Defending the Majesty of the Democratic System

I’ll never forget the night President George H.W. Bush conceded the 1992 election to Bill Clinton.

I had just returned from one of the world’s least democratic places, the hot and dusty west African country of Togo, where I’d served in the Peace Corps — and where I’d witnessed an amazing emergence of hope for freedom. I’d gone back to help citizen leaders organize to ensure upcoming elections would actually be fair.

Traveling the country with trainers from other African countries that had recently held fair elections, I met with teachers, clergy, and students — all ordinary citizens who had signed up to do something extraordinarily brave: watch polling places and speak up if they saw fraud.

One man pulled me aside during a break, and with a glimmer in his eye, explained why he was willing to risk so much:

“Democracy gives me hope. Maybe my children will have a voice.”

He wasn’t trying to be poetic. He meant it.

That hope carried us — but the fear was real. A few months earlier soldiers led by the dictator’s son had attacked the leading opposition candidate, gravely wounding him and killing twelve of his colleagues.

When I landed back in Washington, D.C., I was jet lagged, disoriented, and overwhelmed by the impossible contrast: after weeks of potholes and power outages, I couldn’t stop admiring the smooth highways, glass buildings, and grocery store shelves overflowing with food.

That night, I joined colleagues to watch the election returns. President George H.W. Bush had lost. He stepped up to the podium and said:

“The people have spoken, and we respect the majesty of the democratic system.”

I wept. I wept because the people I had just been working with were willing to die, literally, to bring those words to their country, the words that end dictatorship. I wept with gratitude for what we have in this remarkable country.

Relinquishing power is a radical act. As King George sings in Hamilton, “I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do.”

And yet, there it was: an American president, the most powerful man in the world, turning over power peacefully, with dignity to something even more powerful than him, the will of the people.

After everything I’d seen — spending weeks surrounded by people who risked everything for a real vote — it felt sacred.

And who knew then that this bulwark against dictatorship would soon be in jeopardy in our own country.

I worked on democracy in some of the world’s most fragile places. And then I joined with many colleagues to launch Election Reformers Network and work on democracy here, in this suddenly fragile country. And I can tell you: I’ve never been more concerned, but I’ve also never been more hopeful than I am right now.

An amazing upwelling of civic energy is on the move in this country, focused on the essential infrastructure of our democracy. Most people don’t think about election systems until they’re under strain. But democracy lives in the details, in the rules that make elections fair, trusted, and worth believing in.

That’s why at Election Reformers Network we:

• Protect citizen power by calling out manipulation and obstruction of citizen ballot initiatives.
• Ensure the referees are neutral by promoting legal and ethical safeguards to protect elections from political pressure.
• Help people understand elections by sharing trusted information when results are close.
• Give voters more choice by advancing fair redistricting standards for all states, so voters choose their leaders — not the other way around.

This isn’t glamorous work, but it’s vital. It’s about the guardrails that hold up the system — and right now, they need reinforcing.

That’s why we’re expanding our programs to 33 states — advancing new policies to strengthen voter trust, working with election officials to build protections against partisan pressure, and building long-term reforms to combat our toxic polarization.

I’ve seen what might-makes-right looks like; it’s ugly and incredibly hard to dislodge.

I’ve also seen what’s possible when people like you choose courage over cynicism. That’s why I’ve devoted my life to this work.

Because I believe — with everything in me — that our democracy is worth the fight, the vigilance, and the hope.

If this work resonates with you, I hope you’ll stay in the conversation and join us in shaping what comes next.

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Whether you give, subscribe, or share — thank you. You are part of this mission.

Thank you for believing in democracy and in what we can do together.