Category: democracy

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

by Walter Isaacson

Isaacson explores the origins of the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
• He breaks down the historical context, showing how Jefferson drafted it and Franklin and Adams edited it.
• The book highlights how those words shaped the American Dream and remain relevant in today’s polarized times.

Ali Velshi interviews Walter Isaacson

Publisher: ‎ Simon & Schuster

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Retribution

Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America

by Jonathan Karl

Publisher: Dutton

Recommended by: Steve Gadol

The must-read new book from Jonathan Karl, the author of New York Times bestsellers Tired of Winning, Betrayal, and Front Row at the Trump Show

In Retribution, Jonathan Karl’s unparalleled access brings us behind closed doors deep inside the White House and presidential campaigns, revealing the extraordinary moments that ended one man’s presidency and brought another back to power.

This is a story of unprecedented political plot twists, showing what happened behind the scenes as political fortunes fell and rose again, and as a new team coalesced around President Trump with the goal of creating an entirely new world order. From President Biden’s shocking withdrawal and Vice President Harris’s historic run, to the multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, his election, and the changes he has brought to every corner of the country, this book reveals in surprising new detail how we got here, and what we can expect from American politics in the years to come.

Interview with Jonathan Karl about Retribution

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Autocrats vs. Democrats

China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder

by Michael McFaul

Publisher: Mariner Books

“A history, an analysis, and a set of prescriptions for the greatest geopolitical challenge of our time: the threat to the democratic world posed by China and Russia.” —Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc.

“A monumental account of contemporary geopolitics”—Francis Fukuyama, author of Liberalism and Its Discontents
From New York Times bestselling author and former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul comes a bold, clear-eyed look at how the autocracies of China and Russia are challenging the current global order, and how America’s future depends on successfully confronting this threat.

No Kings 2 – Sam Liccardo

by Bruce Rafnel

Location: Palo Alto, CA; 1:00–4:00 p.m. at Rinconada Cultural Park.

Organizers

Event Program: https://tinyurl.com/u8wmfprf

No Kings 2 – Heham Sallam

by Bruce Rafnel

Location: Palo Alto, CA; 1:00–4:00 p.m. at Rinconada Cultural Park.

Organizers

Event Program: https://tinyurl.com/u8wmfprf

No Kings 2 – Ladoris Cordell

by Bruce Rafnel

Location: Palo Alto, CA; 1:00–4:00 p.m. at Rinconada Cultural Park.

Organizers

Event Program: https://tinyurl.com/u8wmfprf

No Kings 2 – Democracy Fair

by Bruce Rafnel

Location: Palo Alto, CA; 1:00–4:00 p.m. at Rinconada Cultural Park.

IPV videographer, Bruce Rafnel, prepared this 47-minute video showing many of the activities and speakers at the Democracy Fair at Rinconada Park. Bruce’s coverage includes the closing program featuring retired CA Supreme Court Justice La Doris Cordell, Hesham Sallem of Stanford, Congressman Sam Liccardo, and many Indivisible collaborators. 

Organizers

Event Program

Beyond Left & Right

Making Sense of Politics in a World of Increasing Misinformation and Manipulation

by Lorenzo Burton

Tired of the endless division, misinformation, and manipulation in today’s political climate?
Beyond Left & Right cuts through the noise to reveal how political systems truly function—and how to recognize when we’re being misled by those in power. In a world where confusion and bias are often used as tools of control, it helps you think more clearly, question more deeply, and see through the fog to understand what’s really going on.

Talking Points Memo

TALKING POINTS MEMO (TPM) is an independent news organization that publishes reporting and analysis about American politics, public policy and political culture.

We devote extensive resources to critical policy stories, like the decade-long GOP effort to repeal Obamacare, voter suppression, and the more recent push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

We keep close tabs on the political fringe — militias, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and more — because we believe they are greater drivers of American politics than mainstream news coverage allows.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/

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Robert Reich on Substack

by Robert Reich

 

Robert Reich on Substack

Robert Reich’s is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century.  He has written 18 books, including

Read Robert’s Jan. 2, 2024 article  “Why is the mainstream media failing to report accurately on the coming election? 

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Saving Democracy

A User's Manual for Every American: 2nd Edition: The Trump Era

by David Pepper

Publisher: St. Helena Press

Recommended by: Steve G.

Saving Democracy is that rare book that doesn’t simply diagnose the crisis our democracy faces, and the broader strategies that we must take to fight back…but it breaks it all down so that every reader understands the role she or he can play in their own lives.

