Feeling Lost? Here’s How You Can Help Save Democracy Today

Sami Sage and Emily Amick share 5 key insights from Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives.

As political violence rears its ugly head, and a high-stakes presidential race stares us in the face, now might be a good time to ask: how’s our democracy holding up? More than a couple centuries into the American experiment it’s starting to show its age. And it’s hard to know what any of us can do as individuals to make a positive impact. Here to help are

sami sage

and

Emily Amick

, authors of the new book Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives. Sami is the cofounder and chief brand officer of Betches Media and writes

sami sage says

on Substack. Emily is a lawyer and journalist who served as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. and writes

Emily in Your Phone

on Substack. Here they are to share 5 of their big ideas.

1. Apathy is eroding our democracy.

There are many factors to blame for the current degradation of democracy in America. For example, a toxic morass of moneyed authoritarians coupled with capable extremists. But one thing that’s often left out of the conversation is the role that the apathetic, exhausted majority plays in the process. The highest voter turnout ever was 66 percent in 2020. Where is that missing third of the electorate? When fewer people speak up and get involved (especially locally), we create a vacuum where book banners can take seats on the library boards, and a vocal minority of hyper-partisan extremists monopolize the airwaves.