Democracy Is Being Tested. The Answer Is Close to Home | Opinion

The next few months will see our democracy tested and tried, not just in ensuring free and fair elections but ensuring that those freely and fairly elected get sworn in and seated. The U.S. Justice Department’s raid last week of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home shows the lengths this administration will go to rattle the democratic cages as the president apparently seeks to deport a perceived political enemy that he has attacked for years.

As he seeks to intimidate any critic and every potential voter who opposes his agenda, President Donald Trump has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring a state of emergency in response to the midterm elections, either of which would likely lead to the deployment of more federal troops across America, discourage some from voting and further curtail rights and freedoms. Keep in mind that many U.S. cities are already under siege by federal forces, from Washington, D.C., which is still under military occupation and now witnessing soldiers problematically positioned at voting locations, to California, where President Trump just announced a major campaign to scale up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. The military and paramilitary machinations that are in place could easily manifest the most conservative of democracy-hijacking scenarios.

Subnational governments and their local partners, in response, are rapidly scaling up election safeguards and defense networks. U.S. states’ attorneys general will continue to play a pivotal role in this defense, as two-dozen states recently sued to block President Trump’s plan to thwart mail-in voting, which the Supreme Court agreed was unconstitutional. Mayoral networks, like the Mayors Innovation Project, are providing new resources to cities to help them mitigate generative artificial intelligence’s mis/disinformation, navigate jurisdictional friction around law enforcement, counter election worker attrition and intimidation, and guarantee physical access to voting sites.

There are democracy defender initiatives all across the United States, like the one led by American Federation of Teachers to train up local defenders in every state and city, and community-led rapid response and mutual aid networks in major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and more. Movements like Minneapolis’ Defend 612 and Washington, D.C.’s Free DC project are mobilizing in new ways and establishing new muscle memory for future scenarios to prevent further or future democratic backsliding.

How we lock in new local muscle memory now, however, will be vital to protecting democratic institutions far into the future. A new report released recently, called The American Crisis, signed by over 50 scholars, democracy practitioners and community leaders, calls for new communication and coordination across U.S. communities, cities, counties and states. This essential crisis infrastructure, as the report calls it—with trusted messengers, rapid response capabilities, mutual aid networks and more—will be necessary not only for the defense of democratic infrastructure but human and physical infrastructure as well, as we are witnessing the worsening of other crises, like a quickly warming planet.

In building out this crisis prevention and response infrastructure—which includes scenario exercises, simulations and new decision-making protocols—municipalities can play a leading role in equipping and ensuring resilience across all of this political and social infrastructure. Not only are local governments responsible for many essential public services, but they also maintain higher levels of public trust than state and federal governments. That trust will be vital in building more resilient communities across America.

The good news here is that this American crisis of confidence in our democracy may be the forcing mechanism that reinforces our local governments and brings communities closer together. There are other forcing mechanisms encouraging this trend, too, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) downsizes and private insurance companies get out of the business of disaster preparedness and response, putting the onus on local governments to fill the void. The threats of new data center development in local communities, and the recent claims of artificial intelligence ending humanity as we know it, are bringing people together in new and bipartisan ways.

These local responses are welcome, especially at a time of great distrust in our fellow Americans and the federal government, which hit an all-time low this year. And while the forcing mechanism is not welcome, as democratic institutions should never be under this much threat, how Americans are responding at the local level, neighbor by neighbor, community by community and city by city, is building a much stronger foundation that will better protect all of America from the next crisis and shock—be it political or planetary.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.