• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. david meyers>

Keep working the levers of democracy

David Meyers
https://twitter.com/davidmeyers?lang=en
January 06, 2023
Keep working the levers of democracy

Meyers was the founding publisher and executive editor of The Fulcrum.

Four years ago, I helped launch The Fulcrum because American democracy deserved more than it was getting from the media. The world of political journalism (to which I had belonged for more than 20 years) was heavily focused on winners and losers, and to a lesser extent on policy making. But there was little, if any, coverage of how the system works (or, rather, doesn’t) and how it could be improved.

So when Issue One’s Nick Penniman explained to me his vision for a platform designed to cover efforts to improve the political system – to serve both as a trade publication and an amplifier for the work being done by the 100-plus organizations working on political reform and reducing polarization – I eagerly took on the challenge of building what would become The Fulcrum.

On Dec. 31, I completed my run at The Fulcrum. There are people to thank and stories to celebrate, but here I want to share what I’ve learned.


Our initial mission statement included this passage:

While rooting for our democratic institutions to get stronger, we have no rooting interest in any of the prescriptions out there. Our journalistic role is to help you by bringing a clear and unbiased eye to the debates.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

As I would often put it in my elevator pitch, we believe the system can get better and we’re going to explain how that can happen without advocating for specific reforms. And while I still believe that was the right journalistic approach, I also have a realist’s appreciation for which ideas have the best chance to succeed. That’s why the very first piece we published, authored by David Hawkings, made clear that the Democrats’ signature bill, the For the People Act, was not going to become law as long as Republicans retained the power to block legislation in the Senate. And despite various iterations and efforts at compromise, that prediction held true.

But the ideas contained in that bill would drive our coverage: voting rights, redistricting, election security, government ethics, campaign finance reform and more. And some reform ideas that showed momentum received more and more favorable coverage in The Fulcrum – ideas like ranked-choice voting, open primaries, independent redistricting commissions and eliminating “dark money.” Regardless of one’s partisan preferences, it’s hard to be cynical of ideas that bring more people into the political process – unless your goal is retaining power rather than embracing representative democracy.

And then came the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol – the preeminent symbol of our democracy.

Each of those events had profound effects on how states manage elections, with legislatures considering thousands of bills changing the rules covering voter registration, voter ID requirements, campaign funding, early voting and so much more. According to the Voting Rights Lab’s legislative trackers, state lawmakers introduced more than 4,000 bills in 2021 and 2023 that could have changed election laws. Nearly 400 of them were enacted.

I’m grateful for the work of the many organizations that helped keep track of state-by-state activity. Without tools like the VRL’s bill tracker, research from organizations such as the National Conference of State Legislatures and the on-the-ground reporting by local reporters, we would never have been able to publish important work like our “Election Evolution” series providing comprehensive coverage of election law changes in every state.

The raw numbers tell one story, but the state-by-state breakdown shows how the partisan divide has affected civic engagement. In most cases, blue states took steps to make it easier to vote while red states tightened the rules.

And yet, there have been a few (OK, very few) examples of how the parties can work together. I often point to Kentucky as a model for bipartisan compromise on democracy reform. While the state regularly supports Republican presidential candidates and has a GOP-dominated legislature, the voters elected Democrat Andy Beshear governor in 2019.

Rather than battling each other to a standstill on every issue, Beshear and Republican lawmakers found some common ground in 2021, agreeing on a law that both made it easier for people to vote and created new safeguards to ensure election integrity.

I’m thankful to the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, and specifically its leaders David Nevins and Debilyn Molineaux, who offered to keep The Fulcrum alive when we faced severe funding challenges in 2021. Their leadership and focus on expanding our coverage to better embrace the anti-polarization movement pushed me to widen my vision from structural reforms to the personal side of democracy.

It’s not enough to advocate for this reform or that one if the only people listening are those who already agree. We, the people, need to be able to talk – not scream – across the aisle. The question becomes, how do advocates for civil discourse mobilize enough people to make a difference. Nearly 40 Bridge Alliance member organizations – groups like the Civic Health Project, Convergence and Living Room Conversations – are working alongside others to achieve a critical mass. They introduced me to projects like America Talks, the National Day of Dialogue and the National Week of Conversation, efforts to foster conversations to break down the partisan barriers that have made the United States a country divided.

My time with The Fulcrum has ended (although my byline may still appear at times). But the work we have done here has changed me, opening my eyes to all that has been – and has yet to be – done to strengthen our nation. Our democracy depends on each of us to do better.

The Fulcrum’s original tagline was “News. Community. Debate. Levers for better democracy.” Let’s all keep working those levers together.

From Your Site Articles
  • 75 percent of Americans think democracy is under attack ›
  • Report: The threat of election subversion has eased, but not disappeared ›
  • David Meyers ›
  • A few lawmakers make election legislation a priority in 2023 - The Fulcrum ›
david meyers

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Our Staff
19h

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Rabbi Charles Savenor
19h

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
19h

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Lawrence Goldstone
02 February

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Katherine Kapustka
02 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February
Videos

Video: The dignity index

Our Staff

Video: The Supreme Court and originalism

Our Staff

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
19h

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
01 February

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January
Recommended
Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take
Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Civic Ed
Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcasts
Video: The dignity index

Video: The dignity index

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Big Picture
Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Big Picture