Mandate for Democracy 2026: The Rational Promise: Preface

The Democrats are still too scatterbrained to think straight and still blinded to the scope and gravity of the Trump/MAGA authoritarian threat. Clearly, someone needs to do something. Maybe preparing something akin to MAGA's authoritarian-kleptocrat manifesto called Project 2025 could help focus unfocused minds. This a first pass at a preface to a pro-democracy Project 2026 manifesto. Any comments, criticisms?

Project 2025 framing of its authoritarian demagoguery and insulting false narratives:

This work, Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, is a collective effort of hundreds of volunteers who have banded together in the spirit of advancing positive change for America. Our work is by no means the comprehensive compendium of conservative policies, nor is our group the exclusive cadre of conservative thinkers. The ideas expressed in this volume are not necessarily shared by all. What unites us is the drive to make our country better.

It’s not 1980. In 2023, the game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before. The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our Republic to its original moorings is too great for any conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement. With the quickening approach of January 2025, we have two years and one chance to get it right.

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Mandate for Democracy 2026: The Rational Promise

Preface

This work is a declaration of unflinching support for American representative democracy and the constitutional rule of law. This vision of rational democratic politics is grounded in moral philosophy, legal realism and service to the public interest. The rational promise constitutes a good faith defense of our urgently threatened democracy, rule of law and civil liberties. This mandate is offered in the spirit of positive change for, and defense of, American democracy, democratic institutions and the American people as a whole. 

The rational promise is grounded in a simple moral high ground that most Americans still claim to believe in and try to live by. Most of us still believe in a few clusters of core beliefs. One is the value of America's representative democracy over authoritarianism, with honest, transparent governance desired instead of corruption and unwarranted opacity. Another cluster is a shared belief in the value of facts and truths over lies and false beliefs, and sound, good faith reasoning over partisan spin, deceit and division. Few Americans openly assert that they prefer a true dictatorship over the representative democracy we still have. Few claim to enjoy being lied to or slandered. Most want to see all Americans treated with reasonable respect. All of that is well within the scope of the democratic rational promise.

What is offered here is by no means a comprehensive catalog of rational pro-democracy policy choices. Instead, it focuses on the most serious threats to our precious democracy, rule of law and civil liberties. The rational promise incorporates the public interest and indicia of democracy as elements for respect and consideration. Important democratic indices include reasonable consideration for majority public opinion and reasonable compromise consistent with democratic governance. What inspires this effort is a transparent, good faith desire to make our country better by restoring our representative democracy and the balance of power between the people and elite authoritarian special interests. Those interests include the Republican Party. That party has knowingly shifted major power from the people to the elites. That must be reversed.

The march of radical right authoritarianism through our democratic institutions has now come to pass. Our federal institutions and agencies have been captured and weaponized against the public interest. Our Supreme Court is now radicalized and authoritarian. It has empowered the autocratic ideal of a unitary executive beyond the reach of the rule of law. The federal government's role in vindicating the rule of law and defending our civil liberties has been neutralized and weaponized against American citizens and democratic values. Individual freedoms and democracy itself are under a powerful, ruthless authoritarian onslaught. 

This democratic rationalist effort is not grounded in liberalism, centrism, conservativism, socialism, capitalism, fascism, or Christian or any other religious ideology. This effort is secular and grounded in pro-democracy and rule of law ideology. That ideology amounts to unwavering belief in the moral superiority of politics centered on service to the public interest and representative democracy operating under the principled rule of law and honest, transparent government. In terms of support for this effort to resist American authoritarianism, it does not matter if a person is a liberal, moderate, conservative, or religious. What that matters is support for secular American representative democracy, the principled rule of law, civil liberties, and service to the public interest including honest governance. 

The task at hand is to coalesce public opinion around a common defense against radical right authoritarianism and corruption. The goal is to reverse growing authoritarian power and restore our Republic and democracy to its original moorings in the context of modern social, cultural and economic conditions. Stopping the final conquest of radical right authoritarianism requires the collective action of concerned, informed, well-meaning citizens. With the approach of the November 2026 elections, there is little time left to mount a defense and reverse America's slide into corrupt autocracy. The goal for 2026 elections is to displace radical right authoritarian Republican control of either the House of Representatives of the US Senate. If authoritarian Republican politicians retain control of both chambers of congress after the midterm elections, the chances of our democracy and its benefits decrease drastically.