Is Democracy Dead?

May 182026

I hear a lot of you asking: "Is democracy dead?"

Some of you are even grieving it as it is was already dead and buried.

It does feel like that sometimes and it is heart-breaking. But we must be careful not to bury democracy alive, because it’s still kicking!

True, on one hand the executive branch is quickly and brutally trying to take over. The GOP in the congress has abdicated its duty. The Supreme Court is supine and the GOP there is also serving fascism. But that’s not the end of democracy.

In March 2025, 3.5 million people took to the streets in the Hands Off protest. In June, the number had grown to 5 million. By October it was 7 million and in March 2026 more than 8 million people took to the streets across the country, and half of the events were in red states!

These numbers do not just grow in trees, you know? JAJAJA!

These numbers grow because there are dozens of grassroots organizations training, supporting and organizing thousands of local groups. Just one group, which I belong to, Indivisible has 3,000 local groups organizing throughout the nation.

Like Indivisible, there are other grassroots groups, such as 50501, MoveOn, Mobilize, Swing Left, People's Union, People Power United, ChooseDemocracy and many more that are fighting for our democracy.

These decentralized grassroots organizations work in collaboration to come together in massive national events, like those of Hands Off and NO KINGS. It's at those moments that our numbers are visible nationally. But locally, they are always working strategically.

Some of these organizations are excellent in communication and national campaigns. Others are amazing in organizing boycotts and blackouts. Yet others are great in gathering petitions and putting pressure to leaders. And so on, each organization lends its proficiency and tools to the Pro-democracy Nonviolent Resistance Movement.

There are also hundreds of community organizations organizing workers, special needs groups, students, civic servants and more segments of the population. These organizations can move hundreds of thousands of people when we gather in national events.

In Summer of 2025 Indivisible did it's first training, called One Million Rising. Around 350,000 people participated in this training series, including me. Connect the dots. After the summer, we went from 5 million in June to 7 million in October. So we went overboard, instead of just 1 million, we had 2 million more people rising!

There are hundreds of thousands of people all over our country doing local organization, speaking truth to power, inspiring, informing, empowering and mobilizing. And there are millions doing small actions with a huge impact, like bombarding our congress with calls and email every day, doing boycotts, writing letters to editors, calling accountability to our leaders, speaking with their friends and neighbors to keep them informed of People's victories, working for free elections, facing ICE in raids to protect immigrants and the rule of law, stopping the creation of concentration camps and AI data centers, fighting to protect our environment and more.

These local leaders are constantly doing resistance events in their communities. And when we call for a national march, they show up. Those national marches are our show of force. They let the regime and the world know that We, the People are standing up and fighting for our Democracy. That's why it's so important than you show up.

It's also important that you spread the word, record the events and share them in social media. This is crucial because the legacy media is covering up mass protests, instead of covering them.

However, for those who minimize the importance of those numbers because they don't compare with the total population, here's what you are missing:

Political experts on Democratic Backsliding and Defeating the Authoritarian agree on this:

It doesn't take everybody protesting to defeat the authoritarian. Modern history has repeated evidence that if a people can gather a broad (cross-partisan) movement that comprises about 3.5% of the population and that unite to practice consistent every day noncompliance with massive resistance actions, then they will defeat the fascist coup.

In less than a year, we have grown into 8 million people. If you have not yet joined, we need you to grow into 12 million people that show up to protests, refuse to comply and speak truth to power. Join here: indivisible.org

Next, I will list 6 different segments of the population that are right now fighting and winning for democracy. As you check the list below, if you can't relate to the different groups that are active and fighting for democracy, you may need to examine where you are getting your information.

One of the first things that authoritarians do to destroy democracy is to buy up, repress, discredit or even persecute the free press. Right now the oligarchy has purchased almost all the mainstream media. So they are not speaking the truth. Instead they are repeating the reality show of the regime. This gives us a lopsided sense of reality and leads to us giving up, thinking we are already defeated... and that is the goal of the regime.

The absence of media coverage of the growing opposition against this regime is a key factor in the struggle our democracy is enduring. The legacy media is covering up the rise of the pro-democracy nonviolent resistance movement in the United States.

Both the general public in the US and the international community are not cognizant of what the pro-democracy movement is doing to defend our democracy. This adds to the impression that the US has fallen fast into fascism and makes invisible many expressions of democracy that are healthy signs of a democracy re-asserting itself in the midst of attack.