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Attack from Within

How Disinformation is Sabotaging America

by Barbara McQuade

Publisher: Penguin Random House

UPDATED EDITION: The MSNBC legal analyst explores the impact of disinformation after the 2024 presidential election—and what Americans can do before it’s too late.

“A comprehensive guide to the dynamics of disinformation and a necessary call to theethical commitment to truth that all democracies require.” —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

Disinformation—the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth, whether from opportunists on the far right, misinformed media influencers, or others—is fragmenting America more than ever before, pushing the nation toward extreme views, civil unrest, and violence.

In this bestselling book, now with a new foreword by the author, Barbara McQuade identifies how disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society, causing havoc in our voting systems, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and the Capitol.

McQuade, an MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor confronts the ways disinformation is being weaponized to polarize voters, degrade our legal structures, and leverage the political influence of manipulators and authoritarians. Now newly updated, Attack from Within shows us how to fight back against misinformed, extremist thinking and work toward preserving America’s hard-won democracy.

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Thoughts on Aliens of Our Creation

Do they work for us, or for themselves?

By: Bruce Rafnel

Publisher: Substack, Authentic Community

Clearly, humans are causing climate change.

But we have more problems than warming the planet. Even if we control the temperature by reducing our CO2 emissions, there are many other ecological problems caused by humans: deforestation, desertification, disruption of water cycles, plastic pollution, insect decline, fishery collapses, and fuel resource depletion. The list goes on and on. “It is no accident that the ruins of the world’s oldest civilizations are mostly in deserts now. It wasn’t desert before that.”

Our human institutions are unwilling (or unable) to address these problems with real solutions. We created these institutions—corporations and governments, most notably—but we seem unable to control them. They have morphed into alien entities that now control us.

The smallest effective human-powered unit is a community, not an individual. However, tight, effective communities have been hobbled. It is time to relearn how to build communities, and then to do the work of taking back our government. At the same time, large organizations can be reformed or broken up, with non-violent actions, to remind them that they exist for humans, not themselves.

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A More Perfect Union

A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community
By Adam Russell Taylor
Recommended by: Bob
Publisher: Broadleaf Books

Thinking about alternatives is an important part of the One Million Rising training. In the words of the president of Sojourners, Adam Russell Taylor, whom I heard speak recently, to build a “more perfect union,” we need to be focusing on three priorities: Blocking, Bridging, and Building. We are focused a lot on Blocking bad things happening, but have little power to do that. In the future, we can work on Bridging, but that will take a very long time and will entail millions of one-on-one relationships.

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How to Organize Our Way Out of the Trump-Musk Putsch

A plan to harness grassroots energy—and to hold Democratic leaders accountable.

by Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg

Summary

Indivisible founders, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, wrote this inspiring article for The Nation. Reviewed by Rachael Maddow.

Continue reading How to Organize Our Way Out of the Trump-Musk Putsch

Indivisible: A Practical Guide To Democracy On The Brink

If there’s one universally accepted truth in the modern age, it’s that sequels suck. And Trump 2.0 will be no exception. Trump, Vance, and their MAGA minions feel vindicated by the victory of their bigoted, fascistic clown show of a presidential campaign. Trump takes office with a plan to institute the worst parts of Project 2025. He’ll be enabled by a judiciary packed with right-wing ideologues and a congressional majority stacked with MAGA foot soldiers. And he’s assembled a bloc of corporations and billionaires eager to do his bidding in exchange for tax cuts and corrupt favors. But he has no mandate for the staggeringly harmful agenda he’s about to unleash on the country. And together, we have the power to fight back — and win.

Resource Guide – Archive

Tyranny of the Minority

Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework for understanding these volatile times. They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France to present-day Thailand—to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy. They then show how our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind.

INTERVIEW: Levitsky and Ziblatt with journalist Tiziana Dearing at Harvard

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A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy

by PBS

With American democracy under threat, diplomat Dr. Richard Haass outlines ten habits to help citizens preserve democracy. Haass also explores real-life examples of Americans who are working towards strengthening democracy and renewing the spirit of a more informed and engaged citizenry. Premiered January 2, 2024 on PBS.

Watch the Video

Democracy Awakening

Notes on the State of America

by Heather Cox Richardson

Publisher: Penguin Random House

At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic. She examines the historical forces that have led to the current political climate, showing how modern conservatism has preyed upon a disaffected population, weaponizing language and promoting false history to consolidate power.

With remarkable clarity and the same accessible voice that brings millions to her newsletter, Letters from an American, Richardson wrangles a chaotic news feed into a story that pivots effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Nixon to the January 6 insurrection. An essential read for anyone concerned about the state of America, Democracy Awakening is more than a history book; it’s a call to action. Richardson reminds us that democracy requires constant vigilance and participation from all of us, showing how we, as a nation, can take the lessons of the past to secure a more just and equitable future.

