What Comes Next for America: A Message to Readers from Elizabeth Green, CEO of Civic News Company

I want to say something to our readers and our supporters here at Civic News Company about last week’s presidential election. However you voted, many of us are united right now in the sense that our politics are broken – and that our country may not be able to tackle the challenges we face.

I think we can. But to get there, we need to fix something deeper than politics. We must restore the fabric of our civic life.

Healthy civic exchange among diverse American communities—real, non-virtual communities—has been teetering for decades. But that erosion has created a counterforce, a young movement for social renewal. People who trade venomous shouting for a real conversation. Communities that bridge divisions. Journalists like us are creating channels like Chalkbeat, Votebeat and Healthbeat, where people can get trusted reporting on issues in their communities, in the face of polarization and disinformation.

The truth is that when Americans are empowered to work on real problems in their local communities, they solve problems and create healthier politics. They become what we at Civic News Company call “civic catalysts.” They appear at public meetings; they start organizations; they are running for office.

We’ve seen this in our work at Civic News Company during both the Trump and Biden years. We’ve seen everyday people take action to strengthen the integrity of their provincial elections after Votebeat reported on proposed or real changes. We have seen how, through Chalkbeat, parents and students became aware of well-intentioned changes to education laws that went wrong and tried to undo them. In many cases, we’ve seen Republicans and Democrats band together and change course when Chalkbeat and Votebeat’s reporting showed them that their actions were hurting the fair vote or local schools.

We need many more civilian catalysts. Because whether you find the potential policies of the second Trump administration exciting or terrifying, you must recognize that our country has challenging things ahead. We will have to consider and monitor Trump’s explosive policies as they shape life in actual communities, from promised deportations to his proposal to eliminate the Department of Education to the possibility of a vaccine skeptic taking the highest public health position in the occupies land.

Trump aside, schools are facing a “Educational Depression”: Student performance has fallen for the first time in decades (a trend that actually preceded COVID). Since Civic News Company began reporting on public health with the launch of Healthbeat this summer, we’ve learned that many experts see a new pandemic not as an “if,” but as a “when.” Meanwhile, our public health system remains unprepared, and moreover faces a public health skeptic in the next president.

Pillars of our democracy that we fortunately took for granted now require vigilant attention. The American election system was severely tested, even though it was came out stronger, but is still plagued by mistrust. The January 6 attack and two recent assassination attempts on newly elected President Trump show an increasing tendency toward political violence. And our media has been corrupted by misinformation, magical thinking, foreign interference and a fourth force constrained by declining economic prospects and diminishing credibility.

In the face of these challenges, we cannot raise our hands. We must enter the arena. As you, our readers and supporters, already do.

You support organizations like ours as a voice for a healthier democracy.

And you yourselves are civic catalysts.

You are teachers, youth and parents who not only look out for your own interests, but also ask what is happening in your community and what you can do to help. You are voters, election officials, and poll workers who oversee democracy’s most precious system and take action when a law or policy threatens it. You are community leaders working to improve the health of your neighbors.

You are the reason I know we can put the toxicity aside and start solving the big problems before us. And you inspire me to be my own social catalyst, in the best way I know how: doing everything in my power to keep Chalkbeat, Votebeat and Healthbeat strong. With your support, we can help make this country a better place, one local issue at a time.

Elizabeth Green is the founder and CEO of Civic News Company.