The absence of the truth, the twisting of the facts, this matters. And we must rise to the occasion. We cannot allow the media to steal information about the movement, making the People invisible.

If you are a communicator or can become one in any way, be it a writer, interviewer, storyteller, poet or a good talker. If you are someone who can draw a message, speak a message, sing or dance a message, if you have some time to forward the messages that others craft, sharing them with your community, then democracy needs you NOW.

If you see yourself in this description,
I invite you to check my

Storytellers.Indivisible Group

That is why I am writing this. That is why so many of us are using our communication vehicles-- whether blogs, podcasts, video channels or other media, to share this information with you. Because we need to access alternative/progressive media sources in order to get the truth, stay focused on what we need to do and recognize our victories.

And there are not so many of these alternative media sources, plus the regime is trying to close all pathways to legit information. So each of us must join the Word of Mouth People's Media.

If you want to do a small action with big impact, subscribe to my newsletter and then forward it to as many people as you can to let them know how democracy is kicking ass!

In my newsletter, I contact you twice a month to keep you in the loop of events, monthly focus, and resistance strategies that the Pro-democracy movement is using at the moment, so you understand what to do and why and how to connect. I also share the stories of people's victories and share what the people are saying, so you feel the pulse of our democracy.

subscribe to my newsletter

Saying that our democracy is still alive and kicking is not about avoiding the truth or about denial. It's not the same as pretending everything is business as usual.

We first need to face the fact that we are suffering a democratic backsliding. We must acknowledge that this is not just a bad administration. No. This is something much worse. We are facing a corrupt, toxic regime moving fast with a white supremacist fascist playbook--Project 2025-- that they are following step by step to destroy our democracy and our entire way of life.

The signs of democratic backsliding are undeniable: According to political scientists, there has been a sharp decline in the quality of U.S. democracy shortly after Donald Trump's return to office, falling from a ranking of 79/100 in late 2024 to 57/100 in February 2025, a drop of 28 points. That takes us from a “flawed democracy” to a “collapsing democracy” in just a few months! That's not just fast. That's breakneck speed.

One of the crucial factors that has kept us from being declared a dictatorship is that we still have free elections, providing an avenue to reverse democratic decline. But the Destroyer in the White House is going for elections now, which makes it crucial that we stand up for free elections with all we got.

And yet, in spite of all this, the signs of our democracy being alive and kicking are also strong and growing at warp speed as ordinary Americans realize what is at stake. Those of us who are working for democracy see these signs. Those of us who are researching, following alternative media and networking see the signs.

The signs of a kicking democracy are everywhere: the judiciary, especially the lower courts, the progressive democratic caucus in congress and the institutions that increasingly refuse to comply are healthy signs of a fighting democracy. In fact, almost every pillar that holds a government in power has turn against this regime and that’s why it’s crumbling.

Finally, We, the People have joined the Pro-democracy nonviolent Resistance Movement in droves.

Let’s unpack this, starting with the judiciary.

The Judiciary Branch

1.The judiciary branch is fighting like there is no tomorrow. This is especially true in the Lower Courts. More than half the "executive disorders" that the Destroyer in the White House proclaims like a king are actually blocked or stopped in other ways. Last time I looked there were about 700 legal cases of people and institutions suing him. And most of them are winning!

The Destroyer (my name for him cause that all he does) has lost in cases about immigration, elections, state jurisdictions and more. They have lost against most cases in which he sought retribution, which sets guardrails to his thirst for revenge.

The courts have blocked dozens of cases in which he tried to ignore current laws to advance his authoritarian agenda. So that’s kudos to the judiciary. A lot of the damage he has tried to do against elections, with ICE and against his “enemies” have been stopped by the Lower Courts.

We hear talk that the judiciary branch has failed. But this is not true. The Supreme Court is sold out and cooperating with the fascist agenda. The Appeals Court is holding, but there are rising pockets of MAGA judges doing damage. But the Lower Courts are serving as strong guardrails against fascism.

Lawyers and those who care about the rule of law should be keeping an eye and serving as watchdogs for our judiciary. As you will see later on, the Judiciary and legal institutions form one of the Pillars of Governance that we can hold or resist to the regime and that we need to keep on the side of democracy.

The Democrats in Congress

The GOP majority in Congress is betraying their duties and complying with the Destroyer. They are barely doing their legislative work, much less placing guardrails to the madness.

But the Democrats in congress—that’s another thing. First of all, we need to differentiate between two groups within the democratic leaders.

