Civic Witness Series - Questions from the Attic
How do institutions rebuild trust after years of people feeling talked at instead of listened to?
Civic Witness Series: Questions from the Attic, is founded on a simple premise: the people living through democratic erosion have questions the ‘experts’ aren’t addressing; it is inspired by and in honor of Adia in the Attic. Those questions matter because they provide an opportunity for sharing and documenting what democratic erosion feels like to people living through it. We don’t pretend to have “The Answer” to these questions, but we hope to stimulate the conversation her questions have prompted.
Please enter the conversation. Please ask us additional questions
Democracy cannot be restored by decree. It has to be rebuilt, one institution and one citizen at a time.
When government stops listening, citizens stop trusting. And when trust collapses, democracy becomes vulnerable to cynicism, conspiracy, propaganda, and authoritarianism. The way back begins with citizens refusing cynicism, demanding evidence and accountability, and participating in the institutions they hope to save.
Our government was designed by the Framers to operate as a compact between the governing and the governed. We the people elect our representatives and they act on our behalf to “establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” as set forth in the Constitution. By definition, our representatives and our government are supposed to listen to us, understand our needs and act accordingly. In practice, especially in recent years, our representatives have listened less and less to the needs of the people and much, much more to special interests. Political gridlock has reached an untenable level for a nation as complex as ours, and has paralleled a significant loss of public trust, especially since 2000.
Trust is the glue of our democracy
Trust is an essential condition of a democratic republic. It is fundamental to its health, ensuring citizens accept election results, respect common ethical values, voluntarily obey laws and regulations, and cooperate and compromise for the common good. When trust breaks down, it undermines the legitimacy of democratic institutions, deepens political fractures, and compromises social and economic stability.
The consequences of broken trust include a rise of political cynicism expressed as voter apathy and belief in unprovable conspiracy theories, weakened respect of governmental institutions and authority, proliferation of dis- and mis-information efforts to manipulate or intimidate the public, and the failure of political parties to compromise on issues of critical national interest. This renders the country ripe for authoritarian rule. Sadly, we are living all of these consequences of a breakdown of citizen trust,
Professor Timothy Snyder, historian and author of his 2017 book “On Tyranny,” observes twenty features common to tyrannical governments and what we can do to resist authoritarian takeover. Snyder’s book serves as a powerful citizen’s manual for avoiding tyrannical government. Lately, he has cautioned that our crisis of democratic governance in America today has proceeded to a dangerous tipping point, with roughly equally likely outcomes of permanent democratic collapse versus continuing our 250 year experiment in constitutional democracy.
How did we get here?
Over the last 70 years America wowed the world, rebuilding a devastated world economy after WW II, leading in building a new world order through creation of the United Nations, putting a man on the moon, rescuing millions from starvation and disease, and creating a robust system of economic and defense alliances. These achievements were built on and reinforced an abiding trust by the public in America’s democratic values and institutions. Indeed, that same trust and respect imbued in me from an early age, led me to a four decade career of public service in the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Defense.
As the new millennium dawned, a “deep state” myth grew up explicitly concocted to sow mistrust in our government. The so-called deep state was a fiction that a dark special interest conspiracy of unelected officials existed hidden within the federal bureaucracy secretly acting to advance its own agenda, controlling public policy without public oversight. Trump successfully advanced this to create an image of an unaccountable out-of-control government, the only he could tame. Ironically, the deep state myth was in reality an accurate projection of what the MAGA architects explicitly hoped to install under Trump’s leadership (see Project 2025). Sadly, the daily assault on civil rights, rule of law, health and safety, and orderly government during Trump 2.0 has only further destroyed public trust in our institutions.
The massive federal cadre of apolitical experts and civil servants, carefully recruited and developed throughout the federal bureaucracy over many decades, was a national treasure of knowledge, experience and wisdom unparalleled in our nation’s history. Yet while they successfully toiled in service to the public, ensuring our national security and taking care that the laws are faithfully executed, their value in operating our democratic institutions with great wisdom, expertise and ethical standards was taken for granted and went largely unknown to the general public. When Trump came to office in 2025, he and Elon Musk’s DOGE quickly flushed entire swaths of this public treasure, replacing them with Trump-loyal, mostly inexperienced, unqualified and ethically-challenged employees. Even senior military officers were culled, apparently because they were deemed of the wrong race or gender, they were “independent thinkers,” or they were believed to be uncomfortable with the idea of relaying unlawful orders. The recent summary firings at Stars and Stripes, our troops’ most trusted source of independent journalism, illustrate yet another body blow to our service members’ trust and confidence in getting access to unfiltered military news and operational truth.
The road ahead: democracy or tyranny?
The 2026 midterm elections constitute the public’s best hope for beginning the process of restoring trust in the good faith of our institutions. The institutional rot has put down roots. We the People must resolve to replace authoritarian ideologues with ethical, trustworthy representatives dedicated to our constitutional democracy. We must elect a new generation of representatives who will provide cooperative government leadership with greater responsiveness to critical public needs, and stronger oversight over the Executive. Pro-democracy groups must continue their outreach to keep the public informed with facts to counter propaganda thrown at them via slanted social media and news organizations. They must also continue to fight criminal and unconstitutional actions of the government via the courts and by providing informed Congressional testimony.
When – or if – our small ‘d’ democratic institutions and values are restored to popular control, the restoration of trust must begin with an accounting of and accountability for the perpetrators of the tyrannical takeover. It must begin with truth and evidence, free of vindictive or vengeful motives, fully employing the judicial branch, our last remaining bastion of constitutional order, to hold the thieves of democracy and perpetrators of unlawful chaos accountable. Much as the allies did with the Nuremberg trials after the defeat of the Axis powers, due process must again be rigorously respected, visibly demonstrating that the process of democratic renewal will proceed fairly and justly.
How can citizens help rebuild trust?
Start by trusting your own eyes and ears. Be a healthy skeptic…get your information from multiple sources, not just a single “comfortable authority.” Trust best the sources that have repeatedly proven to be reliable and intellectually honest. If information you receive provokes a strong emotional reaction, positive or negative, fact check it to be assured it is not misinformation or propaganda designed to mislead or manipulate you.
Demand truth and responsiveness from political candidates. When a candidate asserts a position without evidence, ask them to provide credible facts. Your candidate should respond affirmatively and with details to:
- Reassert constitutional powers over the Executive, that of investigative power and power of the purse and leverage those inherent powers to require more regime transparency, require targeted agency IG audits, investigations and reports.
- Support robust media investigation of alleged regime ethical and legal lapses.
- Restore an apolitical civil service and military based on meritocracy, with loyalty to the Constitution and rule of law, not a leader. And demand that the Department of Justice enforce the Hatch Act.
Finally, VOTE: Trust that there are still ethical officials across the nation dedicated to conducting safe, honest and auditable elections. The system will be, doubtless, subject to unprecedented challenges and shenanigans. But do not be tempted to sit it out. Saving our democracy requires an all-hands effort. We must all participate in what could be our last free and fair election.
Rebuilding trust in our democratic institutions will take time and patience. Support our institutions of governance when you observe them trying to do the right things.
As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu observed, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Let us take that first step together, back from the precipice.
Hold Fast.
