This month we celebrated the Fourth of July with thousands of people expressing their wishes for the future of our country at an art installation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as a part of the Civic Season celebration. Ben Naimark-Rowse also reminded us in ‘The Founding Myth of the United States’ that the celebration of war on the Fourth of July obscures the contributions that a decade of nonviolent resistance made to the founding of our country. If you missed it, check out the open letter from Policy Link’s ‘We Are the Founders’ campaign – “a call to leaders—to take up your power, exercise your values, and courageously build a future where all can thrive.”
As we prepare to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday in 2026, there is growing interest in deploying compelling narratives for democracy – such as this People Powered Democracy Narratives Campaign; the Metropolitan Group’s recent report on Democracy Narratives in Action; this special Summer 2025 issue of Responsive Philanthropy on Seeing the whole battlefield: Why philanthropy must fund data and story like democracy depends on it; and finally, if you didn’t see this report on Guiding Narrative Change: Considerations for the Philanthropic Field, it’s a helpful resource to better understand narrative programming.
The power of storytelling is evident with this new audio series ‘I Do Solemnly Swear’ with first-person accounts from over a dozen current federal employees across agencies, directed by acclaimed filmmakers in partnership with Federal Workers Against DOGE.
Sign up for these weekly updates by DemTrends on political accountability across thirty-nine key factors that shape the US democratic system. ‘This analysis draws from a variety of sources across the political spectrum, providing granular trend data to complement expert-rated indices like V-Dem, Freedom House, and Bright Line Watch.’
Understanding how autocracy is unfolding in the U.S. continues to be the subject of much discussion, and we’ve seen the release of several playbooks to respond to the global trends of democratic decline such as The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding; the excellent Anti-Authoritarian Toolkit produced by D-Hub; and this compilation offered by OBI on Understanding Authoritarianism: Resources to Defend Democracy. You don’t want to miss this recent article by our colleague Adam Fefer on Resisting Authoritarianism: How to Activate Civil Society’s Pillars of Support.
The Building Movement Project updated its FAQ for Nonprofits in the New Landscape; Vu from Nonprofit AF offered Instructions on not giving up: Let’s conserve our energy for the battles ahead; and Scot Nakagawa wrote about Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Hopelessness in Times of Crisis with lessons from immigrants, refugees, and activists who have survived the collapse of the familiar. We also celebrated this month the continued efforts of The No Kings Playbook to Confront Trump’s ‘Authoritarian Breakthrough’ where 130,000 activists attended a “strategic non-cooperation” training. If you missed the first training, you can re-watch here and sign up to join the next on-line trainings.
Chief Organizer Maria Stephan’s presentation on lessons learned from lawyer-led initiatives to uphold the rule of law is available here on YouTube. Together with the former dean of the Warsaw Bar Association, the discussion focused on the Polish experience and explored actionable strategies and tactics for lawyers and bar associations to consider for purposes of addressing the current rule of law crisis in the United States.
Here’s some of the other resources we’re reading, watching, and listening to this month:
READING
Why movements need to learn to fly like bees and thread like spiders
by John Paul Lederach, Waging Nonviolence
“The challenge of creating [our] collective response reminded me of the evocative question entomologists in the 1950s called the Paradox of Coordination, or how whole collectives achieve common purpose without centralized control. Their discoveries — despite being focused on the insect world — provided a catalyst for innovations in how to navigate deep and paralyzing divides in international settings. Much of the insight starts with a simple idea: Learn to strategically travel around different, divided, even highly polarized settings while rebuilding a broken circulatory system.”
Transforming Together
The American Immigration Council
“Belonging is a powerful force linked to health, happiness, and productivity. Yet in today’s divided society, belonging remains fraught and fragile, with most Americans reporting feelings of non-belonging at work and in their communities. In 2022, the American Immigration Council’s Center for Inclusion and Belonging created the Belonging Innovation Lab Fellowship to support and strengthen groups working to bring people together and build belonging in communities across the United States. Transforming Together celebrates the [extraordinary] work building community and belonging, and elevates takeaways to help others learn.”
Narrative Strategies to Address Individualism for Health and Racial Justice
Different and the Same
“American pop culture is full of stories about individuals changing broken systems. These stories reflect a deeper reality: individualism shapes our national identity, policies, and sense of equity in ways we rarely question. In ‘Different and the Same’, include essays from six organizations, exploring how individualism impacts health and racial equity in the U.S. If you’re curious about how American values like freedom and individualism evolve—these essays offer research, strategies, and questions for reflection.”
