The U.S. democracy is on fire. How do we fight the fire and also create a brighter future for everyone? We catalyze widespread public pressure and civic engagement to move the US toward a healthier democracy and away from far-right extremism — that’s how. We go big, and we go all out. There’s time to pull it off for 2024 if we get started this summer. Anyone can help. We need tons of people doing everything everywhere all at once.
Shift the Country is advocating for a coalition of Democrats, independents, and old-school Republicans to empower the US majority to actively choose a future that better serves everyday Americans in this multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy so we all have an actual opportunity to survive, thrive, and flourish.
We can motivate people to make change where they live and inspire them to vote in overwhelming majorities in elections to overcome anti-democratic structures that protect minority party power.
We can make democracy work for the majority of us — the way it’s supposed to.
We Can Stand Up & Raise Heck In Way Bigger Ways
The idea here is brazen: we raise a huge fuss doing things that get people talking, get attention, get media coverage, get things to go viral, and drive the narratives in all the places.
We can use a combination of approaches to provoke and promote a catchy trend of overwhelming public pressure, civic action, volunteering, and voting to support this democracy and what we want to see in our communities. We make real shift happen in as many ways as possible at every level… even as we raise a ruckus to change the overall direction the US is going.
It’s a fusion of pressure, strategy, coalitions, inspiration, solidarity, storytelling, amplifying, civic action, moral courage, and the leveraging of everything possible that drives the public narrative, public sentiment, and collective action.
Who’s Driving the Narrative? Will We?
Who’s driving the narrative up in this country right now?
Far-right personalities and the far-right media empire.
Far-right extremism is sucking up all the oxygen, taking our attention, and getting media coverage because of shock after shock after shock.
Our media is normalizing all that as we don’t seem capable — yet — of collectively standing back, pointing at it, and declaring THIS IS NOT OKAY.
We watch in horror as hate spreads, as book bans happen, as history gets edited, and as the freedoms of Americans are removed. We watch in astonishment as racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and toxic masculinity are accelerating and amplified. We watch in terror as kids and adults are mowed down in mass shootings in public and at school. We watch helplessly as Republican majorities in state after state dissolve our rights and aim the power of government at vulnerable populations including kids. We watch in anger as women die from medically manageable pregnancy complications while the far-right cuts the very programs that could help the kids now compelled to be born through forced births. We watch the far right aggressively go after more and more control of our lives. They’re on a roll in state after state with often unchecked power and increasingly radical ideas that society didn’t demand but now has to survive.
We’re not helpless, but we are in shock.
It’s Time To Take Things To A Whole New Level
We can fight differently. We’ve been mostly going around acting like it’s “politics as usual”… but nothing is.
We should start behaving like nothing is normal and do the unprecedented ourselves. Create new rules. Drive the narrative. Raise a ruckus. Get the attention. Get people out doing things that do some good and get attention in communities everywhere.
We just have to start. We have to decide. We have to get out of our comfort zone and get going. Or we have to shift our daily lives and possibly limited resources around so we can get engaged. Or we have to pull ourselves out of shock, overwhelm, or trauma as much as we can to get engaged. That’s part of why it will help to do it together — to help each other go forward. We all have varying availability, differing skills, strength we can bring, support we can give, support that we need, and unique abilities.
Again, we need as many people as possible doing everything everywhere all at once. Join us and we’ll work on how we do all that together.
The Shock Is By Design — But We Can Pierce It
We got to this democracy-on-fire moment because the US has been broken down internally over decades. The shock, overwhelm, and trauma freeze we’re experiencing are not an accident — they’re designed to keep people from getting engaged and pushing back.
We’re too broke with not enough job security or benefits for a general strike; or even for huge protests. We’re mentally beaten down and physically worn out from so many things. It’s been intentional; because it’s easier for people with money and power to seize more money and power in the midst of chaos, and in the fog of instability.
Let’s stop them, and let’s put the country on a different path.
Let’s build our American people and communities back up. Let’s build our society back up. Let’s build this country back up.
Let’s champion a country that’s run by the majority — how a democracy is supposed to be run. Not by the hateful, backwards minority far-right Republicans that wants us to go back to the 1950s… or even back to the 1800s… neither of which were a great time for most American voters.
Why don’t we overwhelm them with massive voter turnout? Shift the Country intends to catalyze more than traditional organizing, protests, and get-out-the-vote. We need all that and we also need more.
Shift the Country intends to get Americans freaking fired up about this country and what it could — and should — be.
A Simple Yet Synergistic 5-Part Approach
We build toward a nationwide phenomenon and critical mass by working on a combination of 5 Things in communities everywhere.
