imagine you’re woken up by a knock on
your door and it’s the police and
they’ve come to arrest you what did I do
you ask well as they handcuff you they
reply you’re being arrested for three
Facebook posts you made last year which
ones you asked surely not the cat videos
no they say the ones where you criticize
the government I’d imagine that most of
us would be serving hard time under this
benchmark over the last year or two
you’ve probably criticised Donald Trump
or Hillary Clinton or brexit or the
British government depending on your
politics and where you live
but imagine is if you’re taken into
custody they tell you that the penalty
for those Facebook posts isn’t some slap
on the wrist
it’s 15 years in a prison cell for one
Facebook post unfortunately this isn’t
an imaginary scenario this is
effectively what happened to my friend
who’s a Thai journalist living under his
country’s military dictatorship he’s
facing 15 years behind bars for publicly
criticizing the government and calling
for democracy a system that allows
citizens to have a meaningful meaningful
voice in decisions that affect their
lives the system that most of us take
for granted he’s facing 15 years in jail
for doing something that you and I do
without a second thought
virtually every day for something that
we know we can do without consequence
and for something that he bravely
continues to do even while facing trial
because he believes that the citizens of
Thailand deserve to have the same basic
democratic freedoms that we do today I’m
going to show you that you don’t realize
how powerful you are and in the next 15
minutes I’m going to give you five
concrete ways that you can help save
democracy we’ve forgotten the
fundamental truths about democracy being
a citizen is a full-time job it’s not
something you can take for granted
democracy isn’t something that you do
every four years it’s something that we
shape every day through our actions and
increasingly through our in actions
it’s time for a new civic code across
party lines and demographic groups one
that makes us responsible not just for
doing our bit every few years but for
engaging with far more people far more
often than just every few years at the
ballot box the crisis of democracy that
we face today is partly born out of a
crisis of civic engagement
I study democracy and authoritarianism
across the globe and democracy virtually
everywhere is under threat for decades
dictators have consolidated power from
sub-saharan Africa to Southeast Asia
authoritarian populist are now winning
elections only to rollback democracy by
capitalizing on division and fear and
here in the West a huge number of people
are dissatisfied with how democracy is
functioning virtually nobody I speak to
says that the system is going perfectly
that everything’s going according to
plan
and that we should just keep calm and
carry on I travel around the world to
dictatorships and broken democracies for
my research from places like Madagascar
to Tunisia and from Thailand to the
Ivory Coast meeting with people on both
sides of the battle for global democracy
I’ve had breakfast with despots and
dinner with former dictators I’ve sipped
mango juice with rebels and tea with
torture victims but perhaps of all these
encounters the one that stood out the
most to me was a coffee I had with a
presidential candidate turned political
prisoner a man who willingly sacrificed
his freedom to fight for others to have
theirs I traveled to Belarus recently a
place that’s often referred to as the
last dictatorship in Europe its capital
Minsk is somewhat of a living museum for
the Soviet Union and here is the
dictator himself Alexander Lukashenko
he’s a brutal ruthless tyrant and he
presides over a surveillance state
something so omnipresent by the way that
it even affects the bathroom graffiti
pretty nice resemblance huh well I got a
taste of what it meant to live in a
police state almost immediately after
arriving shortly after I landed I got
several notifications that my accounts
had been hacked and then a few hours
later I met with this
man Nikolai’s thought kovitch we agreed
to meet in a cafe in downtown Minsk I
walked in and sure enough there he was
at a corner table tucked away in the
shadows we shook hands sat down and he
began telling me about his quest to
bring democracy to this dictatorship but
as he began talking a young woman walked
into this large empty cafe she didn’t
hesitate or look around instead she made
a beeline for the table directly next to
ours she sat down she pulled out her
phone she held it like this and
pretended that she was reading the news
stuck kovitch leaned into me and
whispered I picked one of the cafes
without microphones in the tables so the
KGB has to do it the old-fashioned way
now at the time I wasn’t sure whether he
was joking or not but with the KGB agent
listening in what he told me next was
not funny as a presidential candidate he
tried to hold a peaceful political rally
just pushing for more democracy in
Belarus when suddenly thugs from the
ruling regime emerged from the darkness
abducted him through a bag over his head
and tossed him into a van they drove him
