Rekindle our faith in democratic ideals

Deeper understanding is fading into our past

I hope you enjoyed the picnics and the fireworks. It has been quite a 243 years, and American democracy has had a pretty nice run. The Four Freedoms. Rule of law. Free elections. No archipelago of political prisons. At least seven brands of energy bars.

After the burgers are flipped, however, do understand: All of that is in peril.

I speak not of the astonishing political chaos that engulfs us, but of something even scarier: plummeting trust and faith in democracy itself. The data points are altogether unimaginable:

❚ From the 2010-14 World Values Survey, 23% of Americans up to age 29 say democracy is a “fairly bad” or “very bad” way to run the country.

❚ From a 2018 Democracy Project survey, asked about the importance of democracy to American society, only 39% of adults ages 29 and under said it was “absolutely important.”

❚ From the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, in one year’s time, U.S. citizens’ aggregate trust in government, business, nongovernmental organizations and a free press plummeted 37%.

❚ From a 2017 survey of 5,000 voters by the Democracy Fund, 24% of the public said rule by “a strong leader who does not have to bother with ... elections” is a “good” way to run a country; 18% said the same about “army rule.”

“Army rule.” How in the world did we arrive here?

It’s not just the partisan gridlock or incivility, or filter bubbles or fake news. Society has often been divided without shaking our faith in democracy.

America’s history has been repeatedly stained by My Lai, Tuskegee, Japanese-American internment, child labor, the Trail of Tears and slavery. But never has there been such a widespread impulse to throw the democracy baby out with the bathwater.

This existential crisis isn’t about scandal or political conflict. It’s about hearts and minds. We’ve lost the trust, confidence, affection, pride, devotion and gratitude from our own. And there’s a reason.

We’ve stopped hearing about it.

Amid our obsession with science, technology, engineering and math and endless standardizing testing, social studies has been marginalized in public schools. Civics education is on a milk carton. Many students don’t know about the Bill of Rights, the branches of government, where laws come from, the role of the bureaucracy, presumption of innocence and the function of a free press. These were once drummed in by teachers and scout leaders and clergy and freakin’ Superman.

Yeah, it was often over the top and jingoistic, but it also laid out the structure of democracy and its stakes. It placed us in sharp relief vis-a-vis authoritarian states and the Evil Empire. It provided context. Its absence has created a vacuum filled with misinformation, disinformation and worse. Which has left citizens suspicious and complacent. Even despairing.

The good news is that for the past half-century, many educational organizations, local governments and civil society have created countless ad hoc programs, from curricula to civicengagement campaigns to “Schoolhouse Rock.” The bad news is that they’ve never achieved critical mass, and their impact has only declined. So may I presumptuously suggest: Let’s create critical mass.

Let’s create a brand for civic understanding and engagement, embracing all of the countless institutions with a dog in the democracy fight. Let’s put it in magazines and newspapers, TV shows and podcasts, country songs and video games. And, of course, classrooms everywhere. To tell stories of real people and real consequences. To create a social incentive for civic participation. To rekindle understanding and appreciation of our democratic institutions and core values. In short, without whitewashing our sins, to restore faith in the American way.

It can be done because it is being done, in an undertaking called the Purple Project for Democracy, which has zero to do with politics and everything to do with American hearts and minds. With not a moment to spare. Because army rule is too late.