Getting Power Is Not Enough. Here Is How We Keep It.

We are in a contest for power. And we have been here many times before. 

In the pursuit of collective liberation, freedom fighters have always been forced to confront cycles of white-led backlash, and today is no different.

American history is defined by periods of progress that inherently clash with the engineers of white supremacy, patriarchy, and xenophobia. In the pursuit of collective liberation, freedom fighters have always been forced to confront cycles of white-led backlash, and today is no different. The concentration of wealth and power, the assault on voting rights, the criminalization of dissent, and the attempted erasure of every hard-won protection that stood between the people and the resolute defense of minority rule—this is the vicious cycle of an unequal, unjust system. 

Authoritarianism is not new. But today a new window of opportunity and obligation is opening. Now is the time to break the cycle rather than simply survive it. 

Our grassroots partners are living their values and providing proof of what’s possible: that meeting the needs of the American people — all of us, of all backgrounds and geographies—requires not just winning elections but changing the conditions that determine who governs and how. Not just pushing back but building forward.  

At Dēmos, a fundamental pillar of the work is diagnostic. Our policy researchers, analysts, and advocates have documented the vicious cycle—of extraction and exclusion in our democracy and economy—and the ever-rising, decades-long assault on civil, civic, and economic rights.  

We are also visionary. And we have a policy agenda that squarely focuses on what must be constructed for the people to not just gain power but to keep it for good. 

What We Mean by “Power” 

Power is the ability to write the rules.

At Dēmos, we talk a lot about power. But here is what we mean, plain and simple: Power is the ability to write the rules. The rules currently governing our economy and democracy are written by and for a small group of predominantly white, wealthy people and the corporations they control. That is not a market outcome. It’s an intentional design dependent on structural racism and maintained through economic and political manipulation and exploitation.  

Power policies are Dēmos’ strategy for overriding that design. They center Black and brown people to ensure that power shifts toward the communities most deliberately locked out of rules-writing and toward the nation’s rising majority. When people of color one day gain genuine governing power, the entire system of extraction and exclusion will become impossible to maintain. 

Can we ever really “win” if we don’t have the power to hold and protect what’s been won? 

Power Worth Having Is Power That Holds: Our Power Policies Agenda in Practice  

Dēmos recently released our agenda, Power Policies, which contains nine policies that illustrate pathways for getting—and keeping—real people power in the United States. Some of these policies deliver immediate material relief for working people. Others rewrite the structural rules that determine who has power and who doesn’t. Together, they shift power today away from wealthy interests and toward the multiracial working class, and they firmly establish the conditions that make that power last.  

Let’s examine two power policies in practice. 

Universal Child Care 

The purpose and potential of universal child care go far beyond affordability. This policy pathway builds a multiracial coalition of workers, families, and community members with a shared stake in defending and expanding public investment—and that coalition becomes a governing force in its own right.  

When radical citizens in New Mexico won universal child care, their victory did not come from the generosity of entrenched corporate interests. It was forged by a broad, well-organized coalition that assembled the political will to claim a funding source that had previously been denied to the people. One of the poorest states in the country as well as one of the most diverse, New Mexico proved that universal child care is more than just a resource problem: It is a question of power, and when the people are organized, they have answers.  

That coalition is now defending and expanding what it won. Political power produced economic power for families and workers. That economic power is poised to protect and expand political power for those sided with the people. This is Exhibit A of when people power works to improve material conditions and help the government deliver on the public good. 

Automatic Voter Registration 

The right to vote is meaningless if there are barriers to exercising it. Most states’ voter registration systems in the U.S. make individuals responsible for their democratic participation: Eligible citizens must register themselves, monitor their status, and navigate a system designed, in many cases, to make their participation as difficult as possible. From missed deadlines and address changes to aggressive voter roll purges, it’s quite easy to lose access to the ballot. We can’t forget that voter registration requirements were first implemented after the 15th Amendment granted formerly enslaved Black Americans the right to vote, specifically to hinder that right. 

With automatic voter registration (AVR), people don’t have to find their way into our political system, because states can use existing government records to register eligible voters automatically unless they choose to opt out. When implemented robustly, AVR consistently registers at least 95 percent of a state’s eligible population. When more people are registered, more people vote. When more people vote, elected officials must answer to a broader, more representative constituency—and the resulting policies reflect that. Wages rise, care becomes affordable, and housing gets built. The electorate expands, and so does the economy it shapes. 

Ultimately, power policies change the terrain, responding to the demands and terms of the public and rewriting the rules so that people rule.  

Yes, history tells us we have been here before.  

But if we build anew—centering people in our standards and structures—we will one day be able to say: We have never been here before.