Heather Cox Richardson | Democracy Awakening

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The Conspiracy to End America

Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy

by Stuart Stevens

Publisher: Hachette Book Group

Former chief Republican strategist, Lincoln Project adviser, and bestselling author of It Was All a Lie, Stuart Stevens offers an ominous warning that the GOP is dragging our country toward autocracy—and if we don’t wake up to the crisis in our system, 2024 may well be our last free and fair election.

 
INTERVIEW: Stuart Stevens talks to Brian Watt (KQED) at the Commonwealth Club

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Why We Did It

A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell

by Tim Miller

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Recommended by: Cindi Sears

In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Tim Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class’s Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.

From ruminations on the mental jujitsu that allowed him as a gay man to justify becoming a hitman for homophobes, to astonishingly raw interviews with former colleagues who jumped on the Trump Train, Miller diagrams the flattering and delusional stories GOP operatives tell themselves so they can sleep at night. With a humorous touch he reveals Reince Priebus’ neediness, Sean Spicer’s desperation, Elise Stefanik and Chris Christie’s raw ambition, and his close friends’ submission to a MAGA psychosis.

Why We Did It is a vital, darkly satirical warning that all the narcissistic justifications that got us to this place still thrive within the Republican party, which means they will continue to make the same mistakes and political calculations that got us here, with disastrous consequences for the nation

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After The Fall

The rise of Authoritarianism in the world we've made

by Bden Rhodes

Publisher: Random House

At a time when democracy in the United States is endangered as never before, Ben Rhodes spent years traveling the world to understand why. He visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing America apart. Along the way, he discusses the growing authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin, and his aggression towards Ukraine, with the foremost opposition leader in Russia, who was subsequently poisoned and imprisoned; he profiled Hong Kong protesters who saw their movement snuffed out by China under Xi Jinping; and America itself reached the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a fragile second chance.

How Civil Wars Start

and How To Stop Them

by Barbara F. Walter

Publisher: Crown

Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at U.C. San Diego, has spent over three decades studying civil conflict.  Over the last two decades, the number of active civil wars around the world has almost doubled. Walter reveals the warning signs—where wars tend to start, who initiates them, what triggers them—and why some countries tip over into conflict while others remain stable. Drawing on the latest international research and lessons from over twenty countries, Walter identifies the crucial risk factors, from democratic backsliding to factionalization and the politics of resentment. A civil war today won’t look like America in the 1860s, Russia in the 1920s, or Spain in the 1930s. It will begin with sporadic acts of violence and terror, accelerated by social media. It will sneak up on us and leave us wondering how we could have been so blind.

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Unthinkable

Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy

by James Raskin

Publisher: Harper

In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capital, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.

Jamie Raskin in conversation at The National Arts Club

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Betrayal

The Final Act of the Trump Show

by Johnathan Karl

Publisher: Dutton

This is the explosive look at the aftermath of the 2020 election–and the January 6th uprising–from ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl. Jonathan Karl, the reporter who has known Donald Trump longer than any other White House correspondent, Karl told the story of Trump’s rise in the New York Times bestseller Front Row at the Trump Show. Now he tells the story of Trump’s downfall, complete with riveting behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the darkest days in the history of the American presidency and packed with original reporting and on-the-record interviews with central figures in this drama who are telling their stories for the first time.

 

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The Election Sabotage Scheme and How Congress Can Stop It

The Freedom to Vote Act can halt this growing antidemocratic threat.

by Will Wilder, Derek Tisler, Wendy R. Weiser

Publisher: Brennan Center for Justice

Essentially this article addresses laws and proposed legislation enabling partisan interference in election administration as part of a broader “election sabotage” or “election subversion” campaign, a national push to enable partisans to distort democratic outcomes.

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Strongmen

Mussolini to the Present

by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the “strongman” playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin—enabling her to predict with uncanny accuracy the recent experience in America and Europe. In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat interviewed by Dean Peter Arnade at University of Hawai

There’s Nothing For You Here

Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century

by Fiona Hill

Publisher: Mariner Books

A celebrated foreign-policy expert and key impeachment witness reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia – and draws on her personal journey out of poverty, and her unique perspectives as a historian and policy maker, to show how we can return hope to our forgotten places.

Fiona Hill grew up in a world of terminal decay. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father urged her to get out of their blighted corner of northern England: “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said.

