As the month of October comes to an end, the US elections are finally upon us and there are many resources and insights to support all the diverse efforts underway. Andrea Hailey, the CEO at Vote.org reminds us that Your Vote Has a History: Here’s Why It’s Important. Anne Applebaum has offered A citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election; you can listen to Stacey Abrams talk about voter suppression and what everyday citizens can do to protect democracy; and, Eric Ward speaks about joy, hope and how this moment is not to be feared.
Many organizations are sharing the results of recent scenario planning and preparations for the future. For example, based on scenarios run with over 300 grassroots power-building organizations, Future Currents prepared a report on the “preparation we need to get ready as well as strengthens and capacities to amplify to stay ready.” SOS Democracy has a 2024 Elections Scenario Planning Guide for newsroom leaders and journalists. Race Forward has prepared a toolkit to respond to the threat posed by Project 2025 to equitable, democratic, and accountable public institutions, as well as longer-term strategies for turning public administration into a force for equity and justice. The Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center recently launched a report to help philanthropy leaders counter rising authoritarianism and address the intersection of gender and democracy. And, the Moral Courage Project has put together a free online mini-course, The Dilemma, with three short videos with concrete actions everyone can take to build trust amongst individuals that can lead to more effective collective action. Our friends at the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies also released this guide on Protection and Resilience Strategies for nonviolent activists.
Post-election, it will be as important as ever to have a good grasp of the ecosystem of democracy activities and actors to identify and spur our collaborations. The National Civic League recently launched the Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map. You can also consult the new U.S. Democracy Hub from Impala and the Democracy Funders Network designed to help users “navigate the complex democracy ecosystem, understand trends, and make informed decisions.”
ICYMI, check out Horizons’ Chief Organizer Maria Stephan’s recent article: Lessons from Around the World: Engaging ‘Pillars of Support’ to Uphold and Expand Democracy, and if you are interested in receiving information or training on Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE-PV) you can sign up here.
For any and all questions about where and how to vote in your state, you can call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to speak with a trained Election Protection volunteer. For Spanish/English: 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682). You can also consult or forward this this nonpartisan website with information about voting to your networks.
Here are some of the other resources we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this month:
READING
The Science of Violent vs. Non-Violent Resistance
by Peter Coleman
At a time when many are reflecting on the organizing strategies or tactics needed in the face of injustice, state repression and violence, we are happy to see the research of Chief Organizer Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth highlighted in this recent article. “Although violence often feels justified, necessary, and fitting with a sense of outrage against states that employ excessive violence to achieve their goals, does it work? Are violent forms of resistance by lower-power opponents actually effective in achieving their political objectives? Or might non-violent resistance prove a superior strategy? Overall…Chenoweth and Stephan’s research supports the conclusion that nonviolent resistance is more effective than violent approaches for achieving sustainable social and political change.” We would also highlight several articles on the history and current use of nonviolent resistance in Palestine: Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine is More Dangerous than Ever – But it’s the Only Way Forward, by Sami Awad, Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? An Interview with Issa Amro, and Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine: An Interview with Julia Bacha.
Convenings, Cohorts + Communities: Notes on so-called “impact” gatherings
by Renee Lertzman
As the number of conferences, convenings, and gatherings picks up in 2025, let’s all commit to making them as productive and relationship-ful as possible! This article is chock full of wonderful insights and recommendations to help make our gatherings more impactful. “We are in a collective global moment of figuring out, testing and experimenting with ways of bringing people together for impact. How we do this in service of driving change in the world is a topic of much interest and considerable investment of resources. We are in-between paradigms, between older and more emergent, newer formats… This is thetime to creatively, thoughtfully and carefully consider how we design and foster our communities of impact. To be intentional about format, facilitation and how our gatherings can help grow each other, and inform our practices and business.”
What the landmark ‘1619 Project’ taught Nikole Hannah-Jones
by TyLisa Johnson, Poynter.
