There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #46: Build a pro-democracy coalition

Right now we are reeling from the onslaught of Trump's actions. To me, the key is exactly what you envision, getting involved, no matter how few hours we might have, and, whatever we are involved in, we are communicating our dissatisfaction with the harm that Trump is doing. That is step one, to me. 

Step two is getting the group we work with to declare that, as a group. 

Step three is to look for other groups to ally with. 

Step four is for the coalition to declare its opposition. When we have a "group of groups" we have power. We can start to show that power to ourselves and others and make it easier to get change. 

The ultimate step is to simply have such a huge coalition that we can credibly threaten a general strike. It is often helpful to simply do such a thing for a short time, just to prove the concept. If, for instance, the coalition was big enough and prepared enough to go on strike for a symbolic half day, that might show enough power to get Trump to start negotiating. A longer general strike would need serious commitment and preparation. 

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #45: Community radio

According to MyTuner.com[1] there are some 285 community radio stations in the US. As one community radio station in Wisconsin explains it[2]: 

"In 1946, a group of conscientious objectors formed The Pacifica Foundation, a media organization with the goal to build a nationwide network of non-commercial radio stations. They formed the first ‘listener-sponsored’ radio station in the United States, KPFA – Berkeley, in 1949."

Volunteers are trained in by professional employees and can host programs with themes that are in some way serving the public good, whether by political discussion or specialized cultural content or any number of other educational topical programs. 

For several years in the 1980s, I was a professional community organizer with two others in a small organization, Waging Peace, based in Hayward, Wisconsin. We hosted a three-hour peace and justice program on a nearby tribal station, WOJB (Wisconsin OJiBwe), on the Lac Court Oreilles Anishinaabe reservation. We interviewed a wide range of peace and justice activists, either in the station or via telephone (this was pre-Internet, pre-Zoom). The lead producer for the station, who was a paid professional who did pieces for other tribal stations and occasional pieces for NPR, trained us to run a simple radio program. All three of us were volunteers, as were many other hosts at the station. 

We were certainly participating in democracy when we broadcast interviews of a Green party candidate fresh back from Germany, who helped our listeners understand the Euromissile crisis in Germany that was driven by then-president Ronald Reagan's decision to deploy US nuclear weapons with a destabilizing first-strike capacity to US bases in Germany. 

Similarly, we promoted a far deeper understanding of the treaty rights of all the 14 bands of the Lake Superior Ojibwe by interviewing experts from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.

We sat with a Christian minister just back from apartheid South Africa to educate us and our listeners about conditions there, even as pressure was building in the US to boycott South Africa. 

In short, we helped broadcast many peace and justice programs to our listeners, virtually all of those programs educating our fellow citizens in matters under consideration in our local, state, and national democracy. 

This is what happens at those 285 stations around the US, and this is a robust element of our citizen-based democracy.

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[1] https://mytuner-radio.com/radio/country/united-states/genre/community-stations

[2] https://www.wdrt.org/community-radio/

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #44: Be a librarian and support your librarians

When, in the aftermath of the terror attacks of 9.11.2001, the US government passed the USA PATRIOT Act and started invading the privacy of those who checked out library books, librarians rebelled and some refused to coöperate, based on the ethical obligation to protect the vast majority of innocent library patrons who shouldn't be swept up in some government investigation (Pace, 2004). It was a rare moment of the shift in image of librarians as quiet, even meek, servants of the people, to that of proud protectors of our civil rights.

And now comes the Christian nationalists, led by one of the least Christian US presidents in history, supporting book bans. Again, librarians are showing their mettle by openly opposing or refusing to do these un-American attacks on freedom of thought (Krutka, 2025).

Indeed, the American Library Association[1] is serious about fighting all forms of invasive censorship and provides resources to local libraries and librarians to support the brave resistance to those who would take away our rights. Supporting librarians who are under assault by book banners is a key participation in democracy.

