“When we give up the chase, we give up our wishing.”

“While spirituality provides an efficient and endless fuel for your mind and body, you must burn that fuel with human action towards your goals, dreams, and desires.”

“It doesn't matter how great your shoes are if you don't accomplish anything in them.”

A party that respects its voter base should do everything it can to sufficiently educate its public on what possible pathways are ahead. Don’t dismiss curiosity. Invite challenge. Really dig into how this process is more hopeful and agentic than what was our status quo until yesterday.

“If you believe you can, you might. If you know you can, you will.”

This can easily be applied to democracy as a system. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an open convention, and a long time since we’ve replaced an incumbent late into a race. We’ve forgotten what it feels like, and what our options are. Dem leadership will need to make the process explicit, and also make it clear how we as voters can engage it

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

Let’s Reclaim Hope In Our Democracy, In 3 Easy Steps
Just kidding. It won’t be easy! But it’s possible.

Millions of Americans just spent 4 weeks (for some: many more) feeling disaffected and hopeless about the possibility of a responsive election cycle. Democrats’ key aim must be to meaningfully bring these people back into the fold, and quickly. Time is short, so these gestures will need to be more intentional and overt.

Moving forward, how can leadership model this?

If 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?

THE MOVE: Clearly communicate the rules of the system. (As of this writing, Dems haven’t done this yet.)

In 1994, design usability pioneer Jakob Nielsen developed ten heuristics for user interface design. The heuristics were developed to help users improve decision-making, through effective communication and transparency. The first heuristic? Visibility of system status. A healthy system should always keep users informed about what is happening, and where they are in the process.