around for an hour without telling him
where he was headed his mind was racing
was he being taken to a secluded forest
to be shot a dirt road to be beaten to
death
would he ever see his family again as it
turned out he was tossed in a cold dark
jail cell and left to rot for years they
told him that he would be able to be
released immediately if he only signed a
confession confessing to being a traitor
conspiring against the nation rather
than for democracy year after year he
refused for nearly 5 years stuck a bitch
gave up his freedom so that others may
someday have theirs it was a solitary
act from a man in solitary confinement
but it mattered it mattered months later
after his release back in that cafe with
me in Minsk with the KGB agent listening
in stuck a bitch looked me straight in
the eyes and he ended our conversation
with seven words I’ll never forget you
don’t realize how lucky you are
and with that he got up and walked out
into the cold December night followed by
the KGB agent watching his every move
now I felt incredibly self-conscious in
that moment I’ve devoted my life to
politics what was I really doing enough
am i a good citizen here’s this guy who
risked his life and nearly died to stand
up to a dictator just to get the basic
freedoms that I enjoy through no effort
of my own
other than the completely random fact
that I was lucky enough to be born in a
democracy and I realized he’s absolutely
right we all have a form of invisible
democratic privilege that we can’t see
and don’t see because most of us have
never lived without it but like
breathing and air you don’t realize it’s
there you feel like you were suffocating
if it was taken away the worst news for
the future of democracy is that younger
generations those who have never
confronted the brutality of
authoritarianism or totalitarianism a
view democracy is more disposable than
older people in the UK people born in
the 1930s three or four of them believe
that democracy is essential but only
about one in four Brits born in the
1980s thinks the same it’s a huge change
the numbers are virtually the same in
the u.s. stuck kovitch was right we
don’t realize how lucky we are but we
also don’t realize how powerful we are
and both of those things are true
because we live in a democracy but we
need to recognize our extreme good
fortune and our individual power if
we’re going to make democracy deliver on
its promise of being a government of the
people by the people and for the people
democracy is worth saving it’s worth
fighting for few of us have been exposed
to the horrors of authoritarian
despotism but I can tell you it’s not
pretty I have seen children scrounging
and trash piles in the street trying to
find a single morsel of rotting food
I’ve gotten used to a grotesquely
familiar pause in conversation when a
torture victim struggles to find the
right words to tell me how their
fingernails were pulled off one by one
or how they were suspended from an iron
rod like a roasted chicken and left for
days without food or water democratic
governments don’t brutalize their
citizens like that
they don’t leave them to starve in the
streets and over the long run
democracy is much more stable
democracies are also the engines of
innovation creativity and prosperity in
the modern world but to be fair
democracy isn’t functioning perfectly
right now wages have stagnated
inequality has soared and millions of
people feel completely powerless now
some of those issues are structural
manifestations of problems like too much
money in politics the disproportionate
influence of lobbyists an unfair
electoral system and the fact that
politicians are often out for themselves
rather than for us but the thing is we
have allowed that system to become our
system imagine a world where democracy
functions perfectly and lives up to its
lofty promise governments have the best
reflection of our society and where
problems are solved through thoughtful
debate and compromise rather than big
green vitriol and internet trolls it’s a
nice thought isn’t it but in some ways
we only really have ourselves to blame
for the fact that we don’t live in this
imaginary world of perfect democratic
prosperity that’s the bad news
don’t worry there is good news the good
news is we can build that world I know
because I used to work in politics I co
managed a campaign for governor in my
home state of Minnesota competing for
millions of votes and the first thing
you realize when you work on a political
campaign is that your job exists for
literally one reason to win there’s no
prize for second place so what do you do
you come up with a strategy based on a
few harsh realities and three of those
realities stand out to every campaign
one poor people don’t vote much too
young people don’t vote much and three
someone who didn’t vote last time
probably won’t vote this time either we
are organizing events in the early
stages of the campaign we only reached
out to people who had voted in at least
three of the last five elections others
just weren’t worth the effort when you
have limited time and money you focus it
where its most likely to count you pick
issues that matter to
