Climate, Democracy, and the Mid-Term Elections, or "How Everything You Care About Flows Through Having a Functioning US Democracy" (on Zoom)

➡️ This event is part of the run-up to the "Next Move - SF AI & Democracy Unconference" on April 25 in San Francisco! Come join us there!

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Democracy is our most precious "commons", is often under-appreciated, is in decline, and is under threat from multiple directions.

But we can shift that trajectory.

In this discussion we'll share updates on the "Democracy Index" project, an effort to gather ideas from a broad collection of Americans to help us define "what is American democracy", and then have an "index", a measuring stick, to help us understand what candidates, policies, companies, media outlets, etc are working to strengthen democracy, or weaken democracy.

We'll also explore why democracy is essential to the climate and regenerative movements, and in ways beyond what you normally think about.

Action Oriented, Solution Oriented

This session will be part presentation, part discussion, and part working groups in breakouts helping us define and co-create the next stage of our American democracy, and how we can help it serve all of us, and our children, and our children's children. We are action and output oriented, helping people come up with personal and organizational action plans for how each of us and our organizations can support positive democracy shifts.

Why now?

Time is of the essence, and right now we have an opportunity to do things that will (likely) become more difficult in the coming 1-3 years if things continue to decline. And while we citizens have largely neglected our democracy for too long, and it's been partial for too long, what democracy we do have has been incredibly valuable to all of us, and we will certainly miss it once it's gone. Let's do our best to not let that happen.

Please invite others, or let us know who we should talk to

Partners, collaborators, supporters, sponsors, etc are welcomed. Feel free to invite other like-minded people to join. If you want to chat about something privately, whether related to this session or beyond, feel free to reach out: partner@nextdemocracy.us

Is this session connected to other activities?

Why yes, glad you asked. We're working to organize various activities to reignite a unified collective bipartisan/nonpartisan civic movement focused on democracy preservation and strengthening. Through that, we can address all other challenges. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, we should be united in our care, concern, and dedication to protecting and strengthening our shared democracy.

We're working on organizing democracy unconferences, hackathons/accelerators/incubators, citizen-led candidate debates, citizen assemblies, and more. Want to join these efforts, or collaborate to organize activities in your area? See more info about upcoming democracy-related events at https://NextDemocracy.us or our shared "Democracy Calendar" at https://lu.ma/democracy.

Or reach out to discuss: partner@nextdemocracy.us.

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Let's bring together our experience with communities of practice, tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, climate action, community organizing, policy, elections, culture, arts/creativity, and human ingenuity to build and support projects that can help preserve and strengthen our democracy and our shared future.

Let's do this. 🙏💪💛

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Image source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.04417/