The coal-miner’s daughter managed to go further than he ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served three U.S. Presidents. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. By the time she offered her brave testimony in the first impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from Russia’s fate. In this powerful, deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and shows why expanding opportunity is the only long-term hope for our democracy.

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Twilight of Democracy

The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

By Anne Applebaum

Publisher: Vintage

Recommended by: Linda and Cindi

Despotic leaders do not rule alone; they rely on political allies, bureaucrats, and media figures to pave their way and support their rule. The authoritarian and nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths to wealth or power for their adherents. 

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The Highest Common Denominator

Using Convergent Facilitation to Reach Breakthrough Collaborative Decisions

by Miki Kashtan

Miki introduces a novel decision-making process called Convergent Facilitation that builds trust from the beginning, surfaces concerns and addresses them, and turns conflicts into creative dilemmas that groups feel energized to solve together. This highly effective process has been used successfully around the world to resolve problems and teach people how to collaborate without sacrificing productivity.

Continue reading The Highest Common Denominator

The Upswing

how America came together a century ago and how we can do it again

by Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

“An eminent political scientist’s brilliant synthesis of social and political trends over the past century that shows how we have gone from an individualistic society to a more communitarian society and then back again — and how we can use that experience to overcome once again the individualism that currently weakens our country”

We can’t go back to when things were “good.” But we can learn from when things ware “bad.” In the early 1900’s the Guilded Age of the robber barons, things were really bad for most US citizens; they feared for the end of democracy and the take-over by the oligarchs.

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Interview: Robert Putnam Knows Why You’re Lonely

The 2023 Ithiel de Sola Pool Lecture by Robert D. Putnam
Sep 22, 2023

Join or Die — Trailer (2023)

The Documentary “Join or Die” (2023) is currently available on Netflix (2025-08-11)

Divided We Fall

America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation

by David French

Summary

Reestablishing national unity will require the bravery to commit ourselves to embracing qualities of kindness, decency, and grace towards those we disagree with ideologically. David French calls on all of us to demonstrate true tolerance so we can heal the American divide. If we want to remain united, we must learn to stand together again.

Continue reading Divided We Fall

It Was All a Lie

How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump

by Stuart Stevens

Publisher: Knopf

Recommended by: Cindi S. and Steve G.

Written by Republican political consultant Stuart Stevens, this is a tell-all book about how the party he’s stood with for years spiraled out of control and lost the moral and political standpoints that once made it great. Unlike other books about Donald Trump, Stevens presents the 45th president of the United States as the inevitable result of the Republican Party’s failings, not its instigator.

Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass.

This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP’s DNA, from Goldwater’s opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan’s welfare queens and states’ rights rhetoric. He gives an insider’s account of the rank hypocrisy of the party’s claims to embody “family values,” and shows how the party’s vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room.

It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.

Listen to Stuart Steven’s interview on NPR

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How to Citizen with Baratunde

By Baratunde Thurston

Recommended by: Bob

Here are some sources of ideas from a podcast by Baratunde Thurston, which began in 2020 and has four seasons of episodes. The overall theme is encouraging thinking about “citizen” as a verb. The four
pillars for doing this are:

  • To participate, not just vote, but to show up for each other and publicly participate by discussing concerns, debating policy choices, advocating, etc.
  • To invest in relationships, by deepening our interconnections with our community, family, neighbors, etc..
  • To understand power, by learning about the fluidity of power and the various ways we the people can use it for our collective benefit.
  • To value the collective, by working towards outcomes that benefit the many, not just the few.

The four seasons of episodes (ranging from 11 to 16 episodes each season) consist of interviews with folks who are thinking about and demonstrating democracy-building activities. It’s a wonderful resource for ideas. They include international, national, statewide, and local leaders.

Podcast Link

Strategizing For A Living Revolution

by George Lakey

Publisher: History As A Weapon

Recommended by: Bruce R.

This article is a comprehensive strategic framework for nonviolent revolution, combining historical case studies, practical organizing guidance, and theoretical insights about movement building.

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The Movement Action Plan

A Strategic Framework Describing The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements

by Bill Moyer

Publisher: History Is A Weapon

Recommended by: BruceR

Within a few years after achieving the goals of “take-off”, every major social movement of the past twenty years has undergone a significant collapse, in which activists believed that their movements had failed, the power institutions were too powerful, and their own efforts were futile. This has happened even when movements were actually progressing reasonably well along the normal path taken by past successful movements!

The Movement Action Plan (MAP) was first published as the Fall 1986 edition of the Dandelion. Twelve-thousand copies were published and distributed. This is a revised edition of that article. People are invited to participate in the continuing development of MAP and help spread it to local groups.

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