Let's Talk Series by Dock C. Bracy Center for Human Reconciliation
On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 7-9 pm EDT (UTC-4), David Pepper, Lawyer, Writer, Political Activist, Former Elected Official, Adjunct Professor and Author, presented Let’s Talk Series: Saving Democracy in the Short- and Long-Term as a live webinar.
Continue the Learning
David Pepper is the author of of Laboratories of Autocracy (St. Helena Press 2021) and Saving Democracy (St. Helena Press 2023).
Where and how you choose to spend money has power. Please consider purchasing books from a black-owned bookstore.
Connect with David Pepper
Website: https://davidpepper.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidpepper
Additional Resources/References
More about the Dock C. Bracy Center: https://www.dcbcenter.org/
"Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society." —John Lewis
More about David's book "Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every American" https://savedemocracy.us/
First nonfiction book: Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59359827-laboratories-of-autocracy
"MEPs: Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy" https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220909IPR40137/meps-hungary-can-no-longer-be-considered-a-full-democracy
"Partisan Split on Election Integrity Gets Even Wider" https://news.gallup.com/poll/651185/partisan-split-election-integrity-gets-even-wider.aspx
Composition of state houses: https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition
"More than 150,000 bills were introduced in legislative sessions in statehouses across the country in 2021*, according to FiscalNote's analysis. Among those, almost 33,000 were enacted."
See which states are expanding — or restricting — voting rights https://publicintegrity.org/politics/elections/who-counts/see-which-states-are-expanding-or-restricting-voting-rights/
Who Draws the Maps? Legislative and Congressional Redistricting
Wisconsin Picks New Legislative Maps That Would End Years of GOP Gerrymandering
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-wisconsin-district-map-gop-gerrymander-elections
More than half of U.S. counties have no access or very limited access to local news https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/news/2023/more-than-half-of-us-counties-have-no-access-or-very-limited-access-to-local-news.html
How the Redistricting Reform Ballot Initiative Would Change the Process
Redistricting report card by state: (level of gerrymandering)
https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card/
U.S. political parties become extremist to get more votes
New model uses voting data to find out why parties have become more polarized
Tennessee’s House expels 2 of 3 Democrats over guns protest https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-lawmakers-expulsion-d3f40559c56a051eec49e416a7b5dade
Electoral history of Speaker Mike Johnson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
"Downward spiral of outcomes"
ALEC has tremendous influence in state legislatures. Here’s why. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2013/12/09/alec-has-tremendous-influence-in-state-legislatures-heres-why/
ALEC’s Corporate Funders Are Complicit in State-Based Assaults on Voting Rights and Democracy https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/alec-corporations-democracy/
If you want detail on all this, check out David Pepper's books "Laboratories of Autocracy" and "Saving Democracy." "Saving Democracy" has a lot of tangible, practical steps that David is outlining here.
Stacey Abrams On Her Oscar-Contending Doc ‘All In,’ And How To “Right-Size Our Democracy” https://deadline.com/2021/03/all-in-producer-stacey-abrams-amazon-studios-documentary-interview-news-1234709235/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/04/stacey-abrams-georgia-legacy
How Stacey Abrams and her band of believers turned Georgia blue https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/08/stacey-abrams-believers-georgia-blue-434985
Find out who's running where you live with League of Women Voters info: https://www.vote411.org/ballot
The League also collects information submitted by candidates to help voters decide who to vote for.
More from David on how to save democracy: https://savedemocracy.us/
Ohio’s Legacy of Gerrymandering Could End This November https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/ohios-legacy-gerrymandering-could-end-november
How to run for something! https://runforsomething.net/run/
More on running for office: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770332855/how-to-run-for-office
More on how to register to vote: https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
"We all are on the frontlines. There's much more we could be doing."
More about John Lewis: https://civilrightstrail.com/experience/rep-john-lewis/
U.S. Senate Democrats Introduce Sweeping National Redistricting Bill https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/u-s-senate-democrats-introduce-sweeping-national-redistricting-bill/
By the way, Democracy Docket is a reliable source of information about voting rights and elections. In all aspects, including legal cases. https://www.democracydocket.com/about-us/
The Dock C Bracy Center has a monthly book club where we read books on these very topics! Our past reading list is a great starting point. https://www.dcbcenter.org/reading-for-understanding
The books from this year: https://www.facebook.com/dcbcenter/posts/pfbid0NcrB5r9o2J6bA9qddA1mJLHKrjXf6peDcEMqK78YDfQiX8hKdFXHS7MiW67AxJ9Ll
And from previous years: https://www.facebook.com/dcbcenter/posts/pfbid015A75xMqXcmqG2aT3e4y9rTgdTGDsBhj1JzHyKaYqqfDD2ZW2rBPgbh5WeX7qkHkl
Clean Elections in Arizona: https://www.azcleanelections.gov/
Public Campaign Financing
The U.S. campaign finance system unfairly favors a small handful of wealthy donors. Small donor public financing could fix that. https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/reform-money-politics/public-campaign-financing
There has been prosecutions of people who participated in Jan. 6 events, and before, at federal and state level. Some of those results: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/43-months-jan-6-attack-capitol
Tracking the Trump criminal cases by Politico: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/trump-criminal-investigations-cases-tracker-list/
"A coup only has to succeed one time..."
