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In Part 3 of Democracy Awakening, Richardson returns to the nation’s founding to demonstrate that the history of America offers a roadmap away from authoritarianism. She argues that the real history of the nation is superior to the false version put forth by movement conservatism and Donald Trump. She contrasts the New York Times’ “The 1619 Project” and the Trump-commissioned “The 1776 Report” to show this distinction. Richardson argues that “The 1776 Report” downplays racism at the time of the nation’s founding. Richardson states that ignoring the Founders’ hypocrisy by glossing over their racism, as “The 1776 Report” does, misses the ways that movements for Black freedom have made the country stronger. The Founders were problematic, Richardson argues, but their ideas about equality are worth celebrating. Similarly, Richardson states that the real story of the American West is more powerful than the conservative myth of the self-reliant cowboy. The West was settled by people who worked together in communities, illustrating how change has often come from movements built on collective support. While movement conservatism has tried to sell an individualistic version of history, Richardson says that the truth is that Americans have always found power through unity.  

Richardson sees similarities between the Civil War and her own contemporary moment because, in both eras, the promise of equality is tested by those favoring minority rule. In the years leading up to the Civil War, powerful forces rejected equality and sought to define the United States in terms of the kind of hierarchy that Richardson connects to fascist ideology. For example, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous people were forced from their land so that poor white men could gain political power. These new landowners, in turn, supported the states’ rights philosophy that maintained slavery, which wealthy white landowners benefited from. Richardson argues that the current push for authoritarianism similarly promises white men with limited power that they can maintain higher status than woman and people of color. She maintains that in order to gain this advantage, white men of limited means must put rich white men into power by supporting movement conservatives.

Read an explanation of an important quote about fascism’s reliance on hierarchies.

During and after the Civil War, Richardson argues, the United States refocused on the Declaration’s promise of equality rather than on the Constitution’s emphasis on individual property rights. Under Lincoln and the Republican Party, the federal government used its expanded power to improve the lives of citizens. However, as the economy boomed after the war, politicians allied themselves with rich industrialists rather than with poor voters whom they feared would support federal spending on public projects. Like Reagan Republicans in the 1980s, Lincoln Republicans of the late 19th century argued that an improved economy eliminated the need to address poverty directly, despite the desperate living conditions of factory workers whose labor made the boom possible. In this context, the Progressive movement arose to support the use of federal laws to regulate business and provide social welfare.

Read an important quote about the dangers that mythologizing history can pose to democracy.

Richardson ends the book on a hopeful note. She argues that while the country is in a dangerous position, the United States has recovered from difficult tests before. Since the Declaration of Independence was signed, marginalized people have used its promise as a legal and moral argument for equal rights. The Civil War determined that federal power could be used to ensure equality for Black people, a victory over the wealthy minority that believed it should have more power than other citizens. Richardson observes that, in the wake of the Trump presidency, President Biden has prioritized returning the country to democratic norms and expanding the use of federal power. As the book concludes, Richardson returns to her central thesis that the promise of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence retains its power to save the country, so long as Americans choose to embrace it.

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