As Americans, we have strong tools rooted in our Constitution and system of checks and balances to prevent our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. With experience upholding the guardrails of democracy in the American government, and working with experts who study the rise and fall of democracies around the world, we’ve identified key areas of risk that need our immediate attention. Here is what we’re doing to Protect our Democracy in each of those key areas:
A generally shared agreement about basic facts is indispensable to constitutional democracy. It allows a citizenry to debate policies from within the same reality, and to ultimately hold their government accountable. That is why autocrats seek to undermine truth in order to avoid accountability. Changes in our media landscape have undermined our shared reality, and President Trump has all but declared war on truth and basic facts. We are working to check the government’s ability to deliberately spread misinformation to help protect the American people’s ability to self-govern.
Protect Democracy wrote an initial post at Take Care to kick off a collaborative discussion on the threats to the free press and dissent under the Trump Administration. A number of esteemed legal and media-focused voices are lined up to participate, and to help develop effective legal protections…
Protect Democracy is proud to represent Benjamin Wittes in his lawsuit against the Justice Department over what appears to be false information conveyed by the President.
Today Protect Democracy filed suit to compel the Office of Management and Budget to respond to our FOIA requests on any discussion of undermining or abolishing the Congressional Budget Office. Read the complaint here. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, also weighed…
Protect Democracy Executive Director Ian Bassin was interviewed by host Alexander Heffner on this week’s episode of “The Open Mind.” It was a wide-ranging discussion on the threats our democracy faces, and how Protect Democracy works to sustain it. Watch the full episode. BASSIN: Well I think the first…
Editors note: The free press is critical to our democracy. It allows us to get answers about how our government is functioning and hold it accountable for its actions. Protect Democracy team member Matt Lehrich wrote for CNN.com about how the daily White House press briefing, despite its…
