Democracy Alliance President Pamela Shifman<\/em> June 2, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community, this moment calls us to bring many things to the table. The most important of all is courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will never forget being at a celebration for President Mandela in Johannesburg and meeting an incredible woman, an activist who had spent many years underground\u2013\u2013with MK, the military wing of the ANC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deep in political conversation, I asked what she did:<\/p>\n\n\n\n She answered \u2026.. I\u2019m a dentist. Not what I was expecting\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then she explained that for the years she was underground \u2014 lots of her comrades had cavities \u2014 and there was no dentist in sight. So this woman, in service of the struggle for democracy, went to Cuba to learn to be a dentist. So she could serve the movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That clarity of purpose \u2014 and willingness to do what is needed to advance democracy \u2014 is exactly what we need now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to play our role \u2014 as a donor community \u2014 with focus and resolve. And we need to do so with courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next three days together, courage will be a throughline across every session. We are going to hear from leaders who are bringing bravery and boldness to this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because courage is not just a feeling, it\u2019s a strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The assaults we are facing are shocking: they\u2019re defying judicial orders. Disappearing those who speak out. Attacking the rule of law, history, education, civil society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they\u2019re also familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the authoritarian playbook, and the world has seen it all before. Thanks to those who have fought before us, we know what must be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most urgent lesson is this: We must act. Now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This regime is in a race to destroy the democracy we have, so that we can never build the democracy we need. The world shows us: Authoritarians will keep tightening their grip to suffocate the possibility of democracy \u2013 and justice \u2013 of any kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if we don\u2019t put sand in their gears, they will keep destroying and keep dismantling until their total power is all that\u2019s left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At this conference, we will hear what is required of us in the days ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because immediate action is essential. What comes next depends on what we do now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, we can never let the urgency of now prevent us from imagining what must be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking ahead is our most important role. It\u2019s why we exist. Our mandate is not to rebuild our broken systems: but with agility and generosity and determination build something that has never existed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ** We\u2019ll dig into the results tomorrow \u2014we will have a chance to dissect and debate together\u2014but one thing is clear. Americans are profoundly disillusioned, divided, and disenfranchised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some 90 million people who were eligible to vote did not vote at all \u2013 that is more votes than either candidate received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Progressive policies and issues are popular. Very popular. Medicaid, social security, live-able wages, the ability to care for our children and our elders, labor unions, bodily autonomy, real safety and justice, public education, voting rights, a healthy environment \u2014 all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And our movements have captured the hearts and stirred the conscience of Americans all throughout our country. In this era of blatant racism coming from the highest levels of government, let\u2019s not forget that the peak of the largest movement in US history\u2014the Black Lives Matter movement\u2014occurred just five years ago this week, when millions of Americans across every race, in every community were in the streets for racial justice. This is also our America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the truth is we have not been able to build a durable, pro-democracy, majoritarian coalition to realize these policies or these values\u2026yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s going to take so much more than a tweak in message or tactics. Our job is to make democracy and justice irresistible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our job is to build real power and then when we have it: deliver on real progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n **<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20 years ago, Rob Stein created the DA with a clarion call to invest in progressive infrastructure. With the same patience and perseverance that had been a hallmark of the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It led to incredible wins. If indeed we are serious about building a durable coalition\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will connect with millions more people where they live and work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will do more than win elections with 51 percent of the vote. We will build a coalition so powerful it renders the right\u2019s divide and conquer strategy irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will change the game with how we organize and where and how we communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organizing that listens deeply. Rooted in relationships, not election cycles. Trust, not transactions. Organizing that builds long-term power. Investing in our people like we want them to win; Investing in labor and community coalitions like Battleground New York and California\u2026 Deepening our base and<\/em> expanding our map. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also requires Media\u2026media that reaches our neighbors where they are. Where people are already making sense of the world and finding meaning and joy and each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is infrastructure we need to win again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it is going to be a key focus of our time together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because building this infrastructure is what we were made for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will end with a call to each of us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n First<\/em>, just like that dentist, we need clarity of purpose \u2013 and the discipline to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It boils down to this: When we come together, we have outsized power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the core idea that led Rob Stein to launch this community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we align our resources, together behind smart, durable strategies and principled leaders, we win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s our job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second<\/em>, we have to get uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Bernice Johnson Regan, civil rights activist and founder of Sweet Honey and the Rock said it best:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA Coalition is not a home<\/em>. If you are in a coalition and you\u2019re comfortable, you know it is not a broad enough coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is exactly the time for new allies as we keep building toward a progressive future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New allies like the folks in solidly red Kennett, Missouri, who were devastated when their beloved neighbor, Carol, an immigrant from Hong Kong was removed by ICE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sporting \u201cBring Carol Home\u201d T-shirts, the community hosted a Carol day at John\u2019s Waffle and Pancake House \u2013 where Carol worked \u2013 raising nearly $20,000 to support Carol and her family. \u201cI voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,\u201d said Vanessa, a friend of Carol\u2019s from church. \u201cBut no one voted to deport moms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the reality of Republicans\u2019 cruelty sets in, we have a real chance to build with Vanessa and her community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally<\/em>, none of this means anything if we don\u2019t keep our values at the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will be told to throw away decades of progress on racial justice and gender justice; to cower as they scapegoat trans communities, our immigrant neighbors, or anyone else. To do the right\u2019s job for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will be told that the only way to win is by throwing our people away. **<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have an incredible three days ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is such a gift to be in this room with all of you — to make meaning, and to make our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to each of you for showing up, courageously, when it matters most. <\/p>\n The post DA Spring Conference Opening Remarks from Pamela Shifman<\/a> appeared first on Democracy Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
Opening Remarks \u2014 DA Spring Conference 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last fall\u2019s election was devastating. It was disastrous. But it was not a landslide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, two decades later, we need a new generation of infrastructure \u2013 to power a new generation of wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. That is a false choice and a losing strategy. We will never stop fighting for a democracy that is big enough for all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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