My One Birthday Wish…

Use Your Entire Footprint To Save Democracy—So We Still Have a Democracy on My Next Birthday

Yep.

Today’s my big day!

Boys’ trip and birthday breakfast

Normally, I don’t ask for anything on my birthday. I just appreciate the well wishes from friends and family. (My son Charlie, 7, sang Happy Birthday to me at 7 am—as good as life gets). Catching up with folks who reach out. That alone makes it a great day.

But today, I do have one birthday request—of you, and of everyone who honors me by reading these newsletters.

And I make this one “ask” now for one sobering reason: right now, I/we don’t know if one year from now, on my next birthday, our country will have a functioning, rule-of-law democracy left. Or if it will all be in tatters—or just gone.

And that is one scary reality to contemplate.

I know I’ve never faced such a reality in my lifetime—where the difference from one birthday to the next could be so stark. Where the entire world could turn upside down in just 12 months. Freedoms and an already weakened democracy wiped away.

Scary as can be. But that’s the reality and uncertainty we face. And it should spur us to action.

Which is where my one birthday request comes in?

It’s that you—each reader, each of us—do all you/we each can to save democracy this year.

But I’ll get more specific to make my request more tangible.

First, though, remember three things (which too often get lost, especially in presidential years):

1) we are all on the front lines of the battle for democracy—in all 50 states, and every corner and community f all these states;

2) while defeating Donald Trump is essential to saving democracy, even that is not sufficient—we must fight for democracy at all levels, and in all the offices that shape it (for good or for bad): statehouses, state supreme courts, school boards, secretaries of state, and statewide ballot initiatives that will determine whether Ohio ends gerrymandering, and whether states like Missouri and Florida protect reproductive freedom. (And if we do all that well, we also lift our prospects of winning the presidency and other federal races we must win).

3) while much of the work to protect democracy involves partisan political work (and that gets all the attention), a huge amount of that work also involves non-partisan work: engaging suppressed voters; young voters; overlooked communities; election and voter protection work; and so on. Which means that there are so many organizations and activities that can play a role in lifting democracy that we often don’t think about in the democracy space—but should. In fact, many of them will be more effective at this work than traditional party and campaign operations.

SO—keeping those three things in mind—what’s my specific birthday request?

Use Your Entire Footprint

Simple.

It’s to use your entire footprint to lift democracy in this crucial year (and after):

What do I mean by this?

I provide these footprints, and explain the concept at length, in my book “Saving Democracy”…

…but you don’t need the book to do what I’m asking here. Because I’ve created a user-friendly footprint-worksheet you can access. You can link to it here, and print it out:

And once you print it out, I simply ask you to fill it out, listing all the networks and organizations you’re part of, all the entities you give to, the community work you do, and all the other aspects and engagements in your life (including as many things as possible beyond any political activity you undertake).

Together, this is your life footprint. It’s the most powerful thing you can dedicate to democracy. So get it all down on paper.

Unfortunately, most Americans use far too little of our footprints in our battle for democracy. Why?

Because when we frame the battle for democracy too narrowly—that it is only about a presidential or senate election in a few swing states, that it only takes place every two or four year years, and that it only involves intensely partisan/political activity—we end up only dedicating a few small toes of our footprint (maybe some time volunteering, and some money given, to candidates running in a handful of federal races) to lift democracy. The truth is with the battle defined so narrowly, most don’t use any of their footprint at all. They simply vote, if that.

But once we appreciate that we are all on the frontlines of democracy, that the battle takes place at all levels all the time, and that there are countless ways we can lift democracy in both political and non-partisan ways, it becomes immediately clear that we can all play a much bigger role than we ever have—and that there are so many parts of our footprint that we can dedicate to lifting democracy, but don’t.

So, newly empowered, make a list of all the elements in your footprint, because all of them may matter.

Once you’ve done that, brainstorm all the ways each element of your footprint can be put to work lifting and protecting democracy. I go through countless examples in my book, and on my website (HERE). But here are just a few questions that may stimulate your own ideas:

• is the homeless shelter or foodbank or family-serving nonprofit you work for, volunteer for, or donate to, registering everyone that it serves; if not, why not? — encourage them to, and help make it happen;

• is the health clinic you work at, or sit on the board of, or help fund, engaging the patients it serves about being part of democracy; if not, why not? — encourage them to, and help make it happen;

• is the community/precinct/apartment building you live in being organized on an ongoing basis, and not left to only hear from politicians in the final weeks of a campaign? if not, make it happen.

• do the mayors and councilmembers and county officials you know and support, use every public-facing part of their City Hall or County services to engage the too-often suppressed members of their community; if not, why not? — encourage them to, and help make it happen;

• does the university, college or high school you are closest with systematically encourage and support their students and other constituents to vote and access the necessary IDs to do so; if not, why not? — encourage them to, and help make it happen;

• does the statehouse committee that’s considering yet another extreme piece of legislation hear from you and others that you see what they’re up to, and that you’re outraged by it; if not, make sure they do;

• is the candidate running against one of those extremist politicians, who hasn’t been challenged in years, receiving your support because you value that uphill and difficult run as critical to democracy? if not, reach out to that candidate and change that.

Can elements of your footprint be dedicated to actives like those listed above? Of course they can.

So my simple birthday wish is that you fill out your footprint, thinking through all the ways all aspects of your footprint could do all of this important work, and so much more.

One other thing: think about groups you are part of—could all of their members also fill out a footprint like you just did? And if they did, wouldn’t the scale pro-democracy activity grow quickly? The answer is yes, so print out a bunch of footprints and bring them to your next meeting, pass them out, then have the group share what they’re each doing at future meetings. Or email them to your group before its next Zoom call.

Then you and everyone in all the groups you’re part of go do the things you listed.

That’s it.

That’s all I ask.

And if we all do this for my birthday this year, and do it effectively, we can save this precious democracy of our’s at a moment where it is under such great threat.

And after we succeed in doing that, I promise I won’t ask for anything else for my birthday next year—except to keep going.

Thank you in advance :)