The “corporate” democrats, the old school, is hiding or playing dead (their words). They are also compromised by big money and refusing to respond to the danger our democracy is in. Unfortunately, they control the DNC[i] and the DCCC[ii].

The Corporate Democrats have rejected the new leadership that is emerging (like Zohran Mamdani) and they’ve betrayed us repeatedly in bills that have been key for the working people and for all of us.

In fact, even before Trump, they have been ignoring the working class and the anti-establishment unrest, which was part of the causes that led to this regime.

But the democratic progressive caucus in congress is something entirely different. Many of these democratic leaders are fighting tooth and nails for democracy.

They are placing a constant and relentless pressure on the GOP members, educating the public through the alternative and progressive media, pushing bills for the people and against the regime again and again, coming up with new strategies to go around the lawlessness, working with communities to stop the regime’s dangerous policies and structures and holding trials to poke vulnerabilities. They are also recording issues for the soon-to-be-collected accountability for our leaders, and so much more.

In case that you wanted to see what they are doing, I have dived a little deeper in my analysis of the work that the progressive congress members are doing on behalf of democracy in the Article "What's Wrong with our Democratic Party Leaders?"

The key factor here is that these progressive Democratic leaders, unlike the Corporate, status-quo Democratic leaders, are doing the work for which we elected them as much as is possible right now and they are working to defend democracy, hold back fascist advance, place guardrails to the overreaching executive branch and pressure for policies that benefit the people.

As long as this works exists, democracy is alive and kicking. And we need to include this work in our evaluation of the current political crisis instead of just focusing on what the GOP congress members are not doing.

This reminds me of a shamanic principle which we can apply to our democratic work. It's called the Twin Law of Energy and Attention.

Energy goes where attention is placed.

From now on, I invite you to focus your attention at least 50% of your available time in what the Pro-democracy Nonviolent Resistance Movement is doing; in We, the People and how we are fighting for democracy. Then keep another 30% of the time in the problems that the madman in the White House keeps creating in his constant destruction.

What happens with the other 20% of your available time? I want you to focus it on what is being born from the ruins of this destruction. What wants to be born? What possibility emerges from the breaks in our democracy? What needs to be healed? This is key in ensuring that you are nurturing solutions, potentials and possibilities to evolve democracy, instead of just focusing on what is broken, which is what this regime wants. Because~ remember~ we feed our energy where we constantly focus our attention.

Let's feed our energy to saving and evolving our democracy.

[i] DNC. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing organization and executive leadership board of the Democratic Party.

[ii] DCCC. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) acts as the specialized, focused campaign arm dedicated solely to electing Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Some people disregard the work of the Progressive Democrats in congress because they often cannot get bills passed or affect change as the GOP majority bypasses their proposals. What good is what they do?

But their work matters. It matters profoundly. Not only it indicates that a part of the congress is standing up to the authoritarian wanna-be. It has made a vital difference.

Part of the mindset we need to adopt if we are going to defeat this regime is to think strategically and collaboratively. No one leader, no one group is going to bring this coup down. It is all of us together, each group doing what it can, that ultimately creates the synergy that paralyzes the regime.

We also need to think long-term-- not because it's going to take that long, hopefully-- but because an authoritarian is usually not defeated in one event, no matter how powerful it is. It takes a series of strategic responses, a rising movement and a series of moves that lead to the domino effect of the regime's collapse.

What each person does may not seem much, but it adds up. Think of what Van Hollen did at the beginning of this nightmare.

What would have happened if Chris Van Hollen had not taken a plane to El Salvador to find out about Kilmar Abrego Garcia? That was the move that changed the game. It awakened people to what was happening with immigrants, the lawlessness, the incarcerations, all of it. It exposed the cruelty and lies and the collaboration with yet another dictator. It humanized immigrants against the regime's false portrayal that only criminals were been taken.

How has congresswoman Jayapal’s work in training thousands of people in nonviolent resistance contributed to the growth of the pro-democracy movement? I know that it put me in the right direction and helped me find how I could contribute. It was instrumental in understanding how to think strategically and what a battle against a fascist coup looks like.

Her training showed me that stopping a democratic backsliding is not a one-time win. It is a battle of brain vs brawn. We must meet each action of the regime with -- not just an action, but a a counter-tactic, a strategic response that erodes and sabotages the regime's goals, making its intentions backfire.

