If you can keep it | Protect Democracy | Substack

Insights

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

We can’t afford autocracy

Americans will pay the price for Trump’s assault on the Fed

Jan 14 • Ansley Skipper

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

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

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 Pyrrhic probationary victory

Plus, the Supreme Court’s *own* authoritarian agenda?

Sep 22, 2025 • Erica Newland, Jules Torti, and Ellinor Heywood

Front row seats to the end of the merit system

Politicization reaches federal hiring and retention

Aug 25, 2025 • Erica Newland, Jules Torti, and Ellinor Heywood

The latest from

Ansley Skipper

The procedural checkpoints that protect our rights

Ian Bassin

The autocratic adolescent never grows up

Amanda Carpenter

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

Ben Raderstorf

A grand unified strategy to uphold the Constitution

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

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

AI is coming for the 2026 election

Predicting the impacts, both positive and negative

Dec 18, 2025 • Ben Gips, Edison Forman, Bill Gates, and TJ Pyche

ICE is monitoring all Americans’ air travel

Hope you wanted warrantless surveillance in your stocking

Dec 13, 2025 • Nicole Schneidman and Scott Shuchart

Law Enforcement and Military Deployments

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

This holiday season, choose love, not ICE

Toward a new Great Awakening

Dec 19, 2025 • Ben Raderstorf

Recent posts

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 procedural checkpoints that protect our rights

Plus, the pulled Colbert interview and the administration’s media takeover

Feb 21 • Ansley Skipper

Let’s Not Sportswash Trump’s Authoritarianism

The Olympics, the World Cup, and cheering for our nation’s athletes but not the current administration.

Published on The Bulwark • Feb 8

Big lessons from small businesses in Minnesota

Here’s how your city can prepare for the worst

Jan 30 • Anna Dorman and Audrey Roofeh

The autocratic adolescent never grows up

How powerful AI could make authoritarianism permanent

Jan 29 • Ian Bassin and Nicole Schneidman

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

Trump’s not ditching the authoritarian playbook

Jan 27 • Amanda Carpenter

Election deniers want your data

Their plans to use your voter information to subvert elections

Jan 23 • Izzy Gray and Sara Chimene-Weiss

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