Be a Democracy Defender

To be successful, our campaign to defend our democracy can not be a one-shot effort. Defending our democracy will require a sustained effort. At a minimum, we need to be developing plans to sustain strategic pro-democracy efforts for the next three years (see Keep Our Eyes on the Prize).

This will not be easy. If we are not careful, too many of us will just get tried and burnt out. We need to be strategic in our efforts. We need to develop ways pace ourselves, find ways to support each other, and build a statewide community capable of sustained active pro-democracy efforts.

Enlist to be a Democracy Defender

In an effort to address some of these concerns, the Stand Up Nebraska Campaign has developed the concept of Democracy Defenders (see sampler tickler action checklist). Concerned Nebraskans are urged to consider enlisting to be a Democracy Defender, committing themselves to conduct at least one pro-democracy activity each month. To make this commitment more real, Defender are also urge to make this a personal commitment for at least a period of a year. As we seek to define a broader multi-year campaign strategy, the development of a robust statewide corps of Democracy Defenders is a critical component of a successful campaign strategy.

Sign Me Up to be a Democracy Defender

I understand that as a Democracy Defender I am committing myself to conduct at least one pro-democracy activity each month. — Thank you.

Reporting Back to See Our Collective Impact

To sustain such a commitment, it is important to see some results and to know that we are not alone. To help with this, individual Democracy Defenders will be urged to use an online Stand Up Nebraska checklist to report on the general types of activities in which they engaged each month. This will allow us to aggregate those activities and collectively get a sense of how we are doing. It will also help us share creative ideas from one region of Nebraska to another.

For Stand Up Nebraska’s part in this effort, we will provide interested folks with regular updates on upcoming activities and work with group across the state to help to organize collective, strategic activities. We will also aggregate the reports from individual Democracy Defenders so that collectively we can see how we are doing.

Help Us Make It Fun!

Beyond that, to sustain ourselves we also need to have fun, We welcome your ideas for how we might build and celebrate this statewide Democracy Defender community (regional gatherings, group clothing, badges, social media tools and sharing, etc.)

—Thanks for joining with us to help defend our democracy. —