voters politicians pander to those who
show up that’s why it’s no surprise that
young people are facing rising tuition
costs and soaring debt
why job training programs and the social
safety net are often first on the
chopping block and why those programs
that cater to the most solid voters the
elderly are deemed sacrosanct
so what about people out there who say
my vote doesn’t count
they are wrong they’re wrong I know
because one of the big issues we worked
on in the campaign was whether or not
Minnesota should accept funding from the
US government to pay for health care
coverage for 220,000 more people if we
won they would get it if we lost they
wouldn’t we won by a few thousand votes
out of several million ballots cast
220,000 more people got health care
coverage every vote counts nonetheless
one of the central paradoxes of our time
is that most people are unhappy with the
system but many don’t do much to change
it in 1950
84 percent of British adults voted five
years after defeating fascism and saving
democracy people understood what a
democratic privilege they had and they
exercised it by 2001 that same figure
had fallen to 59 percent thankfully it
crept up a bit this year to 68 percent
but still more than 3 out of every 10
people you see on a daily basis didn’t
take the time to vote this year voter
apathy is even worse in the u.s. in the
2014 congressional elections just 36
percent of people voted 64 out of every
100 didn’t bother and even in last
year’s presidential election one of the
most consequential votes in American
history only 60 percent of people voted
that meant that less than 30 percent of
people voted for Donald Trump to be
President well nearly forty percent of
people didn’t vote apathy beat Trump by
10 points but Trump and not apathy is in
the Oval Office in his election eighty
thousand voters spread across three
states tipped the election the people
who determined the outcome could fit in
a single football stadium
so why don’t people vote a common
complaint I hear on both sides of the
Atlantic is that we didn’t like any of
the candidates but we get the candidates
we deserve in 2016 only 7 percent of
American adults voted for Hillary
Clinton in the presidential primary the
process of selecting candidates only six
percent voted for Donald Trump 75
percent didn’t vote in the UK citizen
participation rates in leadership
election contests is even lower
it just takes 20 minutes every four
years to help determine the people who
end up being the most powerful people on
earth the people who affect the life
chances of ourselves our children and
literally billions around the planet but
democracy doesn’t work if people don’t
participate yes blame the system it’s
broken we have the power to fix it the
power that people like my journalist
friend or Nikolayevich are literally
willing to die for and that is a huge
problem with how democracy is
functioning but I’m not here to chastise
you I’m not a perfect citizen myself so
I can’t really claim any high ground
here but I am here to remind us of our
collective power and I’m here to give
you five concrete ways that you can help
save democracy one vote vote in every
election not just the big ones the
people we elect at the local level
become the people we elect at the
national level if you don’t believe me
Barack Obama won 16,000 votes the first
time he was elected – before every
election talked to ten people you know
about voting particularly if they’re not
politically active and especially if
they’re from an underrepresented group
make voting a social activity organize
drinks or coffee or lunch go together
and ask those 10 people to talk to 10
people – three in between elections be
the boss – the politicians you love or
hate if they don’t get feedback they
won’t change write to them
protest call register people to vote and
ask your friends to do the same
for reach out to someone who views the
world completely differently from how
you view it and try to find common
ground we’ll more polarized than ever
but democracy requires compromise to
function disagree without being
disagreeable if you like politicians who
build bridges rather than walls and try
to do the same in your own political
interactions and 5 run for office or
organize a new political group even at
the most local level Town Council
local school board whatever it is get
involved the longer-term solutions to
save democracy like better civic
education campaign finance and electoral
reform are much harder and take much
longer but we can’t expect others to
make the change we want to see it’s from
this final point to my own interest in
politics stems when I was 8 years old my
mom was very unhappy with the direction
of the local school district so she ran
as a candidate for local school board
and I’m happy to say she crushed her
opponent with the ingenious slogan of
vote straight A’s for Barbara Claus it’s
a lot of ACE in the process she didn’t
just improve local education policy she
also sparked my future engagement in
politics seemingly small actions produce
Democratic ripples and with enough
ripples together we can produce a
tsunami of democratic change thank you
