Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Governor Cox’s Prayer Wasn’t Just Misguided—It Was Dangerous

Governor Cox’s Prayer Wasn’t Just Misguided—It Was Dangerous

Charlie Kirk’s Death Sparks Martyrdom Narrative Amid Rising Political Violence

Charlie Kirk’s Death Sparks Martyrdom Narrative Amid Rising Political Violence

Donald Trump and the Rise of Political Violence

Donald Trump and the Rise of Political Violence

Supreme Court

MAGA Supreme Court Justices Show Their True Colors by Joining Trump’s Attack on the Federal Judiciary

Ode to Ukraine

Ode to Ukraine

Kutay Tanir/Getty Images
Rob Stein
By Rob SteinMar 15, 2022
Rob Stein
Rob Stein is the founder of the Democracy Alliance and co-founder of the Committee on States. An attorney by training, Rob has founded and run several non-profit organizations, was senior strategist to the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was Chief of Staff of the Washington Office of the Clinton-Gore Transition, served as Chief of Staff of the United States Department of Commerce, and was a private equity investor working with dozens of early-stage companies. Rob’s research about the funding, management and overall infrastructure of the conservative movement over the last three decades, and his recruitment of leading progressive strategists, activists and donors, resulted in the formation of the Democracy Alliance, and he co-founded the Committee on States. Rob co-led the “Strengthening Our American Republic” research sponsored by the Fetzer Institute and Stand Together with Carolyn Lukensmeyer. Since 2017, he has been a champion of, and commentator on, cross-partisanship in American culture and politics; and currently advises a diverse range of center-right, center-left and independent cultural and political organizations and leaders.
See More Writings by author

Stein is an organizational and political strategist who has worked with dozens of for-profit, not-for-profit and political and public sector organizations over the past 50 years. He currently serves as a researcher/writer, consultant and champion of the work of cross-partisan cultural and political organizations and initiatives.

I know it is difficult to be optimistic in desperate times, but the burdens of healing the world are ours and ours alone - there is no one but us.

Thus, I proffer this “Ode to Ukraine” to encourage you to discover your own courage, belief, hope and faith in the possibilities of a better, more humane, evolved enlightened world:

Ukraine, thy individual acts of courage inspire our eternal belief in your cause;

thy personal resilience to defend your homeland is our hope for humanity

thy collective resolve to prevail in the face of unspeakable inhumanity waged against you sparks our faith in one another;

thy rejection of the forces of evil is the inspiration required to secure freedom, justice, and opportunity for ourselves and our posterity.

For this, and so much more, thy breath is our life

Latest news

news app
Media & Technology

The Selective Sanctity of Death: When Empathy Depends on Skin Color

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making
Governance & Legislation

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

A close up of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge.
Governance & Legislation

The Cruel Arithmetic of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Multi-colored speech bubbles overlapping.
Bridging & Common Ground

In the Aftermath of Assassinations, Let’s Show That Americans Overwhelmingly Disapprove of Political Violence

Read More

How Pop Culture Can Save Democracy: Lessons From Just Do It to Designated Drive

Shoppers stand in line at a Nike outlet store on May 3, 2025 in San Diego, California.

Getty Images, Kevin Carter

How Pop Culture Can Save Democracy: Lessons From Just Do It to Designated Drive

In the late 1980s, the Harvard Alcohol Project did just that. By embedding the term designated driver into prime-time television—from Cheers to L.A. Law—they didn’t just coin a phrase. They changed people’s behavior. The campaign was credited with helping reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities by nearly 30% over the following decade. President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, endorsed the movement, amplifying its reach.

They made sober driving socially admirable, not awkward. And they proved that when language meets culture, norms shift.

Keep ReadingShow less
La Ventanita: Uniting Conservative Mothers and Liberal Daughters

Steph Martinez and Rachel Ramirez with their mothers after their last performance

Photo Provided

La Ventanita: Uniting Conservative Mothers and Liberal Daughters

When Northwestern theater and creative writing junior Lux Vargas wrote and brought to life La Ventanita, she created a space of rest and home for those who live in the grief of not belonging anywhere, yet still yearn for a sense of belonging together. By closing night, Vargas had mothers and daughters, once splintered by politics, in each other's arms. In a small, sold-out theater in Evanston, the story on stage became a mirror: centering on mothers who fled the country and daughters who left again for college.

Performed four times on May 9 and 10, La Ventanita unfolds in a fictional cafecito window inspired by the walk-up restaurant counters found throughout Miami. “The ventanita breeds conversations and political exchange,” said Vargas.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Cruel Season at the Bus Stop

File: ICE agents making arrests

en.m.wikipedia.org

A Cruel Season at the Bus Stop

The poem you’re about to read is not a quiet reflection—it’s a flare shot into the night. It emerges from a moment when the boundaries between surveillance and censorship feel increasingly porous, and when the act of reading itself can be seen as resistance. The poet draws a chilling parallel between masked agents detaining immigrants and the quiet erasure of books from our schools and libraries. Both, he argues, are expressions of unchecked power—one overt, the other insidious.

This work invites us to confront the slippery slope where government overreach meets cultural suppression. It challenges us to ask: What happens when the stories we tell, the knowledge we share, and the communities we protect are deemed threats? And who gets to decide?

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025