Eli Merritt Featured In
How to Save Democracy: Advice and Inspiration from 95 World Leaders
Release Date March 14, 2023
How to Save Democracy is a collection of 423 instructive quotations derived from the First International Summit for Democracy. Divided into three sections—Virtues of Democracy, Challenges & Threats, and The Way Forward—the books brings hope, optimism, and poetry to the fight. As vital, How to Save Democracy outlines seven key principles of democratic success:
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Never take democracy for granted
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Democracy is the peoples’ government
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Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy
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Equality, inclusion, and diversity are cornerstones of democracy
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Free, independent, ethical media is a lifeline of democracy
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Rule of law is the glue that holds democracies together
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Citizens, and nations, must unite to defend democracy
How to Save Democracy (Amplify Publishing, 2023) is a collaboration between Eli Merritt and RepresentUs, one of the nation’s premier nonprofit organizations fighting corruption and strengthening democracy. It is scheduled for publication in early 2023.
Praise for How To Save Democracy
Unsparing in cataloging the challenges and threats confronting democracy today, this book is a source of hope and inspiration for all who care about preserving and strengthening our democracy.
—NANCY-ANN DEPARLE
Assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for policy for President Barack Obama (2011-2013)
Americans and others around the world must join forces to protect democracy, and reading How to Save Democracy is a good place to start to fight back.
—JAMES RISEN
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia and the Kennedys—and one Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
Merritt has performed an invaluable service: to hold the powerful to their word, while holding the rest of us—the people—responsible for protecting the best system of government yet devised.
—JESSE WEGMAN
Member of the New York Times editorial board and author of Let the People Pick the President
How to Save Democracy is two-books-in-one: a collection of poetic quotations and simultaneously a how-to-save-democracy guide. Highly recommended for parents, teachers, activists, journalists, and nonprofits.
—MARTHA INGRAM
Former chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust
How to Save Democracy captures the greatness and spirit of leaders from around the world who understand that the power of democracy is more than an idea—it is part of our very humanity.
—DESMOND MEADE
Executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and author of Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens
Democracy is indeed a project of humanity, and achieving it is hard work and needs structure and inspiration. Eli Merritt provides both in great surplus.
—NICK ZEPPOS
Chancellor emeritus and distinguished professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University
Read How to Save Democracy and learn how to protect yourself, your family, and your democracy.
—CONGRESSMAN JIM COOPER
U.S. House of Representatives (1983-95, 2003-23)
As Jimmy Carter once said, “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.” These are the same ideals that suffuse How to Save Democracy and the ones we must return to in order to restore our magnificent democracy.
—JIM FREE
Special assistant for congressional affairs to President Jimmy Carter (1977-81)
Democracy’s Survival Depends on Fighting Demagogues. Here's Why.
The Los Angeles Times
The House select committee’s investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection has hammered home a fundamental truth about democracy: this free form of government can be upended by demagogues when political party gatekeepers do not block their ascent to power. When gatekeepers fail in this critical duty, democracies deteriorate in a two-step process. First, a demagogue gains executive power, and then the demagogue devolves into authoritarianism, corrupting and dismantling the democracy itself to retain power. The leaders of both parties must embrace their sacred duty to thwart the rise of demagogues. Grasping this truth—that each party is responsible for counteracting its own demagogues—is a crucial starting point for rescuing American democracy from further decline.
Read on American Commonwealth
Would the Founders Convict Trump and Bar Him From Office?
The New York Times
Published on the opening day of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the Senate, this op-ed argues that if the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention were sitting as jurors in the trial, they would cast two near unanimous votes: first, to convict the president of an impeachable offense, and second, to disqualify him from holding future federal office. They would vote in this way because they believed as a matter of civic principle that ethical leadership is the glue that holds a constitutional republic together. The op-ed underscores that the framers of the Constitution wrote the language of the impeachment powers specifically with a demagogue like Trump in mind. As incisive political scientists steeped in history, they understood that demagogues are the singular poison that infects and kills republics and democracies. Today's gatekeepers of our constitutional democracy must understand the same lifesaving principle.
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Featured Articles by Eli Merritt