you
your door and it’s the police and
they’ve come to arrest you what did I do
you ask well as they handcuff you they
reply you’re being arrested for three
Facebook posts you made last year which
ones you asked surely not the cat videos
no they say the ones where you criticize
the government I’d imagine that most of
us would be serving hard time under this
benchmark over the last year or two
you’ve probably criticised Donald Trump
or Hillary Clinton or brexit or the
British government depending on your
politics and where you live
but imagine is if you’re taken into
custody they tell you that the penalty
for those Facebook posts isn’t some slap
on the wrist
it’s 15 years in a prison cell for one
Facebook post unfortunately this isn’t
an imaginary scenario this is
effectively what happened to my friend
who’s a Thai journalist living under his
country’s military dictatorship he’s
facing 15 years behind bars for publicly
criticizing the government and calling
for democracy a system that allows
citizens to have a meaningful meaningful
voice in decisions that affect their
lives the system that most of us take
for granted he’s facing 15 years in jail
for doing something that you and I do
without a second thought
virtually every day for something that
we know we can do without consequence
and for something that he bravely
continues to do even while facing trial
because he believes that the citizens of
Thailand deserve to have the same basic
democratic freedoms that we do today I’m
going to show you that you don’t realize
how powerful you are and in the next 15
minutes I’m going to give you five
concrete ways that you can help save
democracy we’ve forgotten the
fundamental truths about democracy being
a citizen is a full-time job it’s not
something you can take for granted
democracy isn’t something that you do
every four years it’s something that we
shape every day through our actions and
increasingly through our in actions
it’s time for a new civic code across
party lines and demographic groups one
that makes us responsible not just for
doing our bit every few years but for
engaging with far more people far more
often than just every few years at the
ballot box the crisis of democracy that
we face today is partly born out of a
crisis of civic engagement
I study democracy and authoritarianism
across the globe and democracy virtually
everywhere is under threat for decades
dictators have consolidated power from
sub-saharan Africa to Southeast Asia
authoritarian populist are now winning
elections only to rollback democracy by
capitalizing on division and fear and
here in the West a huge number of people
are dissatisfied with how democracy is
functioning virtually nobody I speak to
says that the system is going perfectly
that everything’s going according to
plan
and that we should just keep calm and
carry on I travel around the world to
dictatorships and broken democracies for
my research from places like Madagascar
to Tunisia and from Thailand to the
Ivory Coast meeting with people on both
sides of the battle for global democracy
I’ve had breakfast with despots and
dinner with former dictators I’ve sipped
mango juice with rebels and tea with
torture victims but perhaps of all these
encounters the one that stood out the
most to me was a coffee I had with a
presidential candidate turned political
prisoner a man who willingly sacrificed
his freedom to fight for others to have
theirs I traveled to Belarus recently a
place that’s often referred to as the
last dictatorship in Europe its capital
Minsk is somewhat of a living museum for
the Soviet Union and here is the
dictator himself Alexander Lukashenko
he’s a brutal ruthless tyrant and he
presides over a surveillance state
something so omnipresent by the way that
it even affects the bathroom graffiti
pretty nice resemblance huh well I got a
taste of what it meant to live in a
police state almost immediately after
arriving shortly after I landed I got
several notifications that my accounts
had been hacked and then a few hours
later I met with this
man Nikolai’s thought kovitch we agreed
to meet in a cafe in downtown Minsk I
walked in and sure enough there he was
at a corner table tucked away in the
shadows we shook hands sat down and he
began telling me about his quest to
bring democracy to this dictatorship but
as he began talking a young woman walked
into this large empty cafe she didn’t
hesitate or look around instead she made
a beeline for the table directly next to
ours she sat down she pulled out her
phone she held it like this and
pretended that she was reading the news
stuck kovitch leaned into me and
whispered I picked one of the cafes
without microphones in the tables so the
KGB has to do it the old-fashioned way
now at the time I wasn’t sure whether he
was joking or not but with the KGB agent
listening in what he told me next was
not funny as a presidential candidate he
tried to hold a peaceful political rally
just pushing for more democracy in
Belarus when suddenly thugs from the
ruling regime emerged from the darkness
abducted him through a bag over his head
and tossed him into a van they drove him
around for an hour without telling him
