Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Let's support democracy by joining community organizations

garden club

Joining a garden club can help democracy, writes McLeod.

Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images

McLeod was the first executive director of Foothills Forum.

What has gone so distressingly wrong with our self-government? Are we so angry, mistrusting and tribalized that we must now recoil from meaningful social debate and lurch fearfully from one polarizing fight to the next?

The causes of our crisis are complex and intertwined. Francis Fukuyama bemoans the rise of extremism on both the left and the right. Rachel Kleinfeld cites the dehumanization of adversaries. Jonathan Rauch is alarmed about the decline of democratic institutions that we assume, wrongly, are self-sustaining. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that constitutional reform is necessary to overcome provisions that empower partisan minorities and thwart the will of popular majorities.


Quite a few years ago, when I received a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, I was privileged to benefit from the scholarship and wisdom of then Dean Robert Putnam. And today, many years later, Putnam’s work has come to my attention with his new book, “ Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Communit y." In the book, which has gained wide notoriety, Putman advocates for actively creating social fiber by joining the local PTA, garden club, neighborhood association, church, Rotary or, yes, bowling group.

Putnam sees in all these areas a severe loss of essential “social capital” – knowing people with whom we may differ in background and thinking, but trusting them and building community with them. Social capital is the connective tissue that undergirds the places we live and enables healthy, democratic processes in our highly diverse society.

Now, in a compelling new documentary – “Join or Die”– Putnam argues that the communal decline he documented is central to the demise of American democracy. His messages of human connection and healthy, disparate communities are extremely timely – and, in fact, timeless.

"There are two different kinds of consequences of our social connections, or of the absence of social connections,” he says.

“One set has to do with how being a loner affects us personally. The title of the film 'Join or Die' refers to that set of consequences, because it's quite clear. And I made this [point] originally in 'Bowling Alone' while I was writing it 25 years ago. But it's now become even clearer. Your chances of dying over the next year are cut in half by joining one group, cut in three quarters by joining two groups. In other words, there are major physical and many other effects on you personally, if you become isolated."

"I also felt in the news, we were doing a lot of stories about 'this is bad, this is bad,' but not nearly enough about what we can do and where we can look for hope."

The decline in social capital has been exacerbated by life online and the pandemic, no doubt, and the title “Join or Die” may seem a bit alarming to some. But this film's salience and urgency cannot be understated.

We all need to find people, create social connections and strengthen society. In turn, we and our democracy can survive and thrive.

Read More

Leaders Can Promote Gender Equity Without Deepening Polarization − Here’s How
Getty Images, pixelfit

Leaders Can Promote Gender Equity Without Deepening Polarization − Here’s How

Americans largely agree that women have made significant gains in the workplace over the past two decades. But what about men? While many Americans believe women are thriving, over half believe men’s progress has stalled or even reversed.

To make matters more complex, recent research has revealed a massive divide along gender and partisan lines. The majority of Republican men think full gender equity in America has been achieved, while the majority of Democratic women think there’s still work to be done.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump Is Sabotaging America’s Greatest Demographic Advantage

The U.S. flag, a certification of naturalization, and a U.S. passport.

Getty Images, Thanasis

Trump Is Sabotaging America’s Greatest Demographic Advantage

“A profoundly dangerous and destabilizing thing.” That’s how Vice President J.D. Vance recently described America’s falling birthrate. Recently, the “ inherently pronatalist ” White House is considering a new set of proposals to address it—including government-funded menstrual cycle education and even a national medal for women who bear six or more children. But while Republicans may recognize the problem, their broader agenda actively undermines the most immediate and effective solution to population decline: immigration.

The Trump administration is enacting an all-out assault on immigration. Breaking from decades of Republican rhetoric that championed legal immigration, the current approach targets not just undocumented migration but legal pathways as well.

Keep ReadingShow less
An illustration of diverse people around a heart with the design of the American flag.
An illustration of diverse people around a heart with the design of the American flag.
Getty Images, wildpixel

The Next Hundred Days: America's Latest Test of Democracy

For decades, we have watched America wrestle with its demons. Sometimes, she has successfully pinned them down. Other times, the demons have slipped beyond her grasp. Yet, America has always remained in the ring. There is no difference right now, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Across America, from small-town council meetings to state legislatures, there's a coordinated effort to roll back the clock on civil rights, geopolitical relations, and the global economy. It's not subtle, and it's not accidental. The targeting of immigrants and citizens of color has become so normalized that we risk becoming numb to it. For example, what happened in Springfield, Ohio, late last year? When national politicians started pushing rhetoric against Haitian immigrants, it wasn't just local politics at play. It was a test balloon, a preview of talking points soon echoed in halls of government and media outlets nationwide. Thus, this is how discrimination, intolerance, and blatant hate go mainstream or viral—it starts small, tests the waters, and spreads like a virus through our body politic and social system.

Keep ReadingShow less
Two groups of people approaching each other over a chasm, ready to shake hands.

Two groups of people approaching each other over a chasm, ready to shake hands.

Getty Images, timsa

The Impact of Trump’s Executive Actions: Efforts To Eliminate DEI

This essay is part of a series by Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) explaining in practical terms what the new administration’s executive orders and other official actions mean for all of us. Virtually all of these actions spring from the pages of Project 2025, the administration's 900-page blueprint for government action over the next four years. The Project 2025 agenda should concern all of us, as it tracks strategies already implemented in countries such as Hungary to erode democratic norms and adopt authoritarian approaches to governing.

Project 2025’s stated intent to move quickly to “dismantle” the federal government will strip the public of important protections against excessive presidential power and provide big corporations with enormous opportunities to profit by preying on America's households.

Keep ReadingShow less