Yet there is another American political tradition that we can draw on in this moment—an emancipatory, democratic tradition that has driven major transformations of our country through bottom-up, movement-driven struggle, often against deeply hostile and institutionalized power structures. Emancipation, abolition, and the First Reconstruction; the New Deal; and the civil rights era all mark moments when social movements and policymakers shifted power away from dominant interests and helped move in the direction of equal dignity and standing for all Americans. While these transformations were imperfect, what is perhaps most remarkable—and most often overlooked—is just how durable some of them have been. As reactionaries attempt to dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the civil rights movement today, it is important to remember that these transformations occurred in the face of intense opposition from their very beginnings.

That’s why we need to imagine pathways of social change that build on these examples—even in the midst of the current far-right ascendance. Whether or not we can emerge out of our current authoritarian crisis depends on the ability of grassroots communities and ordinary Americans to mobilize and protest, and on civic organizations to defend basic democratic values—and thanks to the efforts of countless organizers and advocates, we are witnessing a dramatic expansion of such activities. We need this bottom-up movement for democracy. But we also need a strategy for institutional transformation. If pro-democracy pressure can generate a moment of rupture and possibility, it will be critical to convert that opening into structural transformations of political institutions and a broader rebalancing of power in our economy and society. We will need a reconstructionist approach to imagining new institutions that allows us to advance and make durable our commitments to a more inclusive, equitable, and responsive democracy.