References

Krutka, K. R. (2025). Counterstories as Resistance to Book Bans. Library Quarterly, 95(1), 58–78. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1086/733173

Pace, A. K. (2004). Toward a More Practical Patriotism. Computers in Libraries, 24(4), 19–21.

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[1] https://www.ala.org/advocacy/fight-censorship 

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #43: Boycott, divest, sanction

As with all methods of participating in democracy, BDS can be done in ways that produce more justice, more peace, and more democracy--or it can do the opposite. Like a hammer, BDS can build or it can be a weapon hurting people.

Boycotting goods or services is an age-old method of participating in democracy--economic democracy and political democracy. Not buying something is an individual freedom in virtually all societies. Certainly there are a few things you must purchase in order to engage in some activities; when I wanted to gather wild rice on public lakes in northern Wisconsin I needed to purchase a ricing permit, and without one the costs and consequences would have been pricey. 

But deciding that I don't want to buy a Nestles candy bar is my choice, with the only consequences being fewer cavities, more money in my pocket, and, as it happened for several years, a chance to impose a tiny cost on a company that was using shady scam practices in some impoverished countries--having people with no medical background dress as nurses and convincing poor people to spend their scant resources on Nestles powdered baby formula, rather than breastfeed their babies. 

Infact, an activist organization now called Corporate Accountability, launched the boycott[1] in 1977 and by 1984 we the people of the world who had been participating in that boycott won--a first on earth of a campaign forcing a globalized corporation to take serious policy reform based on action (or targeted inaction) of masses of consumers. 

Divestment simply means no purchase of any share of ownership in corporations that contribute in any way to harmful practice. Divesting from corporations doing business in apartheid South Africa put a great deal of pressure on the racist regime and contributed to the political decision to create a democracy there. Divestment in mining corporations that were doing great harm to mountains in the Southeastern US helped drive changes[2] in some environmental practices when financial institutions decided to stop loaning to some of the worst environmental actors because people were divesting from those banks to help drive those changes. Barclays, Wells Fargo, and other financial institutions all were financing bad environmental actors and all were targeted effectively and withdrew that financing. 

Sanctions are normally a governmental practice meant to punish bad actors--when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, the Obama administration imposed sanctions, as did the Biden administration when Russia did it again years later. Iran is building nuclear weapons components and they supply Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis with weapons, so the US has been sanctioning Iran for years. The citizen input can be to engage in pressure on elected officials to sanction bad practices--pressure on the US government to sanction Israel over Palestinian civilian deaths has been less successful, but the success in many cases is proportional to the number of citizens making that demand. 

BDS is often referred to as the trifecta of economic measures available to promote or protect democracy. Anyone can participate at some level in one or more of these practices. 

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[1] https://corporateaccountability.org/blog/nestle-groundbreaking-boycott-saves-millions-of-infant-lives/

[2] https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2015/04/private-banks-ditching-destructive-coal-investments-international-financial

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #42: Go on strike!

Let's say your workplace does not allow unions. Unions afford workers, as a collective, to decide if and when to strike against an employer to seek redress, to demand more compensation, to insist on improved humane working conditions, to push employers to provide better benefits, and more. 

Ironically, then, workers sometimes have to go on strike to even force the employer to allow a worker vote on whether to unionize. 

All these elements on the job are a part of workplace democracy and the method is of course transferable to other environments. Students may choose to organize and strike if a school is operating in ways that seem unjust to the students. 

There are risks, of course. Strikers may all lose their jobs, as with the air traffic control workers whose union was broken[1] by Ronald Reagan in 1981. Striking students may flunk classes, get suspended, or even be expelled--as we saw[2] in spring 2024, when many universities had students strike in support of Palestinians.

Still, the strike frequently works, especially when good collective leadership negotiates intelligently. Strikes can stand a far better chance of success if all necessary preparations have been made for a longer action--strike funds to help workers pay bills, volunteer medical workers to help if coverage is lost or suspended, food pantries to keep families fed, and commitments to keep picket lines strong so other union members who may have business with the employer have a chance to refuse to cross the lines in solidarity. 