where he was headed his mind was racing
was he being taken to a secluded forest
to be shot a dirt road to be beaten to
death
would he ever see his family again as it
turned out he was tossed in a cold dark
jail cell and left to rot for years they
told him that he would be able to be
released immediately if he only signed a
confession confessing to being a traitor
conspiring against the nation rather
than for democracy year after year he
refused for nearly 5 years stuck a bitch
gave up his freedom so that others may
someday have theirs it was a solitary
act from a man in solitary confinement
but it mattered it mattered months later
after his release back in that cafe with
me in Minsk with the KGB agent listening
in stuck a bitch looked me straight in
the eyes and he ended our conversation
with seven words I’ll never forget you
don’t realize how lucky you are
and with that he got up and walked out
into the cold December night followed by
the KGB agent watching his every move
now I felt incredibly self-conscious in
that moment I’ve devoted my life to
politics what was I really doing enough
am i a good citizen here’s this guy who
risked his life and nearly died to stand
up to a dictator just to get the basic
freedoms that I enjoy through no effort
of my own
other than the completely random fact
that I was lucky enough to be born in a
democracy and I realized he’s absolutely
right we all have a form of invisible
democratic privilege that we can’t see
and don’t see because most of us have
never lived without it but like
breathing and air you don’t realize it’s
there you feel like you were suffocating
if it was taken away the worst news for
the future of democracy is that younger
generations those who have never
confronted the brutality of
authoritarianism or totalitarianism a
view democracy is more disposable than
older people in the UK people born in
the 1930s three or four of them believe
that democracy is essential but only
about one in four Brits born in the
1980s thinks the same it’s a huge change
the numbers are virtually the same in
the u.s. stuck kovitch was right we
don’t realize how lucky we are but we
also don’t realize how powerful we are
and both of those things are true
because we live in a democracy but we
need to recognize our extreme good
fortune and our individual power if
we’re going to make democracy deliver on
its promise of being a government of the
people by the people and for the people
democracy is worth saving it’s worth
fighting for few of us have been exposed
to the horrors of authoritarian
despotism but I can tell you it’s not
pretty I have seen children scrounging
and trash piles in the street trying to
find a single morsel of rotting food
I’ve gotten used to a grotesquely
familiar pause in conversation when a
torture victim struggles to find the
right words to tell me how their
fingernails were pulled off one by one
or how they were suspended from an iron
rod like a roasted chicken and left for
days without food or water democratic
governments don’t brutalize their
citizens like that
they don’t leave them to starve in the
streets and over the long run
democracy is much more stable
democracies are also the engines of
innovation creativity and prosperity in
the modern world but to be fair
democracy isn’t functioning perfectly
right now wages have stagnated
inequality has soared and millions of
people feel completely powerless now
some of those issues are structural
manifestations of problems like too much
money in politics the disproportionate
influence of lobbyists an unfair
electoral system and the fact that
politicians are often out for themselves
rather than for us but the thing is we
have allowed that system to become our
system imagine a world where democracy
functions perfectly and lives up to its
lofty promise governments have the best
reflection of our society and where
problems are solved through thoughtful
debate and compromise rather than big
green vitriol and internet trolls it’s a
nice thought isn’t it but in some ways
we only really have ourselves to blame
for the fact that we don’t live in this
imaginary world of perfect democratic
prosperity that’s the bad news
don’t worry there is good news the good
news is we can build that world I know
because I used to work in politics I co
managed a campaign for governor in my
home state of Minnesota competing for
millions of votes and the first thing
you realize when you work on a political
campaign is that your job exists for
literally one reason to win there’s no
prize for second place so what do you do
you come up with a strategy based on a
few harsh realities and three of those
realities stand out to every campaign
one poor people don’t vote much too
young people don’t vote much and three
someone who didn’t vote last time
probably won’t vote this time either we
are organizing events in the early
stages of the campaign we only reached
out to people who had voted in at least
three of the last five elections others
just weren’t worth the effort when you
have limited time and money you focus it
where its most likely to count you pick
issues that matter to
voters politicians pander to those who