Here's how Donald Trump could fight to overturn a 2024 loss: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/13/how-trump-may-fight-2024-election-result/75252952007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p
Webinar Recording:The White Power Movement: Its History, Threat and What You Can Do About It
The speak on white power movement: Julie Farnam's book: "Domestic Darkness" https://www.jfarnam.com/
Is a New Constitutional Convention a Good Idea? https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-constitutional-convention-good-idea
"The document itself lays out the rules for calling a convention – two-thirds of the states, or 34, have to petition Congress to call the meeting, according to Article V of the Constitution."
https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/22/politics/constitutional-convention-explainer/index.html
Isabel Wilkerson https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/
"Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents"
Sundown Towns
A Hidden Dimension of American Racism https://thenewpress.com/books/sundown-towns
^Same author wrote: Lies My Teacher Told Me
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
The Legacy of the Reconstruction Era’s Black Political Leaders https://time.com/6145193/black-politicians-reconstruction/
Black Legislators during Reconstruction https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/black-legislators-during-reconstruction/
The Debate Over Mail-In Voting Dates Back to the Civil War
In 1864, Democrats and Republicans clashed over legislation allowing soldiers to cast their ballots from the front
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/debate-over-mail-voting-dates-back-civil-war-180976091/
The Myth of Voter Fraud https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression/myth-voter-fraud
How we know voter fraud is very rare in U.S. elections https://www.npr.org/2024/10/11/nx-s1-5147732/voter-fraud-explainer
David Pepper is writing a series about 2025 https://davidpepper.substack.com/
Find podcast here: https://davidpepper.substack.com/podcast
You can sign up for David Pepper's newsletter there, too
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/new-pod-episode-the-attack-on-workers
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/new-pod-episode-the-department-of
There's been LOTS of news coverage on Project 2025, but David makes it real.
'I'm literally reading his quotes': Tapper presses GOP governor on Trump's remarks
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/video/glenn-youngkin-jake-tapper-interview-trump-digvid
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." –Maya Angelou
Timothy Snyder "On Freedom" https://timothysnyder.org/on-freedom
He also wrote "On Tyranny" and "The Road to Unfreedom"
The Local Impact Of Uncontested Elections https://www.npr.org/2024/09/12/1198912901/1a-09-12-2024
Ballot Measures: American Direct Democracy at Work https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/opinion/campaign-stops/ballot-measures-american-direct-democracy-at-work.html
Ways to get involved in local government https://libnews.umn.edu/2021/09/ways-to-get-involved-in-local-government/
Seriously, lots of these details in David's book "Saving Democracy"
Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation https://www.reuters.com/technology/australia-threatens-fines-social-media-giants-enabling-misinformation-2024-09-12/
Lessons for social media from the Fairness Doctrine
AP: FACT FOCUS: A look at the false information around Hurricanes Helene and Milton https://apnews.com/article/election-hurricanes-false-info-helene-milton-a4c2df2463b69c1f2e3eb6846e3b37ae
Recent book on disinformation: Attack from Within
How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4577-attack-from-within?srsltid=AfmBOopLKUwRKdMz9z0dVVkiIrRndMkdlJqKt73HTv4W93DzQna0vRkg
"Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., have implemented same-day registration, which allows any qualified resident of the state to register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time" https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-voter-registration
Eight states and Washington, D.C., allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington state. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
About half the states and Washington, D.C., are categorized by NCSL as having enacted or implemented automatic voter registration. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/automatic-voter-registration
‘The chilling effect’: behind GOP-led states’ efforts to purge some voters from the rolls https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/30/gop-led-states-voting-rights
Liz Cheney issues dire warning about ‘fundamentally cruel’ Trump, agrees he’s a ‘fascist’ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/liz-cheney-issues-dire-warning-fundamentally-cruel-trump-agrees-s-fasc-rcna175193
Why Russia’s Democracy Never Began https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/why-russias-democracy-never-began/
"It's either you weighing in or everybody else."
Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics
65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/
Pew: Just 4% of U.S. adults say the political system is working extremely or very well
Turnout in U.S. has soared in recent elections but by some measures still trails that of many other countries https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/01/turnout-in-u-s-has-soared-in-recent-elections-but-by-some-measures-still-trails-that-of-many-other-countries/
Challenges Facing Student Voters https://www.lwv.org/blog/challenges-facing-student-voters
Find out more about David Pepper here: https://davidpepper.com/
Subscribe to his newsletter at https://davidpepper.substack.com/
Info from his Save Democracy book: https://savedemocracy.us/
You can find recordings of old webinars at https://www.dcbcenter.org/resources-old
Webinar on the White Power Movement: https://www.dcbcenter.org/post/webinar-recording-the-white-power-movement-its-history-threat-and-what-you-can-do-about-it
David Pepper is a lawyer, writer, democracy activist, former elected official, and adjunct professor, and served as the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party between 2015 and 2021.
His recent non-fiction works dissect the attack on democracy taking place in states like Ohio, and guide everyday citizens on steps they can take to lift democracy. Pepper’s book Laboratories of Autocracy (St. Helena Press 2021) has been called “arguably the most important” recent book on American democracy by Salon Magazine, and his follow-up book Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual (2023) has been widely praised and featured on MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN and other networks.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, David is a fifth-generation Cincinnatian. David earned his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and later earned his J.D. from Yale Law School.
David served on Cincinnati City Council from 2001-2005, then on the Hamilton County Commission from 2007-2010, including as its president in 2009-2010. David was the Democratic candidate for Ohio Auditor in 2010 and Ohio Attorney General in 2014. He was elected chair of the Ohio Democratic Party in December 2014. In that role, he was engaged in numerous battles and extensive litigation over voter suppression and election laws in the Buckeye State, as well as reform efforts to enhance voting and end gerrymandering. He championed ballot initiatives that twice garnered 70% of the vote across Ohio, and spearheaded the effort to elect an independent Supreme Court in the state for the first time in a generation.
Learning with the Center
Eradicating Racism series: https://www.dcbcenter.org/eradicating-racism-learning-series
More about DCBC monthly book club, Reading for Understanding: https://www.dcbcenter.org/reading-for-understanding
For future Let's Talk Series events, please subscribe to our email list at: https://www.dcbcenter.org/subscribe.
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