The day democracy dies, you will wake up and rub the sleep from your eyes. Sunlight will peek through your window and everything will feel normal. You will eat breakfast and stare at your phone like you do every day, because today is no different. There will be chores to do, errands to run, people to see. Life goes on, the world still spins. The day democracy dies will be like every other day.

You won’t know when it comes. What does democracy’s death even feel like? Is it like the final scene in The Sopranos, where it just cuts to black? Or is it like a sore throat that worsens into a cold throughout the day? When do we know when it’s officially dead? Does someone call the time of death? Or do we just kind of feel it — that sad, empty feeling of resignation, of forced apathy? Do we have any choice? 

It’s strange living through history and not knowing what comes next. What was Marcus the baker doing when Rome was sacked? Or how about Henri the blacksmith when the Jacobins stormed the Bastille? Did they know they were living through history? Or did they just live their lives? Did they have chores to do, errands to run, and people to see? Was that day like every other day?

Democracy’s beauty lies in its fragility. At its core, it is a system built on trust — trust in your neighbor, in the process, in the idea that even when we disagree, we’re aiming for the same good. But when that trust is broken, the goal forgotten, and the process abandoned, democracy fails.

The day democracy dies will be like any other. But the day that it is saved will be unmistakably different. Democracy is saved when we reject the apathy we’ve been forced into, when we decide that something is worth fighting for, and when we choose to fight for it.

Democracy dies when we allow it; it survives only when we make it.

Our systems are under attack. It’s easy to feel paralyzed, overwhelmed by its seemingly inevitable collapse. But that is exactly how democracy dies — not in an implosion, but in a thousand quiet surrenders. We surrender when we stop paying attention, when we stop caring, when we stop fighting. We cannot surrender. Our rights are worth defending, our values are worth protecting, our democracy is worth fighting for. It’s time we choose to let democracy live.

06/16/2025