While a strike can have negative consequences for a collective that is unprepared or simply overmatched, it has far fewer consequences than actual blockades or sit-ins, and far fewer consequences than any resort to violence. Workplace democracy to working families may be just as critical as political democracy, and keeping the possibility of a strike as a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is one powerful way to participate in democracy.

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[1] https://libraries.uta.edu/news/1981-patco-strike

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/05/06/college-protests-suspensions-expulsion-arrests/

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #41: Get on your neighborhood association

"All politics is local"--Tip O'Neill (The late former Speaker of the House said it often[1] but didn't coin it)

Neighborhood associations are important community organizations that play a vital role in the development of civil society. They help to protect economic and social interests (Mesch & Schwirian, 1996), they strengthen links between residents and policy makers (Logan & Rabrenovic, 1990), increase participation in the political process (Berry, Portney, & Thompson, 1993), and help improve the quality of life for the citizens of countless communities through collective action (King, 2004). 

--Matt Koschmann & Nicole M. Laster, 2011, p. 28.

Neighborhood associations date back in the US to essentially the founding of the country. They were one of the unique strengths of American democracy, as noted by Alexis DeTocqueville in his 19th-century writings on his travels in America, observing that local voluntary organizations kept citizens involved in their local politics but also connected them more directly to state and national elected representatives.

The power of the collective voice is of course evident to any elected official. Unions, congregations, and neighborhood associations have the ear of the politicians and can influence democracy at local, state, and national levels. 

The requirements to being involved are few, since the neighborhood association is almost always entirely voluntary. The easiest way to approach them is to attend a meeting and find out if what you are good at might be of some value to your association. 

They may need someone to liaise with a city department, a city council member, the precinct captain of the police, or any number of other possible relationships that can make the voice of your neighborhood more effective. They may appreciate your media talents for the local neighborhood monthly newsletter, or any number of other talents you have. 

Let them know your limits--it may be an hour a week or three hours every day--they are used to having a real range of helpers. 

Neighborhood associations knit civil society together to the extent that they have a diverse, active volunteer base.

References

Koschmann, M., & Laster, N. (2011). Communicative Tensions of Community Organizing: The Case of a Local Neighborhood Association.Western Journal of Communication, 75(1), 28–51. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1080/10570314.2010.536965

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[1] https://barrypopik.com/blog/all_politics_is_local

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #40: Learn civilian-based defense

Military strategists and nonviolence strategists alike have been examining cases of, and future possibilities of, civilian-based defense formally since 1975,[1] and informally going back to Gandhi's vision of a peace army, what he called a Shanti Sena--or even back to the American colonists engaging in civil society nonviolent actions against the British rule in the decade prior to the American Revolution. 

"Two things are certain about the future of politics and international relations: conflict is inevitable and effective defense will be required against internal usurpers and international aggressors" (Sharp, 1990).[2]

With that hard-nosed declaration, nonviolence researcher Gene Sharp[3] (1928-2018) began one of his monographs on the power and potential of unarmed civilians preparing for, and conducting, defense against enemies foreign and domestic. He cited many examples of how people in many countries around the world had done so, usually without any formal government agency to develop such a nonviolent force, sometimes without much preparation--learning as they went along. 

As Sharp, ably assisted at that time by nonviolence scholar Bruce Jenkins, compiled both case studies and descriptions of strategies and tactics from various struggles in different countries, the evidence of the possibilities based on reality, on actual history, took shape. 

Fast-forward 35 years and the case studies have multiplied, though humanity stubbornly refuses to demilitarize, perhaps out of some deadly admixture of fear and greed.

Somehow, the accretion of evidence that nonviolence works has not overcome the cultural, emotional, and insecurity-based dependence on killing machines. Frightened humans can commit atrocities, which leads to others' willingness to retaliate in-kind.

Militarism is grotesquely profitable for the corporations contracting with governments.