Up to date Jayapal's Resistance Lab has trained 30,000 people in strategic resistance. These are the citizens that are right now fighting ICE, defending our elections, organizing local communities and growing the pro-democracy movement. Do we have to wonder why the Destroyer wants her head now and is accusing her of treason?

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Do you think that the lower courts would be able to constantly rule against the Destroyer if democracy were dead?
Do you think that all the democratic progressive caucus congress leaders could keep the pressure up against the fascist coup if there was no democracy left?
Do you think that if there was no democracy now Zohran Mamdani would have run and won against candidates with big money behind them, pushed by the oligarchy funding this regime? Do you think he would have won if not for the activists who made a commitment to take big money out of politics from the bottom up, and who were supported by congress people like Bernie Sanders and AOC?

All this and more is happening because these people are fighting. They are not giving up. They are not complying in advance.

This goes to show that these two forces~the judiciary and congress, working with We, the People~ are constantly putting pressure to the government to act in accordance with the constitution and for the benefit of We, the People. And that pressure acts as guardrails.

It shows how we are winning small and big battles that change the tides.

The Battle for democracy is also a battle of perception. I hope this brings attention to the battle of perception going on underneath everything else. We need to shift our attention at least 50% of the time from the chaos, scandals, destruction and distractions that comprise the menu of this regime and focus attention in each area of the nation that is fighting for democracy.

We need to see and celebrate each People victory. Otherwise, we are turning a blind eye to our own power and feeding this regime our energy as we believe the lie that they already won. In fact, they are losing. That’s why they are escalating to dangerous levels.

Workers Unions and Community Organizations

Continuing with the groups and institutions that are fighting for our democracy right now, there are two groups we have been counting on through this article, even mentioning at times, but who have remained backstage. And yet... these two groups make so much happening!

3. The non-compliant workers’ unions and community organizations. This includes community, legal, and advocacy organizations that are actively challenging federal actions and policies; with various coalitions reporting participation from dozens to over 1,500 distinct entities that support our communities, migrants, working class, families, women, elders and many other groups.

And of course, it includes our unions who even though they have been decimated, still remain as a civic power and still carry great impact in mobilizing the working class.

These organizations are like wind turbines that harness the power of the nation and the people and both organize and focus that power nationally and locally—to fill all the gaps that have been neglected by government.

Now they are holding our national grid in place AND at the same time, they are coming together in coalitions to protect our democracy.

Hundreds of these organizations partner with the grassroots organizations to give us NO KINGS protests and other events in which We, the People can assert our People Power.

I heard a military officer saying that “amateurs focus on tactics, but professionals focus on logistics.” Well, these organizations are the providers of these logistics for the People. We cannot subestimate their power and contribution in saving democracy.

More noncompliance. This is essential to democracy. In the success of democratic movements against a democratic backsliding, one of the key factors is the building of a huge social Wall of Noncompliance that blocks the fascist advance and paralyzes the regime. Each entity that resists and refuses to comply to this regime’s edicts, threats and pressures is holding democracy in a net of protection.

Institutional noncompliance on the rise: There has been a rise in legal and institutional challenges from higher education, legal professionals, and state-level officials against what they deem unconstitutional actions.

State and Local noncompliance on the rise: As the federal government increasingly acts as an authoritarian force, trying to take away state sovereignty and using violence against the people, the states increasingly refuse to comply and increase creative resistance, which leads to alternative paths that bypass federal jurisdiction.

Civil Service and Independent Agencies are now struggling against the restraints or abuses of this regime.

The global corporations are an exception to this. But I’ll talk about this as part of the last item in the list.

Pillars of Governance

Let's talk about the Pillars of Governance. This may include some of the groups and institutions we have mentioned, but it's a more strategic way of looking at those institutions or groups who are NOT working with us and to shift them into collective noncompliance, a key element of our democratic success.

In any governance, whether democratic or authoritarian, the leaders must count with the compliance of these Pillars in order to bring their agenda to fruition. If the majority of the Pillars of Governance do NOT comply, a regime crumbles. It cannot carry out its goals.

Basically, you can see the administration as the roof of the house of a nation. But it cannot float on air. It needs the Pillars of Governance in order to ground and build their policies. And fortunately for We, the People, we form those pillars.

5. The Pillars:

I’m working on an article to share the Pillar Strategy. For now, I'll group the pillars according to my own extended graphic below. Usually there are about six pillars. I extended it to help people find their place in each area.

