To the American People,
Preserving American democracy is not guaranteed by institutional guardrails, the courts, our elected officials, or even the Constitution. These structures and systems protect our democracy from threats and subversion, but ultimately, they don’t guarantee its future. That responsibility falls to us, the voters of America. Through free and fair elections, we are the ones who will decide whether or not American democracy is preserved for future generations.
The undersigned are some of the country’s leading historians, public academics, and experts on how democracies descend into authoritarianism. We come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, areas of expertise, ideological perspectives, religious beliefs, and political convictions. Still, we are united in our belief that citizens are ultimately responsible for preserving American democracy. In our democratic republic, the voters are the final safeguard to prevent anti-democracy politicians from seizing power over our government through elections.
Together, we’ve identified four fundamental non-partisan pro-democracy principles that voters should consider to help identify, isolate, and reject the politicians who pose a genuine and existential threat to the future of democracy. Candidates asking for your vote but refusing to commit to these four core principles publicly are anti-democratic, inclined towards authoritarianism, and should never be trusted in positions of power in our democratic republic. These four core principles are:
- Protect the right to vote for eligible American citizens;
- Denounce any attempt to intimidate, harass, threaten, or incite political violence against opponents or election workers;
- Refuse to knowingly spread lies and misinformation about the integrity of elections;
- Accept the election’s outcome, certify the result, and support the peaceful transfer of power.
These four foundational principles are not exclusive to any party or political ideology. They are simply the baseline we must set as voters for the candidates asking for our support. They are norms, rules, and guidelines candidates must agree to follow if America wants to continue as a free democracy. A candidate who rejects these core principles should be electorally disqualified, even if voters agree with most of their policy or ideological positions.
It’s on all of us to serve as the ultimate safeguard to prevent America from losing its democracy and abandoning the principles previous generations sacrificed so much to preserve. We hope voters choose a future with democracy, not authoritarianism; the rule of law, not political chaos; guaranteed rights and freedoms, not arbitrary exercises of power. Choose wisely, America.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Carter Hett, Professor of History, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, and Author of “The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic”
Barbara F. Walter, Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego and Author of “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them”
Doug Koopman, Senior Research Fellow and Professor Emeritus at Calvin University
David King, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at The Harvard Kennedy School
Manu Bhagavan, Professor of History, Human Rights, and Public Policy, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, and Senior Fellow, The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and Author of “On Tyranny”
Kimberly Wehle, Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore and Author of “PARDON POWER: HOW THE PARDON SYSTEM WORKS — AND WHY”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at NYU and Author of “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present
Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and Author of “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic”
Richard Primus, Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan
Jonathan Rosenberg, Professor of History at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center
Mary Roldan, Dorothy Epstein Professor of Latin American History at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center
Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and Author of “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future”
Professor Dame Linda Colley, Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University
Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling, Jr., Professor of History and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College and Author of “Democracy Awakening”