Thus, the barriers to serious development of a civilian-based defense remain quite high. For the foreseeable future, it will be up to civil society to self-organize, using its auto-didactic skills and communal connections to prepare insofar as is possible to do things like oust an oppressive ruler.

References

Sharp, Gene (1990). Civilian-based defense: A post-military weapons system. Princeton University Press.

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[1] (all noted in Sharp, 1990, p. 153):

Brigadier General Edward B. Atkeson, 'The Relevance of Civilian-based Defense to US. Security Interests," Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, vol. 56, no. 5 (May 1976), pp. 24-32, and no. 6 (June1976), pp. 45-55.

Adam Roberts, "Civil Resistance to Military Coups," Journal of Peace Research (Oslo), vol. m, no. 1 (1975),pp. 19-36.

Roberts, Adam, editor, Civilian Resistance as a National Defense: Nonviolent Action Against Aggression (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1968); reprint of The Strategy of Civilian Defence (London: Faber & Faber, 1967). Paperback edition with a new introduction, Civilian Resistance as a National Defense: Nonviolent Action Against Aggression (Harmondsworth, England, and Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1969).

Gene Sharp, "Making the Abolition of War a Realistic Goal," pamphlet, Ira D. and Miriam G. Wallach Award essay (New York: World Policy Institute, 1980).

Gene Sharp Making Europe Unconquerable (London: Taylor and Francis, 1985, and Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1985; second American edition, with a forward by George Kennan, Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1986).

Gene Sharp, National Security Through Civilian-Based Defense, booklet (Omaha. Civilian-basedDefense Association, formerly Association for Transarmament Studies, 1985).

" T h e Political Equivalent of War1--Civilian-based Defense," in Gene Sharp, Social Power and Political Freedom (Introduction by Senator Mark 0. Hatfield), Boston, Mass.: Porter Sargent, 1980).

[2] https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Civilian-Based-Defense-English.pdf

[3] https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/gene-sharp/

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #39: Be a peaceworker

The relationship between peace and democracy is a complicated one, but the trend seems to be that each fosters the other. From the theories of Immanuel Kant, who wrote the germinal Toward Perpetual Peace, to the many researchers who opine about Democracy Peace Theory (DPT), it is clear when we examine the history of wars that democracies almost never go to war against other democracies (Simpson, 2019). 

Thus, working for peace generally[1] is working for democracy, and working for democracy is generally working for peace.

If your country is low on the democracy rankings and you are working for peace, that enhances the chances that democracy will improve in your country.

If you are working to change your despotic government into a democracy, doing so with peaceful means will more likely result in improved metrics of democracy, statistically speaking (Karatnycky & Ackerman, 2005).

All this is not to make an obviously ahistorical claim that democracies do not wage violent conflict. Not only is there political violence in democracies, there are innumerable cases of democracies waging war on nondemocracies. But the tendency is that working for peace is inextricably tied to working to strengthen democracy.

The contamination of peace by deterioration in democracy and participation in violence toward other nondemocracies is possibly most clear in the US, where Freedom House[2] ranks 57 countries as more free than the US, but the Global Peace Index[3] puts 131 other countries as more peaceful than the US.

Freedom of expression is a right that, if unused, may well tend to erode that right, and expressing ideas for more peace is a way to sustain our rights in a democracy even as it works for peace.

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[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/09/15/is-democracy-good-for-peace/

[2] https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores

[3] https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/

References

Karatnycky, Adrian & Ackerman, Peter (2005). How freedom is won: From civic resistance to durable democracy. New York, NY: Freedom House.

Simpson, S. (2019). Making liberal use of Kant? Democratic peace theory and Perpetual Peace. International Relations, 33(1), 109–128. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1177/0047117818811463

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #38: Join--or create--a political party

First, no law says you must register with a political party affiliation, so you can be a registered voter with no noted affiliation. The US government has a helpful website[1] that can direct you to your own state's laws and procedures. The Federal Election Commission[2] also has a website to help you learn how to register a political party once you cross the legal fundraising threshold. 