show up that’s why it’s no surprise that
young people are facing rising tuition
costs and soaring debt
why job training programs and the social
safety net are often first on the
chopping block and why those programs
that cater to the most solid voters the
elderly are deemed sacrosanct
so what about people out there who say
my vote doesn’t count
they are wrong they’re wrong I know
because one of the big issues we worked
on in the campaign was whether or not
Minnesota should accept funding from the
US government to pay for health care
coverage for 220,000 more people if we
won they would get it if we lost they
wouldn’t we won by a few thousand votes
out of several million ballots cast
220,000 more people got health care
coverage every vote counts nonetheless
one of the central paradoxes of our time
is that most people are unhappy with the
system but many don’t do much to change
it in 1950
84 percent of British adults voted five
years after defeating fascism and saving
democracy people understood what a
democratic privilege they had and they
exercised it by 2001 that same figure
had fallen to 59 percent thankfully it
crept up a bit this year to 68 percent
but still more than 3 out of every 10
people you see on a daily basis didn’t
take the time to vote this year voter
apathy is even worse in the u.s. in the
2014 congressional elections just 36
percent of people voted 64 out of every
100 didn’t bother and even in last
year’s presidential election one of the
most consequential votes in American
history only 60 percent of people voted
that meant that less than 30 percent of
people voted for Donald Trump to be
President well nearly forty percent of
people didn’t vote apathy beat Trump by
10 points but Trump and not apathy is in
the Oval Office in his election eighty
thousand voters spread across three
states tipped the election the people
who determined the outcome could fit in
a single football stadium
so why don’t people vote a common
complaint I hear on both sides of the
Atlantic is that we didn’t like any of
the candidates but we get the candidates
we deserve in 2016 only 7 percent of
American adults voted for Hillary
Clinton in the presidential primary the
process of selecting candidates only six
percent voted for Donald Trump 75
percent didn’t vote in the UK citizen
participation rates in leadership
election contests is even lower
it just takes 20 minutes every four
years to help determine the people who
end up being the most powerful people on
earth the people who affect the life
chances of ourselves our children and
literally billions around the planet but
democracy doesn’t work if people don’t
participate yes blame the system it’s
broken we have the power to fix it the
power that people like my journalist
friend or Nikolayevich are literally
willing to die for and that is a huge
problem with how democracy is
functioning but I’m not here to chastise
you I’m not a perfect citizen myself so
I can’t really claim any high ground
here but I am here to remind us of our
collective power and I’m here to give
you five concrete ways that you can help
save democracy one vote vote in every
election not just the big ones the
people we elect at the local level
become the people we elect at the
national level if you don’t believe me
Barack Obama won 16,000 votes the first
time he was elected – before every
election talked to ten people you know
about voting particularly if they’re not
politically active and especially if
they’re from an underrepresented group
make voting a social activity organize
drinks or coffee or lunch go together
and ask those 10 people to talk to 10
people – three in between elections be
the boss – the politicians you love or
hate if they don’t get feedback they
won’t change write to them
protest call register people to vote and
ask your friends to do the same
for reach out to someone who views the
world completely differently from how
you view it and try to find common
ground we’ll more polarized than ever
but democracy requires compromise to
function disagree without being
disagreeable if you like politicians who
build bridges rather than walls and try
to do the same in your own political
interactions and 5 run for office or
organize a new political group even at
the most local level Town Council
local school board whatever it is get
involved the longer-term solutions to
save democracy like better civic
education campaign finance and electoral
reform are much harder and take much
longer but we can’t expect others to
make the change we want to see it’s from
this final point to my own interest in
politics stems when I was 8 years old my
mom was very unhappy with the direction
of the local school district so she ran
as a candidate for local school board
and I’m happy to say she crushed her
opponent with the ingenious slogan of
vote straight A’s for Barbara Claus it’s
a lot of ACE in the process she didn’t
just improve local education policy she
also sparked my future engagement in
politics seemingly small actions produce
Democratic ripples and with enough
ripples together we can produce a
tsunami of democratic change thank you
you
Please follow and like us: