Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Two containers, one with a U.S. flag and another with Canada's flag.

Just the Facts: U.S.–Canada Tariff War Escalates As Trump Raises Stakes

A person in a grocery store, paying with a credit card.

The U.S. Economy: Rebounding or Breaking Down?

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

‘It is complete chaos’: TPS recipients search for solutions after protections end under Trump

‘It is complete chaos’: TPS recipients search for solutions after protections end under Trump

Organizing for collective impact & the democracy principle

The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumJan 04, 2023
The Fulcrum
See More Writings by author

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.

Latest news

America can rebuild the East Wing, but what about democracy?
Ethics & Leadership

America can rebuild the East Wing, but what about democracy?

U.S. Capitol.
Democracy

Arbitration Could Prevent Government Shutdowns

USD Coin Stock Market Ticker Crypto World 1
Economy

Stablecoins and the New Currency Cold War

Read More

Robot building Ai sign.

As AI reshapes jobs and politics, America faces a choice: resist automation or embrace innovation. The path to prosperity lies in AI literacy and adaptability.

Getty Images, Andriy Onufriyenko

You Can’t Save the American Dream by Freezing It in Time

“They gave your job to AI. They picked profit over people. That’s not going to happen when I’m in office. We’re going to tax companies that automate away your livelihood. We’re going to halt excessive use of AI. We’re going to make sure the American Dream isn’t outsourced to AI labs. Anyone who isn’t with us, anyone who is telling you that AI is the future, is ignoring the here and now — they’re making a choice to trade your livelihood for the so-called future. That’s a trade I’ll never make. There’s no negotiating away the value of a good job and strong communities.”

Persuasive, right? It’s some version of the stump speech we’re likely to hear in the lead up to the midterm elections that are just around the corner--in fact, they’re less than a year away. It’s a message that will resonate with Americans who have bounced from one economic crisis to the next — wondering when, if ever, they’ll be able to earn a good wage, pay their rent, and buy groceries without counting pennies as they walk down each aisle.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump's Quiet Coup Over the Budget

U.S. President Donald Trump, October 29, 2025.

(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump's Quiet Coup Over the Budget

In “The Real Shutdown,” I argued that Congress’s reliance on stopgap spending bills has weakened its power of the purse, giving Trump greater say over how federal funds are used. The latest move in that long retreat is H.R. 1180, a bill introduced in February 2025 by Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA). The one-sentence bill would repeal the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 in its entirety—no amendments, no replacement, no oversight mechanism. If continuing resolutions handed the White House a blank check, repealing the ICA would make it permanent, stripping Congress of its last protection against executive overreach in federal spending and accelerating the quiet transfer of budgetary power to the presidency.

The Impoundment Control Act (ICA) was a congressional response to an earlier constitutional crisis. After Richard Nixon refused to spend funds Congress had appropriated, lawmakers across party lines reasserted their authority. The ICA required the president to notify Congress of any intent to withhold or cancel funds and barred them from doing so without legislative approval. It was designed to prevent precisely the kind of unilateral power that Nixon had claimed and that Trump now seeks to reclaim.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mary Kenion on Homelessness: Policy, Principles, and Solutions
man lying on brown cardboard box
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Mary Kenion on Homelessness: Policy, Principles, and Solutions

I had the opportunity to speak with Mary Kenion, the Chief Equity Officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The NAEH, in her words, is a non-profit organization with a “deceptively simple mission; to end homelessness in America.” We discussed the trends in policy that potentially could worsen the crisis, in relation to Medicaid, and the recent Executive Order regarding vagrancy and the mentally ill, and, finally, why this should matter as practical policy and how this reflects our national character and moral principles.

The NAEH cooperates with specialists to guide research efforts and serve in leadership roles; they also have a team of “lived experience advisors.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Princeton Gerrymandering Project Gives California Prop 50 an ‘F’
Independent Voter News

Princeton Gerrymandering Project Gives California Prop 50 an ‘F’

The special election for California Prop 50 wraps up November 4 and recent polling shows the odds strongly favor its passage. The measure suspends the state’s independent congressional map for a legislative gerrymander that Princeton grades as one of the worst in the nation.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project developed a “Redistricting Report Card” that takes metrics of partisan and racial performance data in all 50 states and converts it into a grade for partisan fairness, competitiveness, and geographic features.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025