Friend, 

I often repeat the best insight about hope I have heard: that hope is more the consequence of action than its cause. That’s something I return to every day in my work, and share everywhere I go. If we wait around for hope to appear on its own, we’ll be waiting much too long. 

When we choose to build hope – through the choices we make right now – then we start to shape the future instead of just bracing for it.

Our own history teaches this lesson. We’ve lived through disorienting and even terrifying periods as a country – moments marked by division, fear, and a sense that the ground was shifting under our feet. Today’s chaos is often described as “unprecedented,” but in many ways it is not. We’ve seen upheaval before, and found our way through.

Knowing our past should fortify us for the work of building a better future. The periods we look back on as the most consequential – eras that produced the leaders we admire, moments when ordinary people stepped up and changed the course of history – were far from pleasant and comfortable times. They were moments of upheaval, confusion, even chaos. That’s precisely why we admire the Americans who navigated them.

Now it’s our turn.

The more that gets torn down in this era – norms, customs, agencies, institutions, alliances, relationships, trust – the more important the work ahead of us to build new things up. The sooner we orient ourselves toward the country we want to hand to the next generation, refusing to obsess over some lost past or the disappointing present, the sooner we can bring it into being.

Win the Era was built for that purpose: to prepare for what comes after this moment, and to make sure that long after Trump fades from the political stage, we have leaders in place who will strengthen our democracy rather than degrade it.

But none of that work happens automatically. It happens because people like you decide that the future is worth fighting for.

If you’re willing, I hope you’ll take action today – not out of fear, but out of the belief that what we do now can shape the century ahead. Please, consider making a contribution of $25 or whatever makes sense for you:

Thank you,

Pete