sustain you. Fear is the flashy, attention-getting hare;

Setting the Right Goals for Democracy

There is old tape of Andre Agassi returning Pete Sampras' serve. Sampras pounds the ball down the middle, and Agassi whips it cross court, leaving Sampras to watch the ball fuzz fly by. Before Agassi, the return of serve was pure defense: block the ball back, a prayer to

The Power We're Leaving on the Table

I returned home from Wichita. But my baggage did not. Hours were spent with hold muzak and kind, fairly powerless customer service agents. What I needed was someone on the inside. Someone with the heft to get the train moving. The thing with American democracy is that we get to

Three Things We Can Do for America Right Now

Years ago, I helped a friend move. After we'd gotten all the boxes, crates, bins, and coat hangers into his new place, he stood immobile at the door, paralyzed by where to begin. It was impossible to imagine this chaos ever becoming a comfortable little corner of the

What To Do About Congress, In Three Steps

Let's say you're not well pleased about what's been shaking out in Congress. And let's say you want to do something about it. What should you do? First: Focus on where you have influence I might be piss and vinegar about the

The Art of Not Giving Up

Let's say up front: we're allowed to be discouraged. There is no weakness in that. "There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors," wrote poet Adrienne Rich. Discouragement is a very human response to

A Powerful Approach to News Consumption

Every day, millions upon billions upon maybe trillions of words are published (and herein are 600 more - just doing my part). If each word were a water droplet, we're getting Niagara Falls rained on us all the time. And mighty though we are, we aren't

A 5-Minute Democracy Strengthener

Today is all about state legislatures. And if you are thinking, "Well, that's juicy!" you would be correct. But first, let's set the scene. American democracy is like a three-layer cake – let's say it's a coconut chiffon. The first layer

Why Your Actions Matter, Even When They Don't Feel Impactful

Oak trees are ecological grand slams. They support 897 kinds of caterpillars; and a single - one! - clutch of chickadees needs 7,000 of those protein-packed caterpillars to fly the nest. Then, those caterpillar-fortified chickadees go forth to reduce our insect population, spread seeds, and pollinate the heck outta