WATCHING
The Stakes: How Political Rhetoric Breeds Violence
The Kettering Foundation
“In this episode, host Brad Rourke speaks with Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed and UMass professor Alexander Theodoridis about the accelerating trend of politically motivated violence in America. In Minnesota, respected leaders were shot in their homes in a clearly political, premeditated attack. Mohamed, whose name appeared on the killer’s hit list, describes a state reeling from grief and fear. She draws a direct line from the murder of George Floyd to her own decision to serve and warns that today’s climate may stop the next generation from stepping up at all. Theodoridis describes how extreme partisanship is warping moral boundaries, allowing people to justify violence if it serves their side. Together, they dissect how rhetoric from political elites paves the way for bloodshed—and why silence from leaders makes it worse. If fear chases good people from public life, who will be left?”
Fast Frames: Mindsets and Movements
The Frameworks Institute
In this short video series, the Frameworks Institute walks through the various features of cultural mindsets and then applies those features to the topics of individualism and othering. “It’s important to pay attention to the choices we make in how we say what we have to say, which determines which cultural mindsets get pulled to the forefront of our thinking, shaping how we make sense of social problems and potential solutions. This—understanding and shifting the dominance of cultural mindsets—has the power to unlock deep, transformational, and lasting change.”
Moving from Apathy to Action: How Facing Grief Can Help Us Navigate a World in Crisis
The Great Simplification
“When facing the realities of our world, the urge to drown in grief or shut down into apathy is becoming more and more common. But what if facing our grief is actually the pathway to increasing our capacity to stay connected to and work on the things that matter most to us? What tools, practices, or rituals could we use to help us begin to metabolize our grief? In this episode, Nate is joined by John Seed and Skye Cielita Flor to explore the power of rituals and community for processing grief and transforming it into a deeper connection with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. They discuss the primary influences of their work, including ‘The Work That Reconnects,’ a framework developed by Joanna Macy and others, as well as the philosophy of Deep Ecology, founded by Arne Naess.”
LISTENING TO
Special Episode Part 1: James Mimm, Stephanie Luce, and Bill Fletcher on knowing your target, learning from successful failures, and building a united front
Craft of Campaigns podcast
“This episode is part one of a two-part special episode. In part one, we talk with three guests. First James Mumm grounds us in what is organizing – the importance of thinking like a target in power analysis, and why campaigns must contest for mainstream values, pulling from his co-written report The Antidote to Authoritarianism. Then we hear from Stephanie Luce about her co-written book Practical Radicals, how campaigns relate to her Seven Strategies framework, and learning from “successful failures.” Finally, Bill Fletcher differentiates between ‘campaigns’ and ‘movements’ and makes the case for broad united fronts, from his article, “Campaigns and Movements: How Are They Connected, How Do They Differ?”
What Ideals do Americans Share?
Maine Public Radio
“A recent report by the Nationhood Lab found that despite a divisive climate, Americans share certain ideals, rooted in the Declaration of Independence. This discussion covers these shared beliefs—and whether it’s possible to harness them to heal national strife.”
This interview is with Colin Woodard, director of the Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy and with Theodore R. Johnson, senior advisor at New America.
Fierce Vulnerability: A Conversation with Kazu Haga on Trauma and Nonviolence
Nonviolence Radio
“In this episode, nonviolence trainer and educator Kazu Haga speaks about trauma healing and nonviolence — what he calls “fierce vulnerability” (also the title of his most recent book). Because, as he insists, all violence stems from trauma, Kazu reminds us that we cannot simply “shut down” injustice. At the same time, we need to bring trauma healing into our understanding and practice of nonviolence at every level. In this discussion, Kazu points us toward a paradigmatic shift from harm to healing, where interconnection is as constant as gravity — we really can’t get around it. Following the conversation with Kazu, Hunter Dunn from the 50501 coalition debriefs on the impact of the “No Kings” rallies and explore, as Dr. King asked, ‘Where do we go from here?’”
FOR FUN
Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter tour is a reclamation of belonging in America
By Jose Richard Aviles, Othering & Belonging Institute
Whether you’re a fan of Beyonce or not, you’ll enjoy this personal reflection of the cultural significance of her recent tour: “One of the most difficult elements of radical imagination and world-building is the process of visualizing a new world. It is often difficult to conjure something without precedent. The Cowboy Carter Tour is as much visual production as performance…this show felt like a live performance, a movie, and a theatrical spectacle simultaneously. Her visual choices included messages like “the revolution will not be televised…the revolution will be live,” and images like that of her in a statuesque position, mirroring the Statue of Liberty’s pose, adorned with a sash that read ‘The Reclamation of America…’ I’m excited to continue to witness the fashion, content, and joy of the Beyhive…I never thought I would say this, but I am excited for the Independence Day show that will occur in Washington D.C. I hope that everyone goes out to the show and sings in protest and in joy. That night will cement Beyoncé as a conduit for bridging across differences, and for building a world where everyone belongs.”