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The Sleeping Giant Woke Up. Trump is Asleep.

The Sleeping Giant Woke Up. Trump is Asleep.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Texas Republicans’ Effort To Make a Safe House Seat May Backfire

Children's books on a shelf.

Darius Williams Went Viral. Fixing the Literacy Crisis Won’t.

Dolly Parton performs on stage, holding a white, bedazzled guitar.

Dolly Parton and the America We Keep Forgetting We Can Be

Organizing for collective impact & the democracy principle

The Fulcrum Digest
By The Fulcrum DigestJan 04, 2023
The Fulcrum Digest
The Fulcrum is a contributor for The Fulcrum, a nonpartisan publication dedicated to strengthening democracy by fostering informed civic engagement and elevating diverse perspectives.
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Welcome to The Fulcrum’s daily weekday e-newsletter where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives.

Organizing for collective impact: Prepared for anything, more effective at everything

On March 31, 2022, not long after Russia invaded Ukraine, attendees at a Unite America Brewer Fellows reception were asked to discuss how partner nations were able to respond so quickly and effectively to help Ukraine. The conclusion was that the relationships that had been formed between Ukraine and partner nations through joint capacity building and rehearsed interoperability enabled them to be prepared for the invasion.

The question then is how can these lessons learned from Ukraine be applied to promoting democracy and civic health in the U.S.?

Read More.

Democracy means more than just holding elections

Democracy means more than just holding elections. And, “the people” are more than just voters. Yet, “we, the people,” have allowed our role as popular sovereigns to be reduced to benchwarmers.

Democracy is supposed to be a system through which “the people” exercise power. That power appears to have been lost. We have effectively made “the people” the equivalent of designated hitters -- we participate sparingly (every two years); give our best go at having an impact (casting votes in elections decided by other factors--namely, money); and, spend the rest of our time cheering for our respective teams.

Read More.

Video: The number that will shape Republican politics in 2023

Winning just nine more House seats than Democrats in the 2022 midterms means the Republican caucus has very little room for error.

Watch.


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Trump and Carney standing next to American flag

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to the White House on Oct. 7, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TCA)

Trump’s war on Canada a pitiful own goal

This summer, America played host to one of the biggest international events on the planet, the World Cup, drawing millions of foreigners to our cities and towns, our stadiums and our national parks, where many of them had never been before.

The consensus was, America is awesome — visitors from Bolivia, Scotland, Uzbekistan, and everywhere in between marveled at the sheer size of our great nation, the diversity of our topography, the deliciousness of our foodstuffs, and, perhaps most importantly, the kindness of our people. (Not to mention, our eighth wonder of the world — Buc-ee’s.)

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Happy Latin American group of students studying together at the library

After a Title VI complaint from the Equal Protection Project, USC cut in-person Youth Leadership Institute programming. Students share the fallout

andresr/Getty Images

A Complaint Against HSF’s Youth Leadership Institute Shows Why DEI Matters for All Students

On June 29, the Equal Protection Project (EPP), a 501(c)(3) that challenges DEI initiatives through legal action at universities across the country, filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Southern California (USC) and Loyola Marymount University (LMU).

The complaint cites the involvement of both universities in hosting the Youth Leadership Institute, a summer program that flies out upwards of 500 Hispanic rising high school seniors to Los Angeles for a five-day intensive, teaching them about the college application process, financial literacy, and expanding their networks to student mentors who previously attended the program.

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aerial view of an AI data center.

In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on August 26, 2026 in Abilene, Texas. The Stargate Oracle AI data center will span roughly 4 million square feet and will be operated by Oracle for OpenAI. The facility is the first Stargate site to go live and is expected to be fully completed by the end of 2026.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Why Communities Nationwide Are Halting AI Data Centers

More Americans of all political stripes are growing anxious over the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies, and a popular backlash is brewing. At university graduations, commencement speakers who have cited the alleged benefits of AI have been met with resounding boos from graduates who feel AI has displaced them from jobs. With no federal law regulating AI, all 50 state governments have proposed measures to regulate everything from employment algorithms to deepfakes to child safety.

Lately, the strongest protest has emerged in America's heartland, with one issue fueling local opposition: the rapid proliferation of massive data centers used for cloud storage and artificial intelligence computations. Across America, more than 4,400 data centers currently exist, and a University of Michigan report found that just one center can consume as much electricity as 2,000 homes. They also use large amounts of water for cooling, with a typical data center using 300,000 gallons of water each day (about the same as 1,000 households). But very large data centers can use an estimated 5 million gallons of water each day, which is similar to the daily usage of a town with 10,000 to 50,000 residents.

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