The Media
Military, police and veterans
Civic Institutions
Schools and Universities
Professional Associations
Business and Corporations
Oligarchy and the Rich
State/National Elected Officials
Faith/Religions
Courts and lawyers

Just a quick scanning of this list immediately evokes all the work that the People have been doing across the spectrum of society to defend our democracy. A few examples:

Military: Why did the Destroyer stopped sending troops into civilian population? The work that veteran organizations did in creating resistance both in the public and inside the military stopped any compliance that could have led to deadly civilian-military encounters. The Destroyer decided to stick with his personal militia instead.
Universities: The same opposition has grown in colleges and schools, starting with Harvard University, which by the way has tons of material about nonviolent resistance. Plus Erika Chenoweth (from Harvard), who wrote one of the key books in the subject has been helping train our citizens.
Religious organizations all over the nation have form coalitions to oppose this regime and unmask the white Christian Nationalism it promotes.
Local Businesses have collaborated with the movement. Minnesota was a good example, where they either closed their doors or open them to offer free water, refreshments or snacks during the protest event of "Truth and Freedom."
The Rich: Even within the rich, we have an organization like Patriotic Millionaires launching two campaigns: one to help create economic alternatives for economic fairness for all citizens and another to pressure and mobilize the truly rich against the greed of the oligarchy. They are fighting that pillar from within.

Stay tune and subscribe to my newsletter so you receive news as new articles come up. In the Pillar Strategy article I will offer links for you to join those who are already working in that pillar.

So the pillars have been shifting their loyalty incrementally through the whole year of 2025 and today few remain that are holding this regime. That’s why its falling.[iii]

While I get to my article, you can ready this article about what is the Pillar Strategy and how to use it.

https://antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/understanding-the-pillars-of-support

We, the People

And finally we are getting to the core power of a democracy: We, the People

6. We, the People and the Pro-democracy nonviolent resistance movement. Ah, here we are! And we are behind all of the above. We are lawyers and stand behind the lawyers. We select the congress people. We belong to and work in the community organizations. We work across all the pillars. And so it goes. We are the drops that form the ocean and when we move, we generate the ripples that change the tides.

The Pro-democracy nonviolent resistance movement is rooted in local work, in our needs. That matters profoundly. From there, it is organized and structured locally and then nationally. The movement allows us to get trained and to focus in strategic actions generated to topple or realign all the pillars that hold this regime.

And then we bring that training and shared strategies to our communities. We implement it locally, in collaboration with others.

- Any day you take a look around the local communities and you see people in small or medium (of even large) protests. And this is taking place even in the red states, by the way.
- When you are in the loop, you receive communications of people announcing that their group is boycotting a corporation that is supporting the regime or its unfair policies (Target, Costco, Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart). These boycotts have take down many giants and are consistently sending a message to the corporations that keep bending the knee as well as to the paid-for media, putting pressure. This is what happened with Disney and Jimmy Kimmel, as example.
- They are building mutual support—like food banks, legal funds and networks to help with walking immigrants to school/work, for example.
- They are doing Rapid Responses against ICE raids to protect immigrants and the vulnerable.
- They are meeting in Town Hall to pressure the leaders, come up with solutions and stop the regime's attacks on their communities and the environment.

This is where things are activated, locally.

- This led to Musk getting out of the White House when the Tesla Takedowns made Tesla stocks drop.
- This is how Avelo stopped transporting illegally deported immigrants.
- This is how Storify stopped allowing ICE to place advertisement.
- This is how we pressured Disney into reinstating Jimmy Kimmel. The list goes on.

Just because an event is local and the national media may not cover it, that does not mean that it’s small or unimportant. Quite the contrary. Most of the campaigns that have worked start local and then catch on nationally.

From making calls to our reps, creating posters, sneakers on the ground for NO KINGS national protests, Town Hall meetings and election campaigns, local boycotts, mutual aid, rapid responses in ICE raids, public pressure campaigns, resistance to concentration camps, resistance to AI data centers and so much more—we’ve been saving our democracy every day 24/7/365 through the entire year of 2025 and still are doing it now.

We make ourselves invisible at our own detriment.

So I would say this as the bottom line answer to the democracy question:

When We, the People stop fighting for our democracy, then it will fall.
But that’s not happening.
So it’s still alive and kicking!

Send to Kindle

About Maria Mar

Maria Mar is a Sacred Storyteller and shaman who champions you to change your old limiting story to create the new story of your brilliance illuminating the world. She helps you awaken your magic, express your creative genius, embody your purpose and live your potential now.

When the Media is Hijacked