If you can keep it | Protect Democracy | Substack

Insights

This is what it looks like when OMB kills your program

The anatomy of a murder by five cuts

Apr 7 • Cerin Lindgrensavage

How is democracy doing?

A new tool from Protect Democracy offers a speedometer on democratic backsliding

Apr 6 • Joe Allen

The Supreme Court questions the future of the Voting Rights Act

Proportional representation should be our answer

Mar 3 • Michael Latner, Alicia Menendez-Brennan, and Farbod Faraji

A steel mill the president might not be able to seize

DOD, Anthropic, and the history of presidential attempts to control industry

Feb 26 • Ian Bassin and Nicole Schneidman

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

Ben Raderstorf

Two heads of the three-headed Chimera are gone

Ian Bassin

A steel mill the president might not be able to seize

Amanda Carpenter

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

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

This is what it looks like when OMB kills your program

The anatomy of a murder by five cuts

Apr 7 • Cerin Lindgrensavage

Brendan Carr is aiming for more than just censorship

The odious strategy behind FCC threats

Mar 20 • Ben Raderstorf

“A nice little database” of “domestic terrorists”

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

Mar 13 • Ben Raderstorf

Former military lawyers say use of JAG lawyers in Minnesota violates the Posse Comitatus Act

Although recent litigation has focused on troop deployments to American cities, a new challenge in Minnesota looks at DOJ's use of JAG lawyers in…

Published on Law Dork • Mar 12

If Trump can depose a regime, why can’t he rig an election?

A moment of weakness, not strength

Mar 6 • Ben Raderstorf

The Supreme Court questions the future of the Voting Rights Act

Proportional representation should be our answer

Mar 3 • Michael Latner, Alicia Menendez-Brennan, and Farbod Faraji

America after Trump

How democracies fall — and how they can come back

Feb 27 • Ben Raderstorf

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