What This Moment Requires: Resisting the Backlash and Holding the Vision for an Enduring, Multiracial Democracy

For the sake of our future, our shared fate, and our desire to be on the right side of history, we must endure until liberty and justice are real. 

This nation was founded on big ideals of liberty and justice for all. And while it’s never fully lived up to that promise for all its people, it has the building blocks necessary to create a just and equitable society. For the sake of our future, our shared fate, and our desire to be on the right side of history, we must endure until liberty and justice are real. 

Dēmos has spent 25 years tackling seemingly intractable problems and moving progressive solutions into the mainstream. Since our founding, we have provided research, advocacy, and support to the people working at the intersection of democracy reform, economic justice, and racial equity. We have helped advance ideas like debt-free college and expanding voting rights access, championing policies that promote shared prosperity and enhance democratic representation. When I took the helm of this organization four years ago, after a pandemic, an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and a fraught economy for millions of families, it was a daunting time—to say the least. 

Today, we face an even more difficult context, and we are prepared to face the challenges head-on and continue to offer our partners and allies transformative ideas, policy solutions, and the strategies and tools to reach our goals. 

Since the success of the Civil Rights Movement, we’ve made significant inroads for Black and brown people who were marginalized for centuries due to structural racism and discrimination. They began to enjoy full citizenship—but white supremacy is stubborn, and with periods of progress come periods of backlash. History repeats itself, and after seasons of advancement in racial justice or progress for people of color, white backlash has shown up in our nation’s history time and time again.  

The rise of authoritarianism is here. Fascism is knocking at our collective door. We must not give way to it.

We are in a defining moment in America, and our young democracy is once more being put to the test. With the rollback of civil rights protections, coupled with exclusionary policies and regulations, we are seeing long-held democratic norms dismantled, constitutional protections undermined, and extreme levels of executive overreach. The rise of authoritarianism is here. Fascism is knocking at our collective door. We must not give way to it. Yes, resistance is necessary. We must not cede ground for this new wave of backlash.  

We must meet this moment with an alternative vision for our collective future.

We are long overdue for a sustained and enduring period of progress for this nation. We must meet this moment with an alternative vision for our collective future. And Dēmos is well positioned to help cast, hold, and advance that vision.  

The imbalance of power in our nation is not an abstract issue; it’s a defining issue of our time. Exploitative labor laws have concentrated wealth in the hands of the highest earners, creating an economy that leaves millions of families struggling to make ends meet and with 1% of U.S. households owning 30% of our nation’s wealth. This enormous disparity means corporations and the wealthy elite have an outsized influence in our elections, which has created a nation in which economic power can translate directly into political power. Black and brown people remain overrepresented in low-wage industries and underrepresented at the polls and in the corridors of power. 

This is why Dēmos cast the vision for a Power Agenda that establishes our universal goals to ensure economic security for all; economic mobility for all; full political participation; an expanded, inclusive electorate; and a representative and accountable government. It may take another 25 years, but we will continue to advance policy solutions and do the work to change our economic and democratic systems until we realize our vision.  

A decades-long, well-funded, ideologically conservative fringe movement is working overtime to advance their lopsided agenda. They have a narrow vision of whom America is for and offer duplicitous platitudes about freedom and liberty while subverting the voices and liberty of Black and brown people and the rising American majority. They make toxic the narrative of equity and inclusion—which is about everyone having a fair shot. They weaken the government so that it provides for the public good ineffectively. They consolidate the power of the wealthy and politically powerful to ensure they influence or make decisions.  

This is why Dēmos developed tools like the Power Scorecard so that we can map the economic and political conditions that will help measure economic and political power for the people. Then, we can assess where we must make progress and plan and leverage our collective resources and strategies to win for the people. 

Dēmos’ 25th anniversary is more than a milestone. It’s a call to action. It’s a call to make history. By 2043, people of color will become the majority in the United States, but that won’t matter if we don’t create the kind of systemic change needed to secure justice for everyone. 

We are building power to defend and expand the promise of America for the next generation.

We are looking ahead with urgency and resolve. We are building power to defend and expand the promise of America for the next generation. Over the next 25 years, this nation will either resume moving toward justice and freedom for all, or this grand experiment of government for the people, by the people will completely fail.  

We are clear-eyed about the challenges but determined, optimistic that justice is a stronger motivator than fear. That’s why we are expanding our reach, deepening our partnerships, and taking bold action even in this challenging context to shift power to communities whose voices have been belittled, marginalized, or excluded for too long.  

To meet the moment while looking to a different future: This is the work, and we look forward to doing it alongside you, advancing an inclusive vision in which we all see ourselves and we all win.  

So much more to come. Stay tuned!