@willfriedman.bsky.social
Democracy researcher/writer/advocate focused on the idea that we can’t defend democracy without renewing democracy. Former president, Public Agenda. NYC born, Brooklyn based.
Delightful and disturbing at the same time.
08.08.2025 01:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
60 years ago, the Voting Rights Act became law—protecting the right to vote for millions.
That legacy is under attack, but our fight isn’t over. Every voice matters. Every vote counts. We must keep pushing for a democracy that works for everyone. #VotingRights #VRA60
#HotOffThePress:
New article by @felixhoffmann.bsky.social and Brigitte Geissel on combining mini-publics and direct democratic instruments (in German).
Key take aways in comments.
Book: dietz-verlag.de/isbn/9783801...
RESULT: Democrats have defended a state Senate seat in Rhode Island by a margin of 82% to 16%. So that's a victory by 66 percentage points.
Harris had carried this district by 11 percentage points in November. This is the 2nd biggest overperformance for Democrats so far this year.
The conditions that make democratic citizenship—& democracy itself—possible are eroding fast & this essay shows one way it’s happening via AI. Reversing this erosion is a crucial task of resistance & rebuilding. #democracy #resistance
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/o...
Republican Mike Flood’s comments being drowned out by chants of “tax the rich” at his town hall
04.08.2025 23:14 — 👍 5873 🔁 1499 💬 217 📌 205
The references to “the art of the deal approach” & “negotiating prowess” reinforce the fiction that he is a masterful businessman rather than the born-rich playboy with a spotty, at best, business record, but with a true genius for self-promotion that is the reality.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/u...
I think there’s a big difference between “all hope is lost” and “I have lost hope” and in climate it is really important to distinguish between the two. My personal feelings, your personal feelings are not the limits of our collective politics.
03.08.2025 12:58 — 👍 973 🔁 193 💬 19 📌 12
💥 BIG NEWS: Our co-founders have launched The States Forum to cast an inspiring vision for a future — to show that new, bold ideas to achieve the American Promise in states can make people's lives better.
10.07.2025 16:02 — 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0When candidates take time to talk to voters instead of dialing for dollars they deserve to be rewarded!
16.07.2025 13:03 — 👍 39 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
My essay on why we can't defend democracy without renewing it - and the diverse ways that renewal is underway, despite the democratic backsliding we're up against.
medium.com/@wkfriedman/...
NEW: The Senate just reintroduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore and expand federal protections for our right to vote.
As states continue to pass legislation that makes voting harder, it's time for our leaders to protect this essential right.
This is unfortunate:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
I wrote to the president of Harvard. I hope other faculty will speak their conscience, even if it means more struggle ahead.
Very good discussion on the importance—for the economy, our democracy, and the Democratic Party—of rekindling the Labor/Small Business alliance that helped build a growing middle class during the New Deal era.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/o...
For all the talk about violent crime in cities, anarchy in the subways, etc., NYC is on track to have the lowest murder and shooting rates in 75 years.
www.nydailynews.com/2025/07/01/n...
Trump’s approval keeps dropping since he came into office treating the govt like Godzilla let loose in Tokyo, civil society like a woman who said no, and the economy like his personal plaything.
22.07.2025 13:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Agree
21.07.2025 23:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0John Lewis walked, bled, and lived for justice.
Five years since his passing, we honor him the only way we know how:
By refusing to stay silent and getting in more Good Trouble.
I'm attending John Lewis Actions's event, “GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON IN US” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/john-lewis-a...
17.07.2025 16:57 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0So interesting — an example of “normal” people getting drawn into authoritarian behaviors by economic pressures and maybe social ones as well, even against their own instincts.
17.07.2025 15:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0“Leaders such as Trump and Orbán could only be effectively opposed…by ditching a ‘legalistic, technical, technocratic approach’ in favor of ‘something for the electorate to be excited about.’”
17.07.2025 13:58 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Polling shows Trump's policies to be increasingly unpopular. Thus, "they have to be authoritarian because they want to override the will of the people...this is a wildly unstable situation and what happens next is at least partly up to us."
15.07.2025 21:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0There it is, the authenticity that today's voters are looking for!
15.07.2025 16:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Fascinating and worrisome as people turn to AI for spiritual sustenance.
14.07.2025 16:35 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0“There are two topics in this essay, the destruction wrought by the Trump Administration and the ways the press has played it down.”
13.07.2025 17:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A State Department employee shared with PBS News an image from inside the department. The image includes a piece of paper taped to a mirror with the words, "Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM. Remember the oath you vowed to uphold."
11.07.2025 22:50 — 👍 39789 🔁 11558 💬 447 📌 525
Gallup has new polling on immigration. Topline findings:
-Americans hate Trump's immigration policy (35% approve, 62% disapprove)
-Share who say immigration is a "good thing" for the country just hit an all-time high (79%)
news.gallup.com/poll/692522/...
Excellent deep dive into the memetic far right anti-democratic politics of so many (mostly) young male digital natives.
Trolling Democracy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/o...
Brief & worth reading on the importance of differentiating anti-autocracy resistance from the political status quo that enabled autocracy to gain a foothold in the first place. That is, we can't defend democracy without also renewing democracy. #democracy #democraticrenewal #resistance
08.07.2025 17:54 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
“Research finds that authoritarian regimes often provoke and capitalize on violent conflict with activists to justify strict policing of protest and manufacture a domestic 'rally round the flag' effect.”
@owasow.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/o...
