Creators and creating (or recreating) democracy

Are creators the future of democracy?

That Harvard Magazine headline may actually undersell a recent conversation hosted by Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Sure, creators have a role in shaping (and/or shaking down) the future of democracy. But the roles are multiple, varied, and there's much to be done by creators and civic orgs writ large.

I listened to the conversation and want to share a couple takeaways. The future of democracy is being fought over right now in DC, state legislatures, and on American streets.

It's also being fought over in social media posts, videos of ICE officers filmed from sidewalks, and even in the emails we send asking people to take action and give money.

These conflicts are far-reaching. They're engaging people up and down the leadership ladder from neighborhoods to boardrooms to the White House. We're also seeing communities self-organize action and communications in ways that could shape the who, how, and why of democratic engagement in coming years.

Invest in collaborative infrastructure for civic engagement.

Yes, collaborative infrastructures are essential to providing ways for communities and creators to work together for impact. But realize that infrastructures and the relationships they sustain will outlast modes of communication.

Today's emphasis on creators, influencers, and video is different than the modes of engagement 10 or 15 years ago (social media posts, blogs, mainstream news) and will not be the primary modes in 10, 15, 20 or more years.

Collaborative infrastructures - supports for recruiting and training the messengers, communicators, organizers, storytellers who can work together across issues and mediums - can and will adapt to and outlast the mode of the moment.

We, the folks working in/around democracy issues and civic participation, need to do a far far far (far-cubed!) better job documenting and sharing our practices, tests, and experiences with communications, marketing and storytelling.

Overall, this conversation was an example of too much "big think" and not enough collaborative infrastructure building. Give me examples. Share case studies. Feed experiments and get the results out there.

Make the democracy landscape much more visible to far more people working in/around civic engagement projects (which is most every NPO/NGO anywhere).

Matt Fitzgerald spoke to this during the Kennedy School conversation. He said something I paraphrased in notes as: "we haven't built out the social infrastructure for knitting our networks / voices together."

Yes! More infrastructure that makes work possible. Less policy wonkery.

Fight for people. Not democracy.

This observation from the call surprised me a bit: A lot of people working in and around big D democracy don't believe it's worth saving. A few panelists implied this. Others came right out and said it. And it was a recurring theme in the zoom chat.

To put it another way: how many people out there really want to fight to protect our current democratic institutions?

Aside from those paid to do it, I'm not sure many are that interested in the current institutions. Few Americans would say that democracy is working for them, their neighbors, their country.

Look at American history. Look at the current moment. Democracy works for some and that "some" keeps shrinking while getting more greedy and violent in its pursuit of protecting its "democracy."

We need clearer visions of future alternatives that big tents of people can and will work towards.

This is a challenge that can't be left to Congress (ha!). Nor can it be left to "democracy" experts.

Creators have a role and voice in what's next.

So do writers, journalists, and community organizers who are the messengers of the future.

This means that nonprofit organizations, regardless of scope or size or issue focus, are the harbingers of future democracy. We are the ones practicing civic engagement. We're the ones who can, and through collaborative infrastructure will, model democratic practices that could work for all in the future.

It's incumbent on our organizations, community leaders, and communications folks to supply them with ideas, frameworks, and tools to share not just visions for the future but the work of turning ideas into plans.

Creators are surely part of the future of democracy. But the story of democracy is being rewritten in front of us. We must not retreat to the boundaries of what we know - contact Congress to vote yes or no - because those landscapes are crumbling. They may limp through 2026, 2028, or beyond. But they're crumbling.

Funders, leaders, students, storytellers...they're just a few of the groups who can collaborate to build, supplement, sustain community infrastructures.

Can community and little d infrastructures actually BE democratic? That's the question - one that needs our action, engagement and funding today.