In 2026, Americans will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the nation. But given the partisan chaos rumbling through our civic life, some wonder just how strong the democratic foundation of the United States will be when that historic milestone arrives.
The nation can have a healthy political system, argue the authors of a new report called Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. But ensuring that will take a dedicated effort by people across the political spectrum to enact important reforms, says Stephen Heintz, a co-chair of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship and co-author of the report. He says that this work is a continuation of what Americans have been doing since 1776.
“That’s what democracy is,” says Heintz. “It’s got to be a constant process of iteration and striving to become a more perfect union.”
The Roots and Impacts of Civic Division
The commission is an initiative of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a non-partisan organization founded in 1780 by John Adams. The group hosted some 50 listening sessions across America starting in 2018, travelling from Los Angeles, to Lexington, to Annapolis, Md., to talk with people from all walks of life. Heintz says the commission discovered a common theme in these conversations.
“What we heard from them consistently was that they are deeply worried about the quality of our democracy,” he says, “and deeply hopeful that working together we can build the effective and resilient and inclusive democracy that we need for this century.”
Although Americans have been focused on recent turmoil surrounding the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Heintz argues that civility in public life has been eroding for 40 years. Now, he contends, the nation is facing a crisis point.
“People don’t think the system is working for them and so they are becoming democracy drop-outs,” says Heintz. “That is how a crisis can actually develop when democratic citizens opt out of their democracy, we leave the democracy to others who will manipulate it for their own good, their own benefit.”
The division among Americans is partially the fault of the media, according to commission member Carolyn Lukensmeyer, a former executive director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. She says some outlets have built their business models on stoking political divisiveness that attracts viewers and drives social media clicks. She also points to ongoing efforts by election deniers to undermine the integrity of the balloting process.
“The fundamental essence of how self-governance occurs in the United States is my vote – I have to believe that the vote that I make is the vote that is registered and turns into who is in office,” Lukensmeyer says.
But in the current elections nationwide, there are about 300 candidates running for office who deny that President Joe Biden legitimately won in 2020. Lukensmeyer says those candidates are fueling questions about the value of voting going forward.
“This is both turning off Americans from their participation and frightening Americans about whether or not their vote will be registered as they are wanted,” she says.
Both parties are to blame for the problems facing democracy, says Lukensmeyer. But she says restoring our civic and political institutions won’t happen with the help of those on the far right or far left. She contends the political fringes represent only about 20 to 25 percent of Americans. The goal, she contends, is to work with those in the middle that want to be engaged in positive change.
“If we’re going to rebuild the country at this fundamental level, we need to appeal to this very large group of Americans who do have angst about the country, and who actually want to do something, but very often... they don’t know how to get connected in their community to make a difference,” she says.
“They want to believe in it but they don’t feel that it’s working, so they’re losing a sense of their own purpose in our democracy,” adds Heintz. “But they’re the people who can be motivated because they want it to work and they want very much to be part of it.”
Sometimes that means connecting people to organizations and opportunities that already exist where they live. But in other areas, such as small towns and rural communities, that means helping to seed and grow organizations that can do the work of strengthening democracy. Lukensmeyer says the goal is to help people discern the issues that are important to them, connect them to groups involved in those issues, and then offer them recommendations based on the commission’s findings.
Recommendations for Revitalizing American Democracy
The commission’s 75-page report outlines 31 options for strengthening democracy that cover areas like empowering voters, achieving equality in representation, improving media and social media engagement, and fostering responsive government institutions. Specific recommendations that the commission hope can be enacted by 2026 include:
— Institute ranked-choice voting for federal and state elections. Under this system, people mark their top three or more preferences in a specific race, not just one candidate. If a candidate gets a majority of the top-rank votes, they are the winner. If no one tops 50 percent, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and that voter’s second-choice picks are tabulated. The process continues until a candidate wins a majority of votes. Maine and Alaska already use ranked-choice voting for state and federal election, and New York City has adopted it for primary and special elections for local offices.
“I really believe if you can do it in New York, we can do it anywhere,” says Heintz.
— Enact other voting reforms such as moving election day to Veterans Day (since many people already have that day off from work), providing automatic restoration of voting rights for felony convicts upon their release from prison, and allowing same-day voter registration and universal automatic voter registration.
— Enlarge the U.S. House of Representatives, amend the Constitution to allow for more regulation of campaign contributions, and create citizen-led commissions to conduct legislative redistricting.
“What we’ve seen in the states that have experimented with independent redistricting commissions is a much better process, and much fairer outcomes, and more competitive districts,” says Heintz. “You get more competition in the democracy, which is very healthy.”
— Set an 18-year term limit for U.S. Supreme Court justices.
— Invest in civic education for children and adults.
— Use proceeds from a digital advertising tax to support local public media and investigative journalism.
“Each one of [the recommendations] individually is important and useful, but in combination they become something powerful,” says Heintz.
