Democracy in Peril: How Can We Save Democracy?

How Can We Save Democracy? Folio concludes its three part series with a conversation on the future of democracy  in the US and worldwide. Panelists feature retired Army Gen. and  NBC contributor Barry McCaffrey, executive director of the voting rights advocacy group, CommonPurpose Charles Douglas, program co-ordinator of the National Assn of Non-Partisan Reformers Kaia Los Huertos, and faculty researcher at George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics  Prof. Ethan Porter.  Moderated by Mort Kondracke.

About the panelists

Barry Richard McCaffrey is a retired United States Army general and current news commentator, professor and business consultant who served in President Bill Clinton's Cabinet as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. A Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, he holds a Ph.D. in Hong Kong history from the University of Hong Kong.

Charles Douglas was an on-and-off volunteer before leaving a 13 year career at Starbucks in marketing and ecommerce to create Common Power as a formal political organization. While at Starbucks, Charles helped found the Black employee affinity group and expand it across the nation, and brings much of that experience to this next phase of Common Power. Now as a family of organizations that interact with politics in different ways, Charles leads the hybrid PAC and 501c4 bodies of work focused on direct election impacts and education as an on-ramp to civic engagement.

Kaia Los Huertos has been involved in NANR since the 2018 Breakthrough Projects and the first annual summit in Monterey Bay, CA.Before working with NANR, she worked with the Independent Voter Project, Foundation for Independent Voter Education, Unite America, Bridge Alliance and other Association member organizations to help pass reforms around the country. As the Program Coordinator, Kaia was part of introducing the NANR Advantage Data Platform, powered by L2, and then by L2 and Citizen. She also organized the second annual summit in Denver, CO in December 2019. During 2020, Kaia has helped coordinate NANR Spotlights to keep members, organizations, legislators, and media apprised of the "Voters First" movement and election reform work around the country.

Ethan Porter is an assistant professor at George Washington University. He holds appointments in the School of Media and Public Affairs and the Political Science Department and is the Cluster Lead of the Misinformation/Disinformation Lab at GW's Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Politics, Social Forces, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, Political Communication and other journals. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other popular publications, and has received grant support from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Omidyar Network. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago.