The Struggle for America: Citizen-led Government

Republicans’ assault on American public service and the rule of law has not slowed after Trump’s first 100 days. Autocracy’s rise in America continues, but Americans continue to resist and offer a different vision for the country.

In the last several weeks, the Trump regime’s immigration police have charged a sitting judge and a member of Congress for actions related to their official duties – actions that are protected by law. The regime continues to stonewall the courts, including the Supreme Court, and its budget bill now includes a provision to limit the ability of federal courts to hold government official in contempt for failure to comply with court orders. And Trump capped his pardon of the January 6 attackers by awarding nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot dead by Capitol police as she attempted to break into the Capitol on that infamous day.

At the same time, Trump continues to ignore people with expertise in economics, climate science, and healthcare, and his staff continues to lie to the American people in his defense. Case in point: Trump’s White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, lied to the news media when she claimed that the Trump budget bill currently being considered in Congress would not add to the nation’s debt. Several independent organizations have estimated it would add $3.3 trillion.

Across the country, however, Americans are demonstrating their resistance to one-man, single-party rule and expressing their continued commitment to democracy and the knowledge and solutions needed for it to thrive.

Informed Decision-making Via Citizen Assembly

This spring, in Fort Collins, Colorado, 20 city residents spent two full weekends learning from experts and community members about one of the community’s thornier problems: what to do with the 164-acre site of Hughes Stadium, the defunct football stadium owned by Colorado State University. By the end of the fourth day, a supermajority of the citizens’ assembly (at least 15 of the 20 residents) had agreed on 22 recommendations ranging from the need to consult with indigenous groups throughout the development process to minimizing light pollution and ensuring multiple use for recreation, relaxation, and education.

Through a ballot initiative passed in 2020, citizens chose to have the community purchase the site from the state and rezone it as open public land. Both tasks were accomplished by summer of 2023, but two ensuing community surveys and a city council work session failed to produce a consensus on what should be allowed on the site.

As a consequence, the city committed for the first time to the use of a citizens’ assembly, referred to by the city as “civic assembly”. It is a kind of “civic jury” for reviewing community feedback, hearing about proposals made to date, discussing pros and cons of various recommendations, and then voting on them. Elsewhere, citizen assemblies have helped communities to move forward on difficult issues.

The 20 members of the Fort Collins assembly were selected via a civic lottery, a selection process designed to engage a demographically representative group of delegates. The city offered child care, meals, and a stipend to help reduce barriers to participation.

The two two-day sessions, held April 13-14 and May 3-4 from 9:00am to 4:30pm each day, were open to the public and livestreamed. In keeping with the transparency of this process, the project’s background and key milestones, videos of the four days’ proceedings, and the final report are available on the Fort Collins government website.

Delegate representatives of the assembly will present the group’s recommendations to the city council on May 27.

Quick Takes: Every Step Matters

Whistleblowers’ anonymous: Early in May, the Whistleblowing International Network (yes, there really is such a thing) welcomed a new member, Psst. Specifically targeting workers in government and the tech industry, Psst launched to guarantee potential whistleblowers anonymity and a high degree of control over how and when the information they have is used. The key to Psst’s efforts: the Psst safe – “a secure digital safe haven for information you think may be of public concern.” The group also provides pro bono legal advice and support. Read more about Psst in Time and Wired.

Wind resistance: Financial Times reported that the wind industry is pushing back against Trump’s across-the-board cuts on renewables. They make the argument that renewables are a part of the energy dominance that the Trump regime claims is essential for national security. On May 19, in an apparent compromise with New York State, Reuters reported that the Trump regime ended a stop-work order on Empire Wind, a multi-billion-dollar wind project located off the New York coast. In exchange, the state agreed to allow a proposed gas pipeline called Constitution to move forward.

What that means, exactly, is a little unclear. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statement on the matter included the caveat that the pipeline project still needed to comply with state laws.

Reducing the impact of a bad thing: Mining cryptocurrencies is a bad thing, requiring enormous amounts of resources and contributing substantially to the burning of fossil fuels at a time when our futures depend on reducing our dependence on them. MIT Technology Review reported that the Bathhouse, a spa in Brooklyn, NY, is not letting the heat produced by computers engaged in mining cryptocurrency go to waste: It is using the heat to warm the water in its pools, steam baths, and showers. The site has also begun to store excess heat in thermal batteries, a technology selected by Tech Review readers as one of the breakthrough technologies of 2024.

Wishful thinking: National debt hawks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation are warning that the Republican budget proposal making its way through Congress will increase the debt (not to mention reduce access to healthcare for millions of Americans) by trillions of dollars. Maya MacGuineas, president of CRFB, wrote that the House of Representatives’ “reconciliation framework has been an insult to fiscal responsibility”.

With all this in mind, we asked ChatGPT to find us some good news on efforts to reduce, or at least slow, the growth of the national debt. It found none.

When we asked ChatGPT directly about the Trump budget, it concurred with independent human analysts when it concluded, “While the Trump administration advocates for tax cuts and economic growth, current proposals lack concrete measures to reduce the national debt or slow its growth.”