John, our democracy is not in good shape.

I’m the policy director at CREW, and I’d like to tell you about our important new report, all about the threats to our democracy, and what can be done to prevent creeping authoritarianism.

Global democracy has been in decline for almost 20 years, with authoritarian leaders—or leaders with authoritarian tendencies—coming to power in every corner of the globe.

We’ve even witnessed threats here in the United States, including a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop election certification and the peaceful transfer of power.

Our new report, Countering authoritarianism: A blueprint for a more resilient democracy, presents a comprehensive vision of the measures we need to take today to protect our country and our democracy from further erosion and authoritarian threats.

I want to share with you what our report outlines, but first, I want to ask you to support our work to defend our democracy. CREW has been fighting to defend and improve our democracy for over 20 years. Your donation today will help us continue that work at a critical point in our country’s history →

In 2020 and 2022, Congress failed to pass comprehensive democracy reform legislation like the Protecting Our Democracy Act and Freedom to Vote Act—legislation that’s needed to start reversing America’s democratic decline.

Four years later—without significant meaningful action from Congress — the threat to our democracy has grown. We need to take immediate steps towards comprehensive democracy reform and to prevent the rise of authoritarianism here at home.

Our report outlines multiple areas where we need to take action so that we can protect our democracy. We’ll break these down below.

The search for January 6th accountability

The January 6th insurrection was the culmination of an attempted coup with the intention to prevent the certification of the 2020 election, broadcast for the entire world to see.

Accountability—including both civil remedies and criminal prosecution—for those who participated, led and incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and those who attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is not only necessary but is an essential first step before our country can begin to confront the authoritarian threat, which is why it begins this report.

Presidential accountability and ending the imperial presidency

Although originally designed by our founders to be weaker than the legislative branch of government, the presidency has grown more powerful and less accountable than ever.

Structural reforms are urgently needed to ensure that a nefarious leader cannot avoid accountability for criminal misdeeds and sideline the checks and balances built into our system.

Preventing the manipulation of courts

In recent years, we’ve seen how the courts can be manipulated to serve anti-democratic purposes. We outline reforms to prevent that from happening including preventing judge and forum manipulation, injecting more transparency into the judicial process, and protecting the safety and security of judicial personnel.

Blocking the abuse of law enforcement and emergency powers

On January 6th, we saw just how lethal the threat is to our democracy when members of our law enforcement are also members of extremist groups calling for political violence.

We outline ways to root out extremism within law enforcement such as reforming emergency powers like the Insurrection Act and National Emergencies Act and creating accountability systems so police cannot hide behind the mask of qualified immunity when they misuse their position of power.

Preventing political corruption and countering foreign authoritarian influence

The Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened up our system to untraceable, unlimited, and anonymous money. We pay the costs of this decision every day.

The reforms we recommend are tailored to address the rise in political corruption and the increasing efforts by foreign governments to hide behind Citizens United as they attempt to influence—and in some cases manipulate—our democracy.

Ensuring the right to vote and the peaceful transition of power

The right to vote is the crux of our democracy. We prioritize the need for transformative voting rights legislation to ensure that all qualified voters can access the ballot box without fear or intimidation.

Recognizing that the right to vote isn’t worth anything if votes aren’t fairly counted and certified, we propose reforms to ensure that elections officials can perform their jobs and that our democratic institutions champion a peaceful transition of power.

John, democracy requires constant care. The reforms we propose only scratch the surface of the work we need to do to repair our democracy, and as you can see—it’s a lot of work to get done.

That’s why CREW needs your support. Our democracy is under threat, and we need to step up our work to prevent the rise in authoritarianism. Please, make a donation to CREW today and help us defend our democracy →

Thank you,

Debra Perlin
Policy Director
CREW