Abstract
I want to use this space to stir an essential conversation about the darkness that is threatening our democracy. We face much more than a moral dilemma. We now confront not only a determined effort by dark monied interests to subvert the state's governing apparatus, its democratic electoral processes, but also a shredding of the 14th and 15th Amendments in its defining covenant, the Constitution-as-amended. This essay is a clarion call to movement organizing, civil society advocacy, and personal engagement in order preserve a number of the hard-won gains of the twentieth century that were crucial to expanding participation in our democracy for a very diverse range of stakeholders. As the saying goes, democracy withers in the dark. In the spirit of Larry Goodwyn’s lifelong quest for a more democratic nation, this essay offers suggestions for activist organizing and citizen engagement. To be clear, as we proceed into the third decade of what is already a tumultuous century, we must counter the odious economic, political, cultural, and racial backlash that has been unleashed on our institutions and many peoples.