Feel Good Friday - Protect Democracy

There are some Fridays when finding something to feel good about takes more effort than usual and this is one of them. Luckily, a bit of searching online led me to Protect Democracy.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Washington D.C., Protect Democracy is “a cross-ideological nonprofit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy.” 

It is made up of two sister organizations. Protect Democracy United, focuses on funding litigation, public communications and advocacy efforts to confront threats to our democracy. This includes lobbying in legislatures at both the federal and local levels. Protect Democracy Project provides public education about threats to democratic norms and what American people can do to confront them. This 7-minute video gives a great overview of the work done by both organizations.

Why is Protect Democracy concerned about the state of our government? According to the Authoritarian Threat Index, the U.S. rates a 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 5, halfway between a healthy democracy and total dictatorship. There are significant threats across all metrics: treatment of media, executive constraints, elections, civil liberties, civil violence and rhetoric.

To combat these threats, Protect Democracy has over 120 experts working in 28 states to protect free and fair elections, defend the rule of law and stop the spread of disinformation. You can read details of their work at this link.

As part of their educational mission, Protect Democracy has published an authoritarian playbook that outlines the seven fundamental tactics used by aspiring authoritarians. A few that may seem familiar are spreading disinformation, scapegoating vulnerable communities and stoking violence.

Fortunately, there is also a democracy playbook which outlines steps we can all take to defend our democracy. Those include: know the signs and red lines; engage in democracy locally; find your voice, lead a chorus, embrace your niche; remember democracy in the voting booth; and keep the faith. When put into action, this looks like becoming a poll worker, writing a letter to the editor, and of course voting.

Examples of the impact Protect Democracy has had since they began include building an election monitoring team and software that helps officials protect 155 million public voter records, educating 2022 midterm voters about key takeaways from the January 6th Committee and filing a court order blocking vigilantes from intimidating Arizona voters.

If you’d like to help prevent our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government, there are several ways to do so. Take some actions listed in the democracy playbook, make a donation and spread the word on social media. Like the Protect Democracy Facebook page and follow them on Instagram and LinkedIn.