Welcome to the second edition of the Reflections from Karundi newsletter. I’m excited to have this space to connect with you more regularly and share some of what I’m thinking about, wrestling with, learning, and unlearning as a leader.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much of our political energy is focused on what we’re afraid of losing.
I get it. There’s a lot at stake right now, but I keep coming back to a question that I think we need to spend more time with. Are we organizing to save the democracy we have, or are we organizing to build the democracy we actually need?
I recently wrote about this for EBONY, exploring why I believe our movements need a bigger vision for democracy that gives people something to organize toward, not only something to organize against.
When we talk about getting our democracy “back,” I think we have to ask ourselves what we’re trying to return to. For Black people, women, immigrants, queer and trans people, and so many others, American democracy has never fully delivered on its promises. The rights we have today weren’t freely given. People organized, struggled, and fought for them. And of course we should defend those gains, but I don’t want us to confuse protecting what we’ve won with achieving the democracy we deserve.
That’s part of what we’re thinking about at re:power. Our work has always been rooted in the belief that people have the power to change their circumstances when they organize together. More and more these days, I’m thinking about what it means to organize not just for the next election or the next legislative victory, but for a fundamentally different relationship to power.
I’d love to know what this brings up for you. When you imagine the democracy we actually need, what does it look like? What would we need to start doing differently today to build it?
I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do believe we need to be asking bigger questions.
Until next time,
Karundi
