The Savior of Democracy Will Be Citizen Action

The on-ramp to an effective citizen-led democracy relies on giving people the belief that they can turn their anger or their hopes into concrete action that will make a difference. In the U.S. currently, that on-ramp has often been participation in mass demonstration events such as the No Kings mobilization last October that drew more than 7 million people across the country into the streets (and 600 in our small town in Western New York). But it is crucial that we find ways that move large numbers of those millions into organized, ongoing action.

As I work with citizen activists across the world, I tell them that my mantra is this piece of wisdom from Sun Tzu in “The Art of War”: “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Nothing is more wasteful in democratic action than allowing the spark of activism to die out because it is not deployed in a strategic and effective way. In the U.S. and elsewhere, I think this is urgent in these areas of action.

One is civil disobedience and demonstrations. Absent the normal protections of the law, people in the U.S. have had to take matters into their own hands, especially in mounting a defense against the unlawful attack on the nation’s immigrants. Recent events in Minnesota showed us how urgent and how dangerous that avenue of citizen action can be.

A second key area is citizen advocacy, direct efforts aimed at public officials and how they exercise their power. In the conservative county where I live, we recently won a huge advocacy victory based on strong and strategic citizen advocacy. We convinced the Republican sheriff in a Republican county to no longer accept ICE immigrant detainees in the county jail who have been charged with no crime.

Lastly, citizen action needs to enter the electoral arena in a new and more powerful way. We can see in communities like the one where I live, and all across the country, a new generation of regular people willing to step up and run for office. But the obstacles in their way, money in particular, are daunting.

Just as citizen action is becoming more urgent, it is also becoming more challenged and more dangerous. Events in Minnesota and elsewhere have shown us that the U.S. government has no qualms about jailing and even killing those who stand up for civil liberties and human rights. In the U.S. and elsewhere, new surveillance technologies are being deployed as the new tools of political repression. We need to find ways to make sure that exercising our freedoms is safe, that our elections are not stolen from us through voter suppression, and that citizen action is unfettered.

To be clear, the threat to democracy is by no means solely a feature of the U.S. in this moment. In fact, it is a threat at hand in nations across the world, including in many where we once assumed democracy was solid and safe. I see the same dynamics in my work across Latin America, Africa, Asia, eastern Europe, and elsewhere.

Strengthening civil institutions like the courts, the legislative branch, the press, and others remains the top priority everywhere. But the gasoline in the tank that will make that movement possible is going to remain effective, inspired, and strategic citizen action.