Democracy is crumbling in America, perhaps because we have never had it. The American Constitution enshrined voting rights for land-owning white men and offered few other mechanisms beyond the franchise for the people to be able to shape public life. In its absence, democracy has become mythology and mandates, instead of process and participation.
This newsletter is for anyone who has found themselves wondering what it will take for America to have a functional democracy, and anyone who wants to help make its vision a reality.
What we do
We’re on a quest to define—and do—democracy.
When it comes to democracy, America is all talk and very little action. We allow power to be concentrated in the hands of a few billionaire megalomaniacs. Our structures are overwhelmingly hierarchical, with few incentives for feedback loops or accountability structures. Trust in institutions — and each other — is at an all time low.
We cannot live in a democratic society until we do democracy. Until we believe it is possible to come together with others to solve our collective problems. Until we can sit with the discomfort of conflict and trust in other people. Until we design systems that are responsive to human needs. But what does that look like? How do we do it?
In this newsletter, we’ll speak with organizers, innovators, designers, community builders, public servants, artists and dreamers who are defining democratic behavior in their work and in their lives. Our conversations will explore how they structure decision making, navigate conflict, trust the people they’re working with and establish accountability mechanisms.
Along the way, we hope that this newsletter will show us that democracy is not only the ends, but also the means through which we build thriving collective life.
What we believe
While the form of this newsletter + community will grow and evolve over time, we will remain committed to:
Living the questions: We believe that the answers we need to the world’s most pressing problems are within each of us, and that each of us has a role to play in making democracy a reality.
Learning together: Each of us has a story that can shed light and inspiration for others. Through our stories, we can see that democracy is happening around us, and we can develop a shared language for what that means.
Generating a community of practice: We build democracy when we trust that we can solve hard problems together. In time, this newsletter’s community can become a vehicle to action.
Who we are
I’m Lia Weintraub. For the past decade, I’ve worked across the democracy landscape building voting rights campaigns, supporting community organizations, and promoting public infrastructure. Through it all, I’ve come to wonder: is democracy the ends that we’re working toward, or is it the means that we work within? This newsletter is my quest to learn what it means to engage in democratic practice.
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