Brad Rourke’s Blog
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Become Ungovernable
On my way to downtown DC to march in the No Kings rally, I was unsure of what I would find. * * * * * We all knew what to expect as the year began. It had been laid out for us very clearly in the document called a Mandate for Leadership, otherwise known…
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Still No Kings
Find a No Kings 2 event near you and sign up: the live map is here. The matter was settled. The founders broke from monarchy and built a republic ruled by law. The crown was thrown aside. But the desire to be ruled is persistent. It lives on, waiting for someone willing to claim it.…
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Razing Democracy
In Athens last week, I walked among ruins around which the modern city had grown. Stone columns beside electric vehicles. The air itself carries argument between old and new. The remains of the Acropolis loom over the city. Hadrian’s Library is tucked into a neighborhood. All reminders that democracy can be razed. At the Athens…
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20 Things You Can Do to Throw Sand in the Gears
As the authoritarian regime continues its march to undermine constitutional democracy, it is clear that only through solidarity and action can we have a hope of retaining the American way of life. We need to get off the sidelines and take action. Writing in postwar Germany in 1951, poet Günter Eich wrote a 5-play cycle,…
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We Are Allowed to Feel Joy
The authoritarian consolidation is real. Each week brings fresh evidence. The courts weakened. The guardrails stripped. Communities made vulnerable. Immigrants disappeared. Trans people targeted and despicably made out to be a violent threat. Higher education attacked for producing independent thought. Journalists threatened for telling the truth. Comedians deplatformed. None of this is abstract. It is…
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The Impotence of Norms
There was a time when shame played an important role in public life. It kept the system intact. A leader might lie or spew hate, but not without cost. The collective would respond. A rebuke, a cold shoulder, a quiet, forced resignation. Shame had teeth. It made norms real. That time has passed. Today, to…
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The Long Haul: How Long Will America’s Autocracy Last?
A friend visiting from Europe told me about their visa application. They had to provide their social media accounts and make them open for inspection. If you want to visit the United States, you must bare your digital self. In How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?, Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and…
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Rebranding Power, Rebranding America Through Culture and Spectacle
This week, a massive banner featuring President Donald Trump’s portrait was draped across the Department of Labor building in Washington, D.C., alongside an American flag and Theodore Roosevelt. It carried the phrase “American Workers First.” In announcing it at a Cabinet meeting, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Deremer said, “Mr. President, I invite you to see…
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Note From a New Dissident
I have worked my entire career in the democracy space, primarily working towards bridging divides and developing stronger, deeper democratic life. The work that has occupied my decades now feels inadequate to the times I find myself in. I live in the Washington, DC area. Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters From An American” from August 22,…
Brad Rourke 