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A few years back, my son, Zachary, penned a poem that continues to resonate with me. He wrote these words for an early episode of our weekly podcast, This Is Democracy:
I wonder sometimes if the leaves could speak
what they would say of the glory they seek
in learning to fly as they fall
If we should ask of them all
what right do you have to hope
if each one would be able to state
and not for a minute hesitate?
The word “hope” stands out – in the poem and in countless thoughts and conversations since Zachary shared it. Hope is often an elusive attribute. It is an intangible concept; it exists in no physical space but only in our hearts and minds. Hope expands in our imaginations, yet is bound by the same. It is the scaffolding of faith, expectation, and promise. Is hope a right, as Zachary metaphorically asks? Unanswerable, I suppose. But hope is certainly righteous.
So hope is the very point of this new project that Zachary and I have undertaken to expand and amplify our original podcast endeavor. “Democracy of Hope” is our immodest mission to restore some measure of this precious form of social capital to our perilous and often-paralyzed politics. I’ll concede the argument that some have made in response: “Hope is not a strategy” – a worn-out adage typically used in military or business contexts.
Fair enough. But my response must be an older adage from Pandora’s Box, which traces to the 8th century BCE, and an earlier poet, Hesiod. You certainly know the story: Pandora, the first woman on Earth created by the gods, was given a box and told never to open it. Alas, curiosity got the better of Pandora, and she peeked inside. The result was the release of all the evils that have bedeviled humanity ever since: among them sickness, disease, sorrow, war, poverty, envy, hatred, malice, and lies. But she closed the lid just in time to contain one last remaining attribute: hope. According to the myth, hope is the counterbalance, the antidote to all of life’s myriad poisons, the source ever since of humanity’s ability to endure.
It hardly needs to be said that our democracy is in crisis. And of all the ravages visited upon the republic, the most insidious crime is the assault on hope. The haters, doomsayers, and demagogues deny us hope by telling us everything is rigged and we can only fight to take what we can. The cynical pursuit of power tells people they can’t make anything better - don’t even try.
As a historian, I can think of no period in America’s past or present so thoroughly and contemporaneously studied as our own. We don’t lack for knowledge, facts, insights, or even prescriptive ideas, some of which we’ve already begun to explore here, such as how we might curtail the role of money in politics.
Rather, what I believe we are yearning for is confidence in our own collective agency, a belief that together we can deliver a better tomorrow – not one invented from a fantasized past, or contrived from a demonized “other,” or dreamed up in a utopian design. What is in short supply is that animating virtue, that attribute that Pandora managed to secure at the bottom of her box – hope.
So here’s what Zachary and I are working hard to create:
Thoughts. Each week, we will bring you our own ideas on democracy and how we can nurture and invigorate it. From time to time, we’ll invite guests to share important perspectives, such as the recent essay on the notorious Project 2025 penned by Craig Pedersen.
Discussion. We will circulate conversations about issues important for democracy with a compelling expert and our multigenerational team.
Poetry. We need better words in our difficult time. We need help expressing how we feel. Each week Zachary will share a new poem to help us think about our moment.
Sharing. We’ve also begun sharing the best and most original work we can find elsewhere, including other related newsletters such as Stephen Vladeck’s tracking – in accessible language – of the work of the U.S. Supreme Court. We are not alone, and core to our mission is the curation of this growing canon of actionable and hopeful insights on democracy.
Democracy requires hope to bring citizens together to improve their lives. Democracy is debilitated today by fear, which sets us against one another. We can restore hope by examining our history to find opportunities we all share. That is the purpose of our multimedia newsletter – to renew a democracy of hope with knowledge, creativity, and even some fun.
I do need to say that while this is a labor of love, it is also labor-intensive, and expensive, with rising ancillary costs for research and outreach. So this is also an appeal for support. We welcome all subscribers, and for the moment we are resisting the raising of a paywall. Please join us.
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