Democracy & Solidarity

I try to organize my civic work around two goals: deepening American democracy and deepening American solidarity.

Deepening American democracy

Today, democracy is understood in its shallow form: to many, it just means that the people can vote in elections for their government. But there is a deeper, more inspiring conception of democracy.

Deep democracy begins with a faith in the creative power of ordinary citizens — a presumption that all of us, not just a select few, can participate in the co-creation of our nation. From this faith comes the pursuit of a government and economy that are not only for all people, but of and by all people, as well. To be a deep democrat is to believe that when we open up power to more people in more ways — when people have a say in the forces that govern their lives — we flourish as a nation. It is to define freedom not as freedom from government (as libertarians define it), but rather as Martin Luther King Jr. defined it: as “participation in power.”

My guiding lights of democracy are folks like Roberto Mangabeira Unger, who built on John Dewey‘s work to clarify what deepening democracy means, and Ralph Nader, who has fought his whole life to restore a sense of “public citizenship” to American politics.

To help deepen democracy, I am working to build the Democracy Policy Network (DPN), a state policy organization focused on raising up ideas that deepen democracy. Through DPN, we are organizing: (1) a comprehensive, vision-based, open agenda for deepening democracy in the states that reflects The Democracy Movement’s ambitions, spirit, and breadth — from ranked-choice voting to social housing to a state-level Green New Deals; and (2) an interstate policy community of democratically-spirited state leaders, experts, and volunteers to develop and advance that agenda across the country. In doing so, we hope to help inspire more politicians to adopt a bolder democratic vision for the future of our country and a bolder democratic governing agenda to make that vision a reality.

Through DPN, I have also launched a podcast, This is What Democracy Looks Like, that aims to explore, as the title implies, what a deeper democracy could, concretely, look like.

I have also been interested in finding ways to better align the Democratic Party’s vision (what the party fights for) and structure (how the party fights for it) with the goal of deepening democracy. To advance this project, I am working on a book about the past, present and possible future of the Democratic Party, provisionally titled The Next Democratic Party. The book will focus on how the party — through a more democratic policy vision and a more participatory, membership-based structure — can better live up to its name.

Deepening American solidarity

If democracy is about more people being able to realize their dreams, solidarity is about more people seeing each other’s dreams as part of their own. The idea is described well by Martin Luther King:

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

I have been inspired by the folks who have written about the deeply spiritual elements of the idea: Martin Buber writing in I and Thou about how to approach other as the infinite souls they are; Lewis Hyde writing in The Gift about the meaning of a bleeding heart; and Pope Francis speaking about our call to be a “field hospital” for the wounded around us.

But I’ve also been inspired by the folks who talk about solidarity as a very practical matter, too. On the macro-level, you have Robert Putnam writing in Bowling Alone about the importance of reinvigorating our shared institutions, trust, and fellow-feeling. On the meso-level, you have Jane Addams, through her Settlement Houses, perfecting a model of community-building, social work, and moral uplift. And on the micro-level, you have Dorothy Day reminding us that:

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers with that burning love, that passion, which led to the cross, then we can truly say, ‘Now I have begun.’

In the long run, I am hoping to one day organize Solidarity Virginia, a solidarity-building group for my region. It will aim to foster a local counterculture of solidarity that can serve as an alternative to our modern culture of isolation, centralization, and hyper-individualism. I believe there are millions of Americans out there who desire a deeper relationship with their neighbors. But most people don’t know where to start — it’s too hard to live out an alternative alone. That’s what I’m hoping the Solidarity Virginia concept could one day be: a central access point for those dedicated to weaving their communities together through the work of the hands (like the corporal works of mercy), the heart (community-building among those participating in the work), and the head (policy advocacy and institution-building around serving community needs).

I have worked on similar solidarity-building projects (such as CommonPlace) in the past and have been deeply interested in historic attempts at solidarity-building, like the Solidarity movement in Poland, Jane Addams’ Settlement House movement, Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement, and Alcoholics Anonymous. (I owe much of this line of thinking to Elias Crim’s Solidarity Hall, which is a wonderful clearinghouse for all things solidarity. Our continuing conversation on how to build solidarity can be found in the Dorothy’s Place podcast.) As I work to eventually develop Solidarity Virginia, I hope to build on these experiences and learnings.

Additionally, I want to gather my research on solidarity-building concepts, ideas, and precedents into a book, provisionally titled Solidarity in America, which aims to reflect on what solidarity means on both a spiritual and practical level, call attention to America’s crisis of social solidarity, spotlight heroes of American solidarity, and share what we can do to build American solidarity in the coming decades.

On civics

I am deeply interested in civics — what is means to be an active citizen; effective and enriching paths to social change; civic creativity beyond voting and protest; and what it will take a spur a civic revival in America.

I have been working on two books on this topic. First is my book Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in An Age of Infinite Browsing about building “a counterculture of commitment” within our age of “Infinite Browsing Mode.” It is based on my 2018 graduation speech on the same topic. Commitment, I argue, is the fundamental prerequisite for effective citizenship.

Second, I am working on a book of civic essays — Slow Politics: On Civic Hope in Troubled Times. It aims to share a mindset, strategy and vision for hopeful citizenship in our often disappointing era. Topics discussed include: the need for longer-term civic projects, the flexible nature of our social structure, the power of civic creativity, a vision of political community beyond tribalism, the practice of working groups, how to scale through ‘networked localism,’ the difference between a deeper democracy and a more humane meritocracy, and the meaning of “the democratic faith.”

I am also working on co-producing a documentary on the civic crisis — and potential for civic revival — in America. It follows the half-century story of America’s civic unraveling through the eyes of the man who has dedicated his life to studying it: Harvard social scientist, Bowling Alone author, and civic guru Robert Putnam.

I also often use my conversations on The Current Affairs Podcast to explore civic themes.