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After four busy and productive days together, we’ve made major strides. At the beginning of our time together, 7.5% of participants felt confident that the solution set the broader democracy ecosystem is advocating for will meet the challenges we can expect over the next 50 years. By the end of the convening, nearly 75% of participants confident that a set of solutions exists. The next step of our work together is advocating for those solutions. Participants from the December gathering are already asking for dates for the June convening and are eager to continue this work. As such, we are actively planning and fundraising for our June convening, where we will take our December convening’s work forward to refine the amendments we’ve discussed and incorporate a power analysis so that we can begin to co-create the campaign strategy to amend the Constitution. Equally important, convening participants are coming away from our time together with insights, experiences, and relationships that will inform their existing work and the way they’re thinking about democracy. As one participant shared with me, “This week forced me to expand my definition of democracy in a way that I’m excited to bring back to my team! Our democracy is more than just voting - it’s about an entire system of governance that upholds values and rights.” Crucial in supporting participants to bring their learnings home, and inviting others into this work, is ensuring the lessons coming out of the convening are as shareable and accessible as possible: To do that, we’ve first created a facilitation guide (that incorporates some of the initial facilitation lessons from this convening) so that you can replicate it or use pieces of it in your own work. This guide includes: 4 scenario archetypes of the world in 2076 3 data-driven projections of how the world may have changed by 2076 addressing: 1) demographic change, 2) the future of work and inequality and 3) climate change A selection of possible Constitutional amendments, based both on research and conversations with experts
It is password protected and the password is Amend2076. We would love to hear if and how you incorporate ideas from the facilitation in your work! Please feel free to reply to this email and let us know about your plans. And of course, if it would be helpful, we’d also be glad to advise on those efforts. And second, in mid-January, we will be releasing a final report of the insights and learnings gained from the convening and our future plans. We will be hosting a briefing with partners and participants at 2 PM EST on January 22nd, 2024 to go deeper into both the report and the facilitation guide, share more about our strategies and next steps, and answer any questions you might have. You can RSVP for the briefing here. Unfortunately, our work has never been more timely. Recent reporting reveals that new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a steadfast advocate of the Convention of States, a powerful effort to bring about a far-right Constitutional convention endorsed by many MAGA Republicans (including several former members of the Trump administration). The Heritage Foundation also recently announced its support for this effort to rewrite our constitution to be pro-authoritarian, minoritarian, and backwards-looking––all of which would seriously threaten our democracy. Efforts like these speak to the appetite for Constitutional reform and shows that we need for a pro-democracy, affirmative approach to address real problems in our Constitution (see here, here, and here for other historians and scholars on how the failure to amend the Constitution are eroding our democracy!). We remain deeply grateful for your support and partnership so we can begin planning our next steps and look forward to expanding our work together in the new year.
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