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We Need a White House Office on Democracy
Photo CC BY-SA Ted Eytan.
By Stephen Heintz, president and CEO
The final ballots are still being counted and recounted in some states, but the outcome is already clear: Americans have voted for democracy.
Not even the threat of constitutional crisis can diminish the heroism of the local election officials, mail carriers, and poll workers who made this possible; the election that many feared might collapse was in fact the most secure in American history. In the middle of a pandemic, Americans turned out in record numbers to exercise “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society,” to quote the late Congressman John Lewis.
America’s next president must now heed their voices with conviction—and answer them with a commitment to reforms that will enliven, reimagine and reinvent our democratic culture and institutions. President-elect Biden will take office on January 20, 2021, confronting a daunting set of challenges...