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Project 2025: Voters oppose the far-right playbook

Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention

The Democrats didn't have a meaningful primary, and no one cared

Meet the change leaders: John Palmer

John Palmer
Courtesy John Palmer
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsMay 15, 2024
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as co-publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
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David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

John Palmer is long-time electoral reform advocate supportive of a more level playing field for candidates outside the two major parties. He sits on the board of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, an umbrella organization for democracy reform, and currently chairs the board of Rank the Vote, an organization promoting the adoption of ranked-choice voting nationally.

Palmer and his wife, Mary, were significant financial supporters of the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, the Maine-based organization that led the 2016 campaign resulting in passage of the first statewide use of RCV.

Palmer has supported various other democracy reform organizations and efforts, including American Promise, FairVote, the ProRep Coalition, RepresentUs and UniteAmerica.

Professionally, Palmer is co-founder of Hanover Partners, a San Francisco private equity firm. He currently serves on the boards of two companies in Hanover’s portfolio and has served on the boards of 12 previous Hanover companies.

The Palmers live in San Francisco with three children, and they spend significant time in Maine during the summer.

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Palmer in April for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:

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The Fulcrum interviews John Palmer, Chairman of Rank the Votewww.youtube.com

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Project 2025: A threat to American values

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Make safe states matter

Richie is co-founder and senior advisor of FairVote.

It’s time for “safe state” voters to be more than nervous spectators and symbolic participants in presidential elections.

The latest poll averages confirm that the 2024 presidential election will again hinge on seven swing states. Just as in 2020, expect more than 95 percent of major party candidate campaign spending and events to focus on these states. Volunteers will travel there, rather than engage with their neighbors in states that will easily go to Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. The decisions of a few thousand swing state voters will dwarf the importance of those of tens of millions of safe-state Americans.

But our swing-state myopia creates an opportunity. Deprived of the responsibility to influence which candidate will win, safe state voters can embrace the freedom to vote exactly the way they want, including for third-party and independent candidates.

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The National EduDemocracy Landscape Map provides a comprehensive overview of where states are approaching democracy reforms within education.

The democracy movement ignores education races at its peril

Dr. Mascareñaz is a leader in the Cornerstone Project, a co-founder of The Open System Institute and chair of the Colorado Community College System State Board.

One of my clearest, earliest memories of talking about politics with my grandfather, who helped the IRS build its earliest computer systems in the 1960s, was asking him how he was voting. He said, “Everyone wants to make it about up here,” he said as gestured high above his head before pointing to the ground. “But the truth is that it’s all down here.” This was Thomas Mascareñaz’s version of “all politics is local” and, to me, essential guidance for a life of community building.

As a leader in The Cornerstone Project and a co-founder of The Open System Institute I've spent lots of time thinking and working at the intersections of education and civic engagement. I've seen firsthand how the democratic process unfolds at all levels — national, statewide, municipal and, crucially, in our schools. It is from this vantage point that I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the democracy reform movement will not succeed unless it acts decisively in the field of education.

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A framework for democracy philanthropy

Stid is the executive director of Lyceum Labs, a fiscally sponsored project of the Defending Democracy Together Institute. The following is reposted with permission from his blog, The Art of Association.

It is challenging for philanthropic funders to get started and stay focused when it comes to strengthening democracy. The vagaries of our political system — really a complex system of systems cast on a continental scale — make it hard to know where to even begin. There are dozens of solutions that could be worthy of support. Alas, none are backed by dispositive evidence indicating that they are the single-best way forward. Then, every second and fourth year, elections reset the stage of democracy and reshuffle the cast of characters, often in unsettling ways.

Democracy's proximity to politics further complicates the philanthropic picture. The tax code bars foundations from backing or opposing candidates, parties and ballot measures. Many foundations take a belt-and-suspenders approach to this proscription on electioneering by avoiding anything that smacks of politics (as democracy-related causes frequently do). Other foundations, in contrast, push right up to the edge, seeking to exploit all the legal ways they can underwrite voter registration, education and participation, ostensibly on a nonpartisan basis, to further their political goals.

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Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who oversees elections, is running for governor this year.

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We can break the partisan cycle by unrigging the system

Sturner, the author of “Fairness Matters,” is the managing partner of Entourage Effect Capital.

This is the sixth entry in the “Fairness Matters” series, examining structural problems with the current political systems, critical policies issues that are going unaddressed and the state of the 2024 election.

We face complex issues, from immigration to the national debt, from Social Security to education, from gun violence to climate change and the culture war, from foreign policy to restoring a vibrant middle class by ensuring economic outcomes are more balanced and equitable.

Yet, neither party seems to be doing much about any of the political problems and policy challenges plaguing our nation. Instead of working on real solutions, our politicians spend their time and our national resources distracting and dividing us by using every tool at their disposal to retain power. Why is that? As Andrew Yang points out in a recent TED Talk (quoting a senator), “A problem is now worth more to us unaddressed than addressed.” It’s galling until you remember that the Democratic and Republican parties are private, gain-seeking organizations that exist to seek and retain power. As such, we should be wary of political parties because our interests and theirs are not aligned.

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Independents will decide the election. What do we know about them?

Fisher is senior director of policy and partnerships for Unite America. Macomber is research manager for Unite America .

Whichever party wins independent voters will win the presidency and other key races this fall. A poll we at Unite America commissioned earlier this year provides clues for how Democrats and Republicans can appeal to these swing voters — including embracing their right to participate in all primary elections. Nearly 90 percent of independent voters from closed primary states support opening primaries, and nearly 60 percent said they would be more likely to vote for a party that pledged to support their right to vote in primaries.

A new bipartisan bill in Congress gives the parties a golden opportunity to do just that. The Let America Vote Act would immediately end closed primaries for congressional and presidential elections, while also providing financial incentives to states that enfranchise independents in state and local primaries. Currently, 15 states have closed congressional primaries, and 22 states have closed presidential primaries.

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