Every state runs voting in its own way, which might seem weird in the sense that it gives strange options to blocs of voters with questionable ethics to vote in primaries based on which party they claim to belong to, but then to vote for their actual preferred candidate in the general election. 

So investigate what seems accepted in your state and choose any identification that you feel represents your personal values. The range is enormous, but the main two parties, of course, have the vast majority of registered voters. The totals in the US have a general upward trend,[3] which makes sense as the population grows, with a seesaw of more during the presidential election years and somewhat fewer in the midterms. The total is more than 160 million, though far fewer actually vote, so your registration, your affiliation, and your actual participation can be critical. Even US Senate races get decided by small handfuls of votes out of the millions of registered voters eligible and the margins for all offices can be quite small[4]. Even in our country with all our millions, it can come down to a very few--and of course the counterfactuals are worth considering. 

·       What if Florida Democrats had turned out 538 more votes for Gore in 2000? Would Gore have ordered the invasion and occupation of Iraq?

·       What if 313 fewer Democrats voted for Al Franken in the 2008 race for US Senate? Franken won by just 312 votes out of more than 2.4 million cast by Minnesota voters that year. Would the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) have passed into law or not?

·       An old friend of mine won his seat on the county board literally by one vote out of thousands cast. I was so relieved I could tell him that I got out and voted that day!

These stories are just common enough to help us all understand our power and our obligations to participate.

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[1] https://www.usa.gov/change-voter-registration

[2] https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/registering-political-party/

[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273743/number-of-registered-voters-in-the-united-states/

[4] https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/small-margins-a-look-back-at-the-closest-votes

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #37: Start a book club

My granddaughter and I started a book club for "kids of all ages," to read the Ari Ara Young Adult novel five-book series by visionary storyteller Rivera Sun. Ari Ara is a tween in a fictional world of tech that might match that of the 12th century Europe but also has some elements of magic. In that series, Ari Ara overcomes innumerable obstacles and manages conflict using a combination of physicality and psychology that does so without inflicting pain on others.

The idea of a book club may be more than just sharing appreciation for entertainment; it might be with a purpose toward peace, justice, environmental protection, and preserving or enhancing freedom and democracy. Becoming more well informed together with a cohort sharing a book each month, for example, can create a shared consciousness, which can help drive public knowledge as well. It can make the book club members more effective in a democracy, whether as voters, community organizers, lobbyists, teachers, officials, journalists, or staffers for elected officials.

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #36: Offer nonviolent resistance to injustice

When brave African American families in places with segregated schools brought their little children to the closest public school they risked consequences ranging from physical threat to arrest. NAACP lawyers fought for their rights over several decades, family-to-family, district-to-district. Eventually the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education in 1954 that segregated schools were illegal. 

When African American schoolchildren demonstrated for equal rights in Birmingham and they were arrested in the 1963 Children's Crusade their nonviolent resistance was crucial in convincing Congress and the President to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

When African Americans went to courthouses in counties where they were frequently prevented from voting and they continued to do so even if they were arrested or physically harassed, they were key in causing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

Clearly, nonviolent resistance to injustice is a way to participate in democracy, that is, employing the "outside game" to drive the inside game.

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #35: Consensus organizing

Many forms of community organizing are paths to participating in democracy; consensus organizing is arguably the most democratic of such forms.

Consensus organizing is, at its best, a deep dive into the essentials of a community, and an elicitive method of honing goals based on identifiable interests expressed by a community (Ohmer & DeMasi, 2009). The consensus organizer helps introduce methods to the community that can reduce polarization, and increase inclusivity, bringing in marginalized groups and seeking evermore equity. Consensus organizing is not mere notification of programs and benefits available to the community, but rather a process of developing prioritized goals that a community decides on together.

Consensus organizing is not an adversarial model of community organizing but rather one that stresses both bonding--that is, enhancing relationships within the community--and bridging--developing relationships between the community and external entities so that all can benefit.

