Many Americans woke up to the fact that democracy was in trouble only on November 9, 2016, the day after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States. Others, who had known trouble for much of their lives, in the US and around the world, were less surprised but more directly threatened. The promise of democracy seemed to be at greater risk than at any time since the 1930s. Although large majorities of the American public support far-reaching—and urgently needed—political, economic, and social reforms, their desires are held in check by our radically unrepresentative political institutions.
But the motivation to renew, deepen, and broaden the democratic promise was also unmistakable in the wake of Trump’s election: the Women’s March, the airport protests of the Muslim ban, the emergence of Indivisible and thousands of popup groups, the youthful March for Our Lives against gun violence, the Sunrise mobilization for the “Green New Deal,” and the Democratic wave of the 2018 midterm election.