Check out this insightful interview with the founder of the 1619 Project, reflecting on the five years since it was launched. “what I learned…is that so many Americans actually want a better understanding of their country, and we’re all kind of struggling with trying to understand the country when we’ve been taught a history of a country that has never existed…what I’ve learned is you can actually create something that is challenging, that is difficult, that is discomfiting, and that there will be an appetite for that. That despite these book bans and these divisive concept laws and these efforts to say that we need to restrict access to this knowledge because it will teach people to hate their country, that actually, people who have a great love for their country want to learn this so that they can make their country better, and I wasn’t expecting that.”
WATCHING
America’s Moment of Truth (Again)
Athens Democracy Forum
During the annual Athens Democracy Forum hosted by the Democracy and Culture Foundation and the New York Times, this international panel of journalists, academics and activists reflected on a “deeply divided U.S. electorate [heading] to the polls for one of the most consequential elections in its history…this panel look[ed] beyond the election to the impact that a win for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump would have on crucial issues like immigration, women’s rights, diplomacy, electoral integrity, executive power… And yes, democracy itself.” You can watch all of the other panels held during the Forum here.
Adventures in Democracy with Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart
The Conduit
“In much of the world, democracy is at a low ebb, with autocrats, authoritarians, and outright fascists on a seemingly inexorable rise, and few politicians seemingly capable of charting a credible way forward in the face of the challenges of our time. At such times, even election “victories” come to feel like little more than delays to the inevitable, cause more for relief than excitement. Yet just beneath the media radar, there are signs that another story is taking shape: a story of the renewal and reinvention of democracy, from the ground up and the outside in; of democracy as something we do, not something we have; and of the word citizen more as a verb than a noun. Nowhere is this new story more needed than in the US, and no one tells it better than the Emmy-nominated host, producer, writer and storyteller Baratunde Thurston – working in close partnership with Elizabeth Stewart, his partner in life and creativity. Their work weaves together threads of race, technology, democracy and climate, always coming back to the fundamental truth of our interdependence with one another and with nature.”
Have We Missed the Message? with Ta-Nehisi Coates
What Now? with Trevor Noah
“Bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Trevor… to discuss his new book The Message – about how the stories we tell, and the ones we don’t, shape our realities. They also unpack the ‘jaw-dropping’ CBS interview that followed the book’s release, and our elusive search as a people to see the humanity in others.”
LISTENING TO
Election Time with Brittney Cooper
How to Survive the End of the World
“In this conversation Professor, Writer, [F]eminist, Southerner, Brittney Cooper and adrienne maree brown discuss the election and how black women are participating in the voting process with a longer lens.”
Stress Testing Our Democracy
Making Sense with Sam Harris podcast
Sam Harris speaks with Barton Gellman about election integrity and the safeguarding of American democracy. They discuss the war games he’s run to test our response to an authoritarian president, using federal troops against American citizens, the difference between laws and norms, state powers to resist the federal government, voter identification and election integrity, political control over election certifications, the Bush-Gore election, the Electoral Count Reform Act, the prospect of public unrest after the November election, January 6th… Project 2025, and other topics.
Beautifully Flawed Becoming: Bayo Akomolafe on The Co-Creation of New Worlds, Investigating Our Lostness, The Driving Motivation of Wonder…
We are Untold Stories podcast
This “debut conversation explores Bayo’s perspective on the vital role of our individual and collective untold stories, our current position at the end of the world as we know it, the emerging co-creation of new worlds, our exploration of lostness, and, in the spirit of a true poet, the profound role of wonder as a driving motivation. Bayo shares otherworldly examples illustrating our interconnectedness, the significance of queer spaces, the crucial necessity of navigating “cracks” within systems, the beauty of the unknowable, and the potential for co-creating life-affirming realities amidst chaos.”
GET INVOLVED!
Timeline to a Meltdown
Wednesday, October 30 from 7:30-9:30pm (EST)
Worried about threats to democracy following the 2024 election? Join in for Timeline to a Meltdown, a role-playing simulation game exploring some of the real threats to democracy we may see in the coming weeks and months. They will be using brand new scenarios for this simulation so if you participated in the game earlier this year, this session will still be new for you! The simulation is online and open to anyone, but RSVP is required at: mip.la/SIMULATION2