Stop Trying to ‘Save’ Democracy

Or Waiting on a Politician To Do It for You. Instead, Practice It—At Work, School, and Little League

Please don’t save democracy.

If you’re a politician—stop promising to save it.

Please! Stop even trying.

Because you can’t. Democracy isn’t something you save. The sooner we stop talking about saving democracy, the better off democracy will be.

Our mindless recitation of “saving democracy”—everyone from President Biden to Sacha Baron Cohen has pledged to come to its rescue—demonstrates how little we understand about the governing systems that organize our lives.

To start, the words “democracy” and “save” don’t fit together.

Democracy is not a penalty shot that can be saved by a goalkeeper. Democracy is not …

by Joe Mathews | March 12, 2024

Worried About Biden’s Age? Consider Claudius

The Ancient Roman Emperor Was Mocked as Feeble, But Ruled Wisely

by MICHELE RENEE SALZMAN | January 25, 2024

Those who criticize President Biden as “too old” or “slow” or “confused” might learn something from the very similar treatment of the Roman emperor Claudius.

Claudius, who ruled from 41 to …

Come Home, Kamala

The Vice Presidency, Under Biden, Is a Lose-Lose Proposition. And the California Governorship Is About to Be Open

by Joe Mathews | December 5, 2023

Come back, Kamala. Come back.

Back to California, where you might have a future.

Away from Washington, D.C., where they will never give you a fair shake.

You’re politically trapped. You’re the unpopular …

In America, the Joe-mocracy Rules

A Republic? A Democracy? No, Our Country Is an Avuncular Autocracy Run by Old Guys Named Joe

by Joe Mathews | December 13, 2022

Our aging republic is wasting away. Our democracy may be dying.

But the Joe-mocracy survives.

My fellow Americans, too many of you fail to understand the true nature of government in the …

What Does Kamala Harris’s Rise Say About America?

The Vice President’s Political Career Is a ‘California Story,’ Says Biographer Dan Morain

by Sara Suárez | February 5, 2021

The inauguration of Kamala Harris was a moment of many firsts—the first woman, the first Black woman, the first woman of color, the first person of South Asian heritage, even …

How to Teach an American Inauguration

Since 2008, My College Students Have Been Exploring—in Real Time—What the Transfer of Power Ceremony Reveals About the Nation

by Himanee Gupta-Carlson | January 20, 2021

“Wouldn’t it be cool to go to D.C. for the inauguration?” I remember telling a fellow adjunct instructor in late 2008. Barack Obama had just been elected, and most of …

Joe Biden