To defend democracy and advance liberal ideals we must do two things. First, we must rally liberals and progressives to speak up and take action to defend the nation we love. In 2025, this is happening every week in communities across the nation. Second, we must speak to the civic middle, the disaffected, and younger voters and drive home what is at stake when one of the country’s two major political parties is no longer loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law, and masked federal agents, acting as the president’s secret police, grab people off the street without due process – treating both immigrants and citizens as if they have no rights. We fought the American Revolution to be free of tyranny. We will do so again.
Persuasion Where It Has Impact
Small Groups and One-on-One
Emphasizing personal interactions, small group dialogue, and reaching a growing audience with our “Courage” Substack posts, Saving Democracy operates in the spheres of life where education, knowledge, and persuasion can – and do – have a powerful effect.
Large organizations are largely immune to education and persuasion. This is true whether they are a presidential administration, political party, corporation, business group, labor union, nation-state, or religious organization. At the organization and societal level – as Reinhold Niebuhr taught and Martin Luther King Jr. understood – what is required is some form of coercion. Famously, the Civil Rights movement deployed the coercive power of disciplined, strategic, nonviolent protest. Pro-democracy advocates today can continue the legacy of what John Lewis famously called “good trouble.”
In a democracy, positive change is possible and, in fact, inevitable. For example, it happened in 2008 and 2012 when President Obama won large presidential victories because of the exceptional turnout of people 30 and below. It all depends on when enough people organize and work together to make it happen. In this current moment, it will happen when younger and newly middle-age voters show up at the polls and exert their power.
Vision, Strategy, and Target Audience
For each of the three-prongs described below, Saving Democracy is educating citizens and college students about the authoritarian threat, and equipping them to recognize what a belief in and commitment to democratic principles and behaviors look like.
Today, an intense minority seeks to impose an illiberal, reactionary vision of America on the country as a whole and reject the nation’s ideals articulated by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. In response, Saving Democracy is dedicated to articulating, defending, and advancing the liberal idealism that the founders set forth and core principles of freedom and equality that both liberal progressives and traditional conservatives have endorsed from the beginning of the nation up to today.
In 2023-2024, the principals of Saving Democracy recognized that appeals to party loyalists and base voters were not enough to stop the nation’s drift toward authoritarianism. As a result, we developed two innovative programs to speak to the Civic Middle and the Disaffected in congressional swing districts. The nation is sharply polarized into Blue and Red camps, but this ignores the Civic Middle, the independents and moderate voters who are the ballast of our political system. Many Americans find themselves in the political center between the parties. In order to defeat autocracy, we must persuade them that this fight is about their futures. To defeat the intense minority on the right, it is imperative that independents and moderates join and rally for the pro-democracy camp.
Additionally, disaffected voters across the spectrum, from conservatives in the Liz Cheney mode to those on the progressive left, must be urged to vote. Change is difficult; it happens when enough people get politically active and demand change. The goal of Saving Democracy is to help people, regardless of how alienated they might feel at the moment, to understand that when democracy works properly it is possible for those without massive economic power to participate and be heard. Across history, democracy is a rare form of government; it can be frustrating but as Winston Churchill famously said, it remains the best form of government yet devised.
In 2025-2026, with our Substack “Courage” we are pivoting to address both the politically aware activists who have been working hard to maintain American democracy and those citizens, especially 40 and under, who are newly concerned over the lawless behavior of the president and a party that bows to his every wish. What is happening in Washington and on the streets of Los Angeles is not normal; this is Not how American democracy is supposed to work.
Facing not one but two existential crises—the attack on constitutional democracy and the climate emergency—these challenges can only be met if people make their voices heard and heard loudly. Our Substack “Courage,” this website, the Saving Democracy program, and Kevin’s two books, Madison’s Sorrow: Today’s War on the Founders and America’s Liberal Ideal and Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Representation in America, are our ways of giving back to a nation that has treated us well.
Speaking to both politically aware activists and the newly concerned via the Courage Substack, we inform and educate readers about what really matters in the chaos of our current politics and be an antidote to the chaos, cruelty and insanity that we are witnessing from our national government. Our posts report facts and speak the truth, show patterns, and report stories from history that help us understand today and inspire us to keep up the fight. There are many decades when it does not matter if most people sit on the sidelines and pursue other interests. This is not one of those times; we need everyone who loves what the United States of America stands for to help us bend history in a positive direction.
We must remember that political battles and military campaigns often are won by the side that has the most grit and determination. That was true at Gettysburg, during the Battle of Britain and El-Alamein in World War II, in the success of the Civil Rights movement, and of every team that has won an NBA title.
There have been illiberal periods in American history before, but most often centered at the community and state level, not led by the national government. Yes, there have been exceptions – the Palmer raids of the 1920s, the Japanese internment camps during WWII, and the Red Scare of the 1950s led by Senator Joe McCarthy – are three 20th century episodes at the federal level. Our era is distinctive. Never before has the United States had a president who has no fidelity to the Constitution or the rule of law. And only once before, the Civil War, has there been a frontal assault on the core liberal principles that define the United States and have kept Americans striving to move closer to those lodestar ideals of liberty and equality for all. The job of this generation is to stop this president’s will to power and begin progress to a better future.
Tool Kits
Part of our 2025-2026 strategy includes providing tool kits to individuals and organizations active in the fight nationally so that they can replicate the program we pioneered in Southern California. Our goal is to see this dual program of civic talks and canvassing independent voters replicated across the country.
Innovative Canvassing Program
In 2023-2024, we developed an innovative canvassing program distinctive from the Get Out the Vote walking of most congressional campaigns. We knocked on doors months before the election talking to people about the importance of constitutional democracy and individual rights. People often thanked us for coming by. Unlike traditional canvassing, we take the time to talk to residents to find out what issues concern them and what might alarm them.
Talks that Reach Local Civic Leaders
In 2023 and 2024, we spoke to dozens of local civic and business organizations across Southern California. Here we generated a dialogue about the erosion of democratic norms, stressing the business community’s strong interest in having a stable, rule-following democracy where extremism and threats of violence are sharply discouraged. By directing our efforts to groups such as Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and local Chambers of Commerce, we reached local civic leaders who can spread the pro-democracy message throughout their networks.
Technology and a New Generation
The cornerstone of any democracy since Aristotle has been to persuade enough of the population to implement a common vision in the lives of its citizens. Today, the creation of digital platforms powered by data science has resulted in the proliferation of social media channels. Once, the traditional news media held sway over voters. Now, through fragmentation and micro targeting of the “like minded,” people can be organized into communities and open forums where racism is freely expressed.
The result of exponentially democratizing the processing and sharing of information, without vetting and fact checking, has been to increase misinformation, blatant propaganda, and systematic lying about politics. The digital media revolution spreads information at nanovelocity and along with it any lies and misinformation to which its adherents cling. Regrettably, corporate media news gathering and reporting is not equipped to help people understand and process what is at stake.
Our hope is that young people have a grasp of the new media landscape, its implications for our democracy’s health, and can teach us about these new lenses of democratic persuasion. Building trust through face-to-face interactions while sharing space and fostering community in reliable online and physical environments is crucial to rebuilding belief in our political system.
We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.
Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney