Frances Moore Lappé - Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want

It is all too easy to fall into despair when observing what is happening in the world and contemplating the severe challenges that humans face. It is much harder, and far more important, to recognize that we need not succumb to what Frances Moore Lapp and Adam Eichen call the sense of futility that destroys us and can instead come together to confront the challenges, overcome them, and once again bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice and freedom. We can join the many others who are daring democracy in many ways, as we learn from this instructive account of hopeful prospects.

NOAM CHOMSKY

Frances Moore Lapp and Adam Eichen have written a wonderfully sunny book at an exceptionally dark moment in American politics. They tell us, and I think they are right, that we are witnessing the rise of a movement of movements, and that the movement draws on reservoirs of passion and capacity embedded in our very human nature. This movement of movements that we are beginning to call the Resistance may very well save our democracy. So you need to read this book, and join the movement!

FRANCES FOX PIVEN , professor of political
science and sociology at City University of New York
and coauthor of Poor Peoples Movements

Show people that what they want is possible and they will act. This book, perhaps better than any other, shows Americans that the democracy they want is possible. Now we must act.

LAWRENCE LESSIG , Roy L. Furman Professor
of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law
School and author of Republic, Lost

If youre finding it tough to feel optimistic about the future of our democracyand lately, who isnt?then you need to read this book. Frances Moore Lapp and Adam Eichen make clear that building a positive, even joyful pro-democracy movement that restores power to ordinary Americans isnt just possibleits already happening.

ZACHARY ROTH , author of The Great Suppression: Voting Rights,
Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy

It is time for a Daring Democracy. This book is a passionate call to transform fear into action. We should heed this message and join the movement for democracy!

HEATHER BOOTH , organizer and
president of the Midwest Academy

In this cross-generational effort, Frances Moore Lapp and Adam Eichen capture and explore something very important about our moment in history. Amid the serious and intrusive challenges to our democracy, there is an energetic movement to tear down barriers, advance full participation, and create a democracy that works for everyone. And that movement is creative, is winning in many places, and is bringing new people into the fold. Daring Democracy is a great and uplifting read, so grab it and enjoy!

MILES RAPOPORT , Senior Practice Fellow in
American Democracy at the Harvard Kennedy School
and former president of Common Cause and Demos

As someone who has been on the opposite side of anti-democracy forces, I can say firsthand that Lapp and Eichen speak to the problems plaguing our elections, while also offering compelling solutions. An important book for anyone who cares about democracy in America.

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT , associate professor
of law at Fordham University

BOOKS BY FRANCES MOORE LAPP

World Hunger: 10 Myths (with Joseph Collins)

EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want (2nd Edition)

Democracys Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life

You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear (with Jeffrey Perkins)

Hopes Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (with Anna Lapp)

The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives (with Paul Martin Du Bois)

Taking Population Seriously (with Rachel Schurman)

Rediscovering Americas Values

Betraying the National Interest (with Rachel Schurman and Kevin Danaher)

What to Do After You Turn Off the TV: Fresh Ideas for Enjoying Family Time

Now We Can Speak: A Journey Through the New Nicaragua (with Joseph Collins)

World Hunger: 12 Myths (with Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, and Luis Esparza)

Aid as Obstacle (with Joseph Collins and David Kinley)

Mozambique and Tanzania: Asking the Big Questions (with Adele Beccar-Varela)

Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity (with Joseph Collins and Cary Fowler)

Great Meatless Meals (with Ellen Ewald)

Diet for a Small Planet

To our democracy heroes: the late political philosopher Benjamin Barber, for his deep insights and belief in the capacities of humankind, and Congressman John Lewis, for being our exemplar of courage in action, always inspiring and steadfast.

WHY WOULD TWO PEOPLE , generations apart, whod barely met commit to writing a book together about democracy in America during one of the most fraught moments in the countrys history? The short answer is that we felt we had no choice.

Together, weve lived almost a century in America and never before have we experienced a moment in which so many of our compatriots are profoundly angry or near despair. At the same time, we share gratitude that our life experiences have enabled us to taste emerging solutionsto grasp the root causes and envision a pathway forward.

Despair is our greatest enemy in this moment. We wrote this book to meet it squarely, not with sappy bromides but with hard evidence. Let us explain by sharing a bit of our distinct journeys that brought us to a chance meeting less than two years ago in Mexico City.

Frances. The year is 1966 and the war in Vietnam is raging. Im fresh out of college and see US military actions in Southeast Asia as evidence of something deeply amiss here at home. Determined to work for justice alongside those in our poorest communities, I head straight for a Quaker organizing school near Philadelphia.

Soon after, I find a job as part of the War on Poverty. Officially, I am hired by the city as a housing inspector, but my assignment is to help organize a chapter of the Welfare Rights Organization. I am a twenty-three-year-old white girl from the South living and working in an African American neighborhood. But as I knock on doors, Im always welcomed inside.

In our budding chapter what proves most meaningful are the deep connections we make. I feel closest to Lilly. In her early forties, Lilly is able to remain energized and positive despite relentless struggle just to feed and clothe her children.

Then, out of the blue, I get the call: Lilly is gone. Shes had a heart attack. But I am convinced that Lilly has died of the stress of poverty itself. Everything about the situation feels so fundamentally wrong.

Months later I wake up with one thought only: I dont want to do anything else to try to save the world until I grasp the real roots of Lillys needless death. I have to know how my life is addressing root causes.

I am terrified. I know that to go deep I have to dig in somewhere specific. So why not on hunger? Everyone has to eat. So I begin, asking: are the experts right that hunger is caused by food scarcity? Squirreled away in the University of California, Berkeley, agriculture library, I begin what becomes Diet for a Small Planet, my attempt to reframe the hunger challenge.