Hey, good morning. It's Saturday, May the 31st. I'm Ali Valshi. And this morning, more and more Americans are asking a critical question. What can I do to defend democracy in America?

That question marks a shift away from the comforting illusion that courts,

politicians, or institutions will save America's democracy on their own. They won't.

Institutions have failed us repeatedly, as we've learned, that what we thought were guardrails

are merely suggestions, reliant on goodwill, decency, and the honor system.

Real political change in America doesn't come from the top. It never has. It comes from the

bottom. Ordinary people resisting in big and small ways. That's the legacy of the civil rights movement.

The political scientist Gene Sharp, nicknamed the dictator Slayer, wrote something of a playbook

for resisting

authoritarian regimes. He didn't invent these strategies. He observed them. For decades, Sharp studied

how ordinary people challenged brutal regimes around the world. And what he found was simple,

yet powerful. All rulers, even the most oppressive, rely on the cooperation of their people.

Through fear, apathy, or consent, they maintain power.

But when people refuse to cooperate, when they disobey, authoritarian systems begin to crack.

That's why historian Timothy Snyder begins his book titled

On Tyranny with this warning, do not obey in advance, because it's in those first, often

invisible acts of surrender that authoritarian takes root. Now as we face creeping authoritarianism

here at home, Snyder's advice stands as a call

to action for Americans confronting Trump and the rise of oligarchic rule. What happens when ordinary

people act? History shows that the courage to stand up to authority and to hold power to account

has helped to sustain our democracy

for generations and other democracies around the world. The historian and former president of Harvard,

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