utilizing executive powers to engage communities in the democratic process , and lift especially those voters who have been victims of the attacks on democracy . Then learn from those successes and repeat them . Then keep going , and going , and going .
Long game . Battle everywhere . Unite around democracy . From every step of progress , fight for democracy . Keep building .
I go through far more details of the actions we all can and must take in my book , Laboratories of Autocracy , but it ’ s imperative that at the highest levels , those who care for democracy make the broader shift in framework . And do so immediately . It ’ s what sets up everything else .
And at all levels , all who believe in democracy must make a commitment to join the battle in any way they can .
As I outline in the book , there are so many things we all can do . Just to name one example : does every plaintiff ’ s firm in the country remind all of its clients to vote ? Does it remind them to re-register ? That they can vote early ? Does it share the links or the documents that allow people to do these things ? Does it communicate about which candidates support democracy , and which do not ?
If you have relationships with mayors and councilmembers and others along the way , are you asking them to do all they are allowed to do ( and there is so much !) to lift democracy with their footprints ? Are they registering voters at every recreation center ? Library ? Health clinic ? Public housing complex ?
Are you on a nonprofit board ? Maybe of a food bank , or a homeless shelter , or a youthserving organization , who serve the very people who are caught up in the purging of voter rolls we are seeing in so many states as part of the broader attack no democracy . Is that organization fighting back for its constituents and customers , registering them or explaining how they can vote early ? If not , make it so . We are in the midst of a fight for democracy itself . Time to engage it as exactly that . Failure , truly , is not an option .
David Pepper is the author of the new book Laboratories of Autocracy : A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines
The Trial Lawyer x 79