For instance, if a consensus organizer sees an out-group within the community, the organizer seeks ways to bring that out-group into strong community kinship with all others. If, for example, a group home for adults with cognitive development challenges is generally shunned by community members who are uncomfortable around certain people with disabilities, the consensus organizer will work with all parties to create connections that take the folks in as full members of the community--as people who can help and who need help, as people who care and people who need care. Bonding takes effort but is rewarding for everyone. 

Bridging is another way to develop new relationships that can benefit a community. Perhaps a corporation wishes to purchase a warehouse and remodel it into a mini-mall, but many community members do not trust that corporation. A good consensus organizer can develop a process that brings the parties together in dialog to determine with great transparency and strong guarantees that the interests of the community are met well. This may result in a decision by the community to oppose the project, modify it, or accept it. It may result in more community unity in any case, and it may end up being a significant win for both the external party and the community--indeed, it may bring that external party into the community, bridging leading to bonding. 

Consensus organizing tends to result in the parties reducing animosity, grudges, and lingering hostility, and also tends to enhance the value and well-being of the community and community members. It can result in a stronger electorate and more committed citizenry.

Resources

Ohmer, Mary L. & DeMasi, Karen (2009). Consensus organizing: A community development workbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #34: Learn decision-making methods in our democracy

At every level of participating in democracy there are ways that groups decide, including, but not limited to: 

·       Majority-rule votes

·       Consensus

·       Advisory votes

As a species constantly attempting to learn better ways to decide based on either mistakes that seem correctable by better forms of decision-making (or an anti-democratic wish to selfishly manipulate the current decision-making method), we are endlessly experimenting with permutations of these basic forms. 

For instance, Stanford researcher Jaqueline Harding explains one variant, "Transitive proxy voting (or ‘liquid democracy’) is a novel form of collective decision making. It is often framed as an attractive hybrid of direct and representative democracy, purporting to balance pragmatic factors with the ability to represent a population" (p. 69).

Or, in the case of consensus decision-making, which some bodies mandate, there are myriad forms of modified consensus, sometimes shading into a variant of majority rule that calls for a super-majority requirement to pass certain measures.

Advisory voting feeds into any form of decision-making in that it informs the actual decision-makers. Some organizations rarely use opinions coming from their advisory councils, while others virtually always follow the advice passed on to them. If, for instance, an advisory council undertakes a serious investigation into a problem before the actual deciders, and if that advisory council is composed of trusted experts who commit to a rigorous process featuring wise assessments and due diligence, the actual deciders (possibly a Board of Directors of a highly influential think tank, or possibly even elected officials themselves) may almost never do much additional information-gathering before taking the course of action recommended by the advisory council.

In some cases the rules are so arcane they need a special official to rule on obscure scenarios (e.g., the US Senate Parliamentarian, who decides if all elements in a Reconciliation bill can be allowed to proceed).

For the ultimate (arguably) in democratic decision-making, a serious consensus process is the deliberative most thorough and accounts for all parties. The disadvantages of such a process is that it may be used to delay urgent business or it may be used reflexively when a more command-and-control executive decision would be far more efficient for more minor matters. 

Learning the process of consensus decision-making facilitation is a combination of following tested methods, e.g., Larry Dressler's (2006) brief explainer, and gaining the experiential expertise necessary to practice it well. 

References

Dressler, Larry (2006). Consensus through conversation: How to achieve high-commitment decisions. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Harding, J. (2022). Proxy selection in transitive proxy voting. Social Choice & Welfare, 58(1), 69–99. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1007/s00355-021-01345-8

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #33: Be a journalist

"Democracy dies in darkness" is the motto of the Washington Post, which has transmogrified from a brave calling to uphold the vaunted American free press to a mockery of itself under the ownership of multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos. Indeed, as Post columnist for many years Dana Milbank referred to it in an interview on Al Franken's podcast, "as the paper disintegrates around me." 