This is a realistic, achievable approach with solid moorings. Any moonshot takes intention, strategy, planning, commitment, and follow-through. We can do all of that. Volunteers are critical! We coordinate with volunteers through working Zoom calls and a team-oriented Facebook group for now (more to come).
Here are the basic 5 Things that we can bring together in unprecedented ways for bigger public pressure and engagement than ever:
Thing 1: Connection — We start by growing connection. Our connections with humans & with our humanity is the heart of work to create a larger movement that drives change; it helps us to expand our reach, & to share stories & content that resonate & move fast through social networks in-real-life and online.
Thing 2: Do More With Community & Coalitions — We can find strength, solidarity, grounding, resources, anchors, assets, & capabilities in our combined forces. We can take it all to new levels for larger efforts, a wider reach, & bigger effects. Alliances, partnerships, & communities are amplifiers. They also help us re-weave the frayed & torn social fabric.
Thing 3: Pressure or Partner With Businesses — There is tremendous, untapped potential to harness & organize business partnerships & pressure at every level. We can create & execute a cooperative vision & plan to collectively partner with businesses that support diversity, equity, inclusion, human rights, livable wages, sustainability, public health, etc. We can also build up and leverage pressure on business that fund anti-democracy politicians, that support insurrectionists, that refuse to be safe or environmentally responsible, or that advertise on networks that promote hate.
Thing 4: Get Better At Championing Vision, Values, & Moral Courage — We're learning collectively to fight with emotions, stories, & what's right... & not just with data. People advocating with any kind of moral courage often go viral because we're craving it, & we need more of it. We find our moral courage together & help each other use it.
Thing 5: Drive the Narrative, Create A Buzz in Local Chatter Networks, & Share It All Everywhere — We drive the narrative locally & nationally. This organic approach uses synergy from these interwoven 5 Things to catalyze activities (like events, parties, projects, speeches, art, conversations, music, writing, vigils, or volunteer action) that draw attention, create spectacle, or raise a ruckus… and then get media coverage, get “influencer” attention, or get people talking and sharing through in-real-life or online social networks. We tell tough stories, fight big fights, raise complicated issues, advocate for values, or otherwise garner big attention from media, politicians, & the public. We can marshal the full force of public opinion to change our priorities and our trajectory.
Bonus! This Approach Helps Us Face Accelerating Risk
Things are going to intensify and accelerate up in this country:
“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment… factors that could mobilize individuals to commit violence include their perceptions of the 2024 general election cycle and legislative or judicial decisions pertaining to sociopolitical issues. Likely targets of potential violence include US critical infrastructure, faith-based institutions, individuals or events associated with the LGBTQIA+ community, schools, racial and ethnic minorities, and government facilities and personnel, including law enforcement.” — DHS National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin issued May 24, 2023
On top of fomenting widespread pressure, civic engagement, & coalition-building, the Shift the Country 5 Thing approach is designed to help us find and grow anchor points of stability and strength in the growing firestorm of US instability. Connections, stronger social networks, expanding community, larger-than-ever coalitions, and coordination with businesses all help us build alliances and resilience that can help with so many things in a time of instability, threats, uncertainty, and increasing violence.
The Shift the Country approach is designed to help counter authoritarianism in the deepest, most systemic ways even as we push transformation. This approach helps us re-weave some of the threadbare social fabric that led to the far-right US authoritarian movement in the first place. This approach helps us grow and strengthen our connections, social networks, communities, and coalitions to increase our resilience so that we are better able to handle crises, emergencies, threats, disasters, mass shooter incidents, other violence, and even climate change. Plus it cultivates political change!
What’s the Best That Can Happen?
Join us.
What’s the worst that can happen? We collectively fail and US democracy falls?
Even if that worst-case scenario were to happen, following the Shift the Country approach now would make us more resilient, better connected, and better ready for such chaos. But if we’re massively better connected with huger alliances and major pressure because we’ve been shifting the country… we should be able to keep such worst-case scenarios from happening.
What if we ask instead what’s the best that can happen if we do this shift?
In the best-case scenario, we could take this country in a completely different direction than where we’re going now… a direction that strengthens democracy, that’s more sustainable, that helps us better address the many challenges we face, that helps us take care of humans, and that does a way better job of providing actual “liberty and justice for all.”
We can.
Let’s go.
The US Democracy Is In A 5-Alarm Fire
Our democracy IS on fire. What are we going to do--cede all of our rights to the oligarchic autocrats, or work to bring the power of the people to the task of taking it back? Shift the Country is onto something. Organizing across the country, involving people of all persuasions, focusing on what we can do together--whatever our individual talents and interests. Vanessa has put out the call. Let's go!