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RIP, anti-gerrymandering crusader Ellen Tauscher

Ellen Tauscher, who died Monday at age 67, had been a political survivor in more ways than one: She succeeded in negotiating major international nuclear arms treaties for the Obama administration even while battling esophageal cancer. Before that she regularly found ways to wield influence in Congress despite publicly opposing the most powerful fellow Democrat in the California delegation, Nancy Pelosi. And she won seven House terms representing suburban tracts east of San Francisco despite several GOP efforts to get rid of her.

It was that experience that prompted the last public service effort of Tauscher's life – creation of You Draw the Lines 2021, a non-profit advocating for the creation of independent, nonpartisan commissions to draw all the congressional boundaries in the nation. She described the partisan-driven redistricting of the House as nothing short of as "constitutional crisis."


The Founding Fathers "did not foresee that it would be possible to create congressional districts and assign them to parties where the person in the seat is fungible and the party owns that seat for 10 years during the time between redistrictings," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. "That's why I think you have such tremendous voter apathy, why you have people believe their vote doesn't matter and the sense that it's all rigged."

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Democracy on the Edge—And How We Bring It Back

Democracy on the Edge—And How We Bring It Back

Democracy on the Edge—And How We Bring It Back

Welcome to the latest edition of The Expand Democracy 5. With Rob Ritchie and Eveline Dowling’s help, we highlight timely links and stories about democracy at the local, national, and global levels. Today's stories include:

🧨 The psychology of political violence in America

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Just the Facts: Using the Military to Stop Riots

National Guard

File footage

Just the Facts: Using the Military to Stop Riots

The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.

Before President Trump called up the military to stop the L.A. riots this week, has the military ever been called upon to stop protests in the United States?

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Defining the Democracy Movement: John Bridgeland
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Defining the Democracy Movement: John Bridgeland

The Fulcrum presents The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement. Scott Warren's interview series engages diverse thought leaders to elevate the conversation about building a thriving and healthy democratic republic that fulfills its potential as a national social and political game-changer. This initiative is the start of focused collaborations and dialogue led by The Bridge Alliance and The Fulcrum teams to help the movement find a path forward.

John Bridgeland is the CEO and Executive Chair of More Perfect and former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President George W. Bush. More Perfect is a recently launched bipartisan initiative designed to engage a wide range of institutions and Americans in the work of protecting and renewing American Democracy.

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