God I'm your own, till the day you will come

Honey is is very sweet

healthy democracy operates by several heuristics for social life that, until today, were totally absent from this presidential race. If we want a healthier range of possible ends in our democracy, whether we’re headed into an open convention, a Harris appointment, or some combination of both, we have to figure out a way to reclaim these civic heuristics as means along the way. We have to go all in on restoring trust with voters.

What can this look like in practice?

Biden Dropping Out Puts Us Back in a World Where Hope (& Agency) Has a Chance
What will happen next? Impossible to say (exciting, right? In a good way!). Regardless of path, right now Democratic leadership has opened up a new window for civic participation in our process. By doing this, they’ve taken an urgent first step to reconnecting our system of governance with the will of the people.

Both candidates participated in the production of cynicism. And in doing so, they both alienated a vital constituency of the American public: People who believe in democracy as a process — as the means itself toward a better end.

Psychologist C.R. Snyder describes hope as made up of three core components: Goals, pathways (how you get toward your goals), and agency (the belief you can actually participate in these pathways).

The way they manage this process can ensure civic agency and, with it, restore our trust in the process and hope for the nation itself. If done well, Dem leaders’ moves over the next four months can restore our confidence in a founding principle of our nation: That democracy is an agentic tool to realize a collective vision.

defeat entrenched cynicism, we will need hope — anti-cynicism candidates, backed by an anti-cynicism party, promoted through an anti-cynicism process. We will need shared goals — stories about the future. We will need shared pathways — clear processes, and touchpoints for the public along the way. And we will need a sense of agency — the trust that leadership is listening, and responsive to us along the way.

We’ve needed that all along. And the Democrats just created an opportunity to do it.

THE MOVE: Make it easy to participate in the process. (They’ve started doing this!)

By listening to growing concerns about Biden from all quarters, Democratic leadership proved they are responsive. By persuading an incumbent to step down (in July of an election year, no less!), they proved they are iterative — willing to change their assumptions and update their ways of working.

This is exciting — and it’s this responsiveness, more than anything, that animated so much of yesterday’s outpouring of excitement and energy, and sense of optimism and relief

Democrats pursue an open convention: Spell out, repeatedly and enthusiastically, how it will work. Who are the voting delegates, how were they appointed, how do they represent us? And, crucially, where will our voices fit in?

If Democrats align around Harris: Spell out how this process actually happened. Who makes this decision? Who else has to agree to it? How is this process more democratic, participatory, and trust-building than Biden’s candidacy was? And, crucially, where did our voices fit in?