America is on the verge of a midlife crisis. She’s weathered wars, storms, and seen heydays. She’s trying to figure out her identity. She knows that if she continues forward on her current path, she’ll likely fall apart. If she does, the record written about her will not capture the fullness of her complicated history. She wants her offspring to know the truth about her, but she doesn’t want to alienate them.
America is young enough that she could still take the future by the horns, but experienced enough to have battle fatigue. She’s reached an age where she must do one of two things: give everything she has, with reckless abandon, to the fulfillment of her highest purpose; or fold, sit back and let nature take its course. If she chooses to fight, she’s bound to win, since the cards are stacked in her favor–she just doesn’t know this yet.
So what will America do? What does this nation, who is hemorrhaging progress, do to keep her integrity and fulfill her highest purpose?
Where are we?
The critical state of American democracy can not be overstated. The ideological polarization of the majority of this country can lead to one of two extremes: one, it can force the emergence of transformative leadership; or, two, it can force a relinquishing of the hope of a truly free America–to ignorance, violence and hatred.
In order to move forward in a way that preserves life and property, it would seem that drastic action needs to be taken. Organizations like Nia Weeks and Damien Smith’s Detangled provide a vision of what can happen when those who truly live for democracy put everything on the line to fight for it.
The decisions that the American populace are to make over the next year will determine whether she manifests the dream of equality, or regresses to an unrecognizable shadow of her former self.
Civic Intelligence will Determine Our Future
Many experts agree that the reason America has been able to reach its current state of political polarity is because of the minimal civic intelligence at the local and national level. Thanks to the declining attention given to civic education in schools and dominant culture, especially prior to 2016, most Americans barely understand the structure of their government. This means most Americans don’t understand their rights fully, nor do they have a solid grasp of what their democracy promises them.
According to a Governing study, less than half of Americans can name all three branches of government. One in four can not name any. In this climate, with a possible felony conviction on the horizon for the former president–and a leading 2024 presidential candidate–collective civic ignorance can be a lethal collective suicide.
Civic intelligence must become part and parcel of the American cultural identity.
What must be done?
According to Nia Weeks and Damien D. Smith, the solution is a re-imagining of civic education. Rather than a back-burner matter for schools; or rote election-season media content; civic intelligence must become part and parcel of the American cultural identity. Otherwise, this democracy will continue to rapidly deteriorate until it is no longer salvageable.
America’s democracy is her most valued treasure. Many have fought to preserve it, remaining in a constant battle with those who seek tyranny. What we have today is a result of that centuries-long fight, but what we have today is not sustainable.
Enter, Detangled.
The impact demonstrated by this beacon of light from the South–Weeks and Smith’s Detangled–indicates that wrestling back American democracy is not as impossible as we’ve been made to believe. These civic visionaries have demonstrated that transformative mass engagement within the political system is possible in a short time frame, with a little bit of creativity and a tremendous amount of heart.
A strategic platform for effective mass engagement, Detangled mobilizes crucial power bases towards transformative impact. Through a novel integration of civic engagement and cultural entertainment, Detangled successfully drove 270K voters to the polls, nearly doubling voter turnout in Louisiana in just two years. If their strategies go national, we’re looking at off-the-charts voter turnout for the 2024 presidential election.
In order to achieve their unprecedented feat in Louisiana’s 2020 election, Detangled built a coalition of voter rights organizations, political agencies, corporations and more. From 2018 to 2020, the efforts of this group of strategists, community organizers, funders and artists exponentially increased civic awareness across the state of Louisiana, engaging 500K voters along the way. This momentum resulted in their successful campaigning for the statewide passage of the most significant human rights bills in American history, the CROWN Act.This continuing series will provide further understanding of how Detangled achieved this level of impact, and what America stands to gain from their novel approach to Detangling the system.
