No One Fights Alone
Freedom shouldn’t be a solitary cause.
A note from Garry Kasparov: Celebrate one year of The Next Move and save 30% when you upgrade to join our premium subscriber community—this offer ends tomorrow, Thursday, April 30. Premium subscribers get invitations to exclusive Zoom conversations, early access to podcasts, and other benefits!
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Garry Kasparov is the founder and chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative, which publishes The Next Move.
Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
Everyone is throwing a 250th birthday party for America. As the leaders of an organization that, true to the name, aims to renew democracy, not addressing this country’s big anniversary would be, at a minimum, marketing malpractice, and more to the point, a real dereliction of duty.
So on Friday, April 17, RDI kicked off our semiquincentennial celebration at our fourth annual Heroes of Democracy Gala in New York City.
But we didn’t want to just paint ourselves in red, white, and blue. Instead of empty revolutionary imagery, we screened a video about American freedom as told by dissidents who have lived the opposite of freedom. We’ll be sharing that video with you soon.
We also looked forward to the next 250 years. During Uriel’s speech, he directed the audience to look up, where a series of prospective headlines from the next two and a half centuries were projected.
Uriel presented two divergent paths: headlines from a future where we did what we had to do to protect this republic and its allies around the world and one where, whether through complacency or fear, we failed to do so. (Stay tuned this summer when we flesh out some of these stories in a little exercise in speculative fiction!)
“How AI Gave Americans The Three-Day Work Week”—or “Deepfake Election: How 120 Million Americans Fell for a Fake Presidential Debate”
“Ukraine Victorious; Kyiv Restores 1991 Borders as Russia Sues for Peace”—or “Russian Tanks in Kyiv; ‘Warsaw Next’”
“Gen Alpha Breaks Voter Registration Records”—or “Riots and ICE Agents at the Polls as America Muddles Through Chaotic Election”
No pair of headlines put our mission in starker relief than these—from the not-so-distant year 2276:
“America At 500: The World’s Oldest Democracy Never Looked So Good”
Or
“Obituary for the Former USA: Why the American Experiment Didn’t Make It”
Ensuring that the United States makes it to 500 is a tall order. We hear from a lot of folks that democracy is important to them—but, frankly, they’re afraid to take up the fight on their own.
And we don’t judge—who would want to fight alone? When was the last time you saw a solitary protest?
Dictators and demagogues win when you stop fighting. The administration can lose in court. The self-righteous Internet mob might never actually cancel you. But the mere threat of being silenced, the pressure to conform, can be enough to push people to the sidelines.
This is why we get together, face-to-face. We all need that visceral reminder that we have a community. People came to the gala from all over the nation, from as far afield as Europe and—thanks to one of our honorees, Uganda’s indefatigable opposition leader, Bobi Wine—East Africa.
(It helps that this was our biggest gala yet, with well over 300 people in attendance!)
Each of our honorees took risks or made sacrifices for freedom. We believe it’s important to have role models; heroes to look up to. From afar, their example might seem impossible to emulate. Yet none of them fight alone.
Senator Mark Kelly—who’s weathered threats from the most powerful men on the planet—has a dedicated staff, allies on Capitol Hill, and a family that inspires him.
Ambassador John Bolton—who has stayed true to his principles in the face of political retaliation—is respected by members of both parties in Washington.
Bobi Wine—the Ugandan pop star-turned-opposition leader and the rightfully elected president of his country—is backed by legions of fans who want a better future for their nation of 50 million.
And Canada’s former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland—who juggled pretty much every portfolio in government you can think of and is continuing her public service as an advisor to President Zelenskyy—is a rock star with friends from Ottawa to Kyiv.
Minister Freeland delivered a strong formulation of the challenge before us—whether as Americans or as friends of American democracy:
It is a grave mistake for your friends to give up on America—and it is a grave mistake for you, Americans, to give up on yourselves. A world in which America supports tyranny abroad and suppresses freedom at home is a world where democracy everywhere is weaker.
At the Renew Democracy Initiative, that challenge is not something you have to take up alone. If you’ve been waiting to get involved because you didn’t have a team behind you, now you do—whether the hundreds of committed supporters who joined us in New York last week, the tens of thousands of subscribers who are part of The Next Move’s growing community, or the millions upon millions more who share our values.
Welcome aboard.
And if you are looking for a little bit of community right away, join the two of us for our next premium subscriber Zoom call with former White House Attorney Ty Cobb. This will be a real, interactive conversation, so come ready with questions! That call will take place this Friday, May 1 at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT. Click here for more details.
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