If you can keep it | Protect Democracy | Substack

Insights

How to end the redistricting wars for good

As mid-cycle redistricting escalates, one reform would keep the maps from mattering

Jul 22 • Grant Tudor, Cyrena Kokolis, and Farbod Faraji

Getting the story straight

Why responsible reporting on political violence matters for the 2026 midterms

Jul 10 • Jennifer Dresden and Laura Livingston

The shoes that don't fit

When sycophancy pays, officials will trip over themselves — in footwear and in court

Jun 2 • Grant Tudor and Shanna Singh Hughey

The real districting culprit

It isn’t gerrymandering. It’s the existence of single-member districts in the first place. It was never designed to help minority voters.

May 29 • Cecilia Muñoz

The Entrenchment Agenda

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

Trump’s not ditching the authoritarian playbook

Jan 27 • Amanda Carpenter

Free speech, ICE, and free elections in 2026

More than immigration enforcement and protest suppression

Jan 23 • Amanda Carpenter

The ‘Chipocalypse’ is now

A training ground for the military?

Oct 7, 2025 • Amanda Carpenter

If you can keep it

If you can keep it

In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked: what kind of government have you created? He answered, "a republic — if you can keep it." From Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group working to prevent authoritarianism.

How Democracy Wins

A grand unified strategy to uphold the Constitution

A wave of proposals to strengthen the tools, not the rules

Jan 15 • Ben Raderstorf

Democracy Atlas rule 8: Keep going

A story of resilience from Poland

Nov 6, 2025 • Michael Angeloni

Democracy Atlas rule 7: Leave the door open for defectors

Serbia shows how backlash to corruption can swell pro-democracy movements

Oct 23, 2025 • Michael Angeloni

Democracy Atlas rule 6: Remember — autocrats are not invincible. But be careful.

Even entrenched leaders are susceptible to public backlash

Oct 9, 2025 • Michael Angeloni

Democracy Atlas rule 5: Show — don’t tell — how things work and what is trustworthy

Nigeria’s civil society groups leverage transparency to build public trust

Sep 24, 2025 • Michael Angeloni

Dear Civil Servant

Muzzling America’s workforce

How to comment right now on the proposed NDA for civil servants

Jun 10 • Jules Torti, Beth Littrell, and Ellinor Heywood

Are you on the list?

A once-secret list of easy-to-purge federal positions, now made public

Jun 4 • Jules Torti, Erica Newland, and Ellinor Heywood

The latest move to make civil servants more vulnerable than ever

The Civil Service Archive tracks this new policy — and countless others

Feb 9 • Erica Newland, Jules Torti, and Ellinor Heywood

The latest from

Ben Raderstorf

Is Budapest the bellwether?

Ian Bassin

A steel mill the president might not be able to seize

Amanda Carpenter

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

Amit Agarwal

Key lawsuit challenges FTC firings

Insights on authoritarianism & democracy, in your inbox

Proportional Representation

2:25

Let’s talk about proportional representation

One big idea to end gerrymandering and get democracy back on track

Dec 23, 2025 • Blake Jelley

'Everybody knows it's broken'

Proportional representation could end gerrymandering, fix Congress, and build a true multiracial democracy

Dec 4, 2025 • Lee Drutman, Grant Tudor, and Deana El-Mallawany

23:20

The next era could come sooner than you think

This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for the possibility of renewal

Nov 26, 2025 • Grant Tudor and Lee Drutman

How to end the forever redistricting wars

Gerrymandering is made possible by this one choice

Aug 8, 2025 • Ansley Skipper and Drew Penrose

History’s lessons for reform advocates

Why (and how) to keep diverse pathways to proportional representation open

Jul 8, 2025 • Ben Raderstorf and G. Michael Parsons

Technology and Democracy

“A nice little database” of “domestic terrorists”

ICE, the Anthropic case, and how to stop mass domestic surveillance

Mar 13 • Ben Raderstorf

When ICE’s surveillance machine comes for Americans

What you can do to weaken ICE’s surveillance apparatus

Feb 7 • Nicole Schneidman and Edison Forman

The autocratic adolescent never grows up

How powerful AI could make authoritarianism permanent

Jan 29 • Ian Bassin and Nicole Schneidman

Election deniers want your data

Their plans to use your voter information to subvert elections

Jan 23 • Izzy Gray and Sara Chimene-Weiss

Law Enforcement and Military Deployments

When ICE’s surveillance machine comes for Americans

What you can do to weaken ICE’s surveillance apparatus

Feb 7 • Nicole Schneidman and Edison Forman

Big lessons from small businesses in Minnesota

Here’s how your city can prepare for the worst

Jan 30 • Anna Dorman and Audrey Roofeh

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

Trump’s not ditching the authoritarian playbook

Jan 27 • Amanda Carpenter

Free speech, ICE, and free elections in 2026

More than immigration enforcement and protest suppression

Jan 23 • Amanda Carpenter

How to stop ICE’s brutality and impunity

Minnesota — and all states — must close the legal loophole that protects the shooter from accountability

Jan 8 • Ben Raderstorf

Recent posts

How the pro-democracy movement is misreading Gen Z

This National Youth Takeover Day, let’s stop misdiagnosing young people as apathetic about democracy

Jun 27 • Lara Hicks and Michael A. Sandoval

The lies they need you to believe

From L.A. to Cleveland to our intel agencies the White House is sowing the seeds of election sabotage

Jun 12 • Jessica Marsden

Our strategy to win

Organize, show up, prove, hold the line: what all of us can do to protect elections

Jul 24 • Anna Dorman and Aaron Baird

How to end the redistricting wars for good

As mid-cycle redistricting escalates, one reform would keep the maps from mattering

Jul 22 • Grant Tudor, Cyrena Kokolis, and Farbod Faraji

Getting the story straight

Why responsible reporting on political violence matters for the 2026 midterms

Jul 10 • Jennifer Dresden and Laura Livingston

Who are America’s keepers?

Its next 250 years depend on the same everyday Americans the first 250 did

Jul 3 • Carrick Moon and Alexis Nwatu

Muzzling America’s workforce

How to comment right now on the proposed NDA for civil servants

Jun 10 • Jules Torti, Beth Littrell, and Ellinor Heywood

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