This allusion of Milbank's derived from the buck-naked pandering that Bezos made to Trump and to his fellow billionaires with several massive conflict-of-interest gestures, including ordering that a cartoon satirizing the obeisance of billionaires to Trump as soon as Trump won the 2024 election, but also including a massive "donation" Bezos made to Trump's inaugural ceremonies. 

Still, as a product myself of "J-school," I know from direct experience that both undergraduates and graduate students in journalism are taught excellent journalistic ethics and many hold onto those principles throughout their careers. 

Journalists engage in democracy in many ways. 

·       Both editors and reporters engage in gatekeeping, that is, choosing what topics to cover, what experts and laypeople to interview, which data to cite, and other important choices before developing the frame and content, during that development, and at the final stages of completion and release.

·       Journalists who choose to risk their careers, their access, their reputations, and even their family's well-being may decide to investigate people and scenarios that may bear directly on democracy, on politics, and even on history. Investigative journalism is, arguably, the bedrock task of the most robust and rigorous reporters. 

·       Commentaries by journalists on the opinion side of journalism can persuade electorates to vote in certain ways. 

America was founded in no small part on, and because of, the free press. This is unique in the world. Despite all other flaws in our troubled democracy, a free press is not guaranteed constitutionally in any other nation on Earth. Keeping our journalists free is engaging in democracy.

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #32: Be a lawyer

The lawyers who participate in democracy are legion, for better or worse. Historically, lawyers make up more of the membership of Congress--the House and Senate--than any other profession. In the 119th Congress, 179 of the members[1] are lawyers. 

Lawyers also argue many sorts of cases that impact our democracy, from immigration to lawsuits complaining of election fraud and much more. Nonviolent resisters who engage in the outside game when they do their nonviolent resistance usually engage in the inside game of defending themselves in criminal court, normally with a willing lawyer. This is how the Rosa Parks desegregation campaign succeeded, as well as the school desegregation campaign before that. 

Thus, lawyers can work toward changing public policy, corporate policy, or institutional policy either alongside nonviolent resisters who go to trial--and attempt to flip the script in the courtroom by putting the government, the corporations, or the institution on trial--or as litigants in civil cases (lawsuits). 

While many scorn the law as a practice for organizations committing fraud, oppression, or other nefarious activities, it is important to hold up the lawyers dedicated to justice, to democracy, to ending climate chaos caused by fossil fuels, and much more. Lawyers defending democracy are the last ones, quite often, to actually work inside the system when the system is groaning from other lawyers paid to protect authoritarians, cheats, fraudsters, and polluters. This makes the law a crucial element to defending and enhancing democracy.

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[1] https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative_work/grassroots-action-center/In_The_Weeds/

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #31: Be a poll worker

Becoming a poll worker is a key component in citizen engagement in our democracy. When others question the integrity of our elections, it is poll workers who largely debunk that idea for those who believe what they see. Regular Americans, known to their neighbors, are the on-site workers who maintain that integrity and always have. 

Being a poll worker is a function overseen state-by-state. There are rules for each state and the easiest access to becoming a poll worker in any of the United States is found at the website of the United States Election Assistance Commission, a US federal office and clearinghouse for poll worker information from all states.[1]

They note that:

Most jurisdictions task election workers with setting up and preparing the polling location, welcoming voters, verifying voter registrations, and issuing ballots. Poll workers also help ensure voters understand the voting process by demonstrating how to use voting equipment and explaining voting procedures.

States pay a modest stipend to poll workers, and that varies widely from state-to-state. In general, in polls that include party identification, poll workers enjoy a higher degree of trustworthiness than the elected officials who govern them and whose elections they oversee. In recent years, thanks to the machinations of Donald Trump, Republicans' trust is somewhat eroded, but even Republican citizens overwhelmingly trust poll workers. It is nearly universal in the 50 states that this is one of the few methods of participating in democracy that requires one to be a registered voter.

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[1] https://www.eac.gov/help-america-vote