I started this website because I want my daughter to grow up in a democracy. American politics has long been messy, but until Jan. 6, 2021, it didn’t occur to me that self-governance in the United States of America could falter completely in my lifetime. If we don’t fight for our democracy — especially now — we will lose it. 

I want this website to chronicle how America got to this moment. I want to provide links to important journalism and to voting information that could help us remain a democracy and avoid fascism. 

I want to explore what is going wrong so we can do better, and I want to document where I stood when 40 percent of the country was worshiping an orange psychopath and his cult of cruelty. 

Erosion of fact is the biggest reason we’re in this moment. Far right leaders and narcissistic billionaires who are happy to lie and stoke fear and hatred for personal gain is another. Deeply rooted racism, decades of “government is the problem” messaging and 24/7 propaganda machines like Fox News have kept us in this spiral. 

I spent more than two decades in journalism, mostly at newspapers. The Fourth Estate jokes, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” It means don’t be gullible. Get the facts. Journalism isn’t about giving each side its “say,” it’s about finding the truth. 

The whole goal of journalism is truth and transparency, and holding those in power to account. It’s no fluke the far right demonizes journalists as “enemy of the people” and dismisses fact as “fake news.” Trump gave the game away when in 2018 he told Lesley Stahl, “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”

If we can rise from this moment, it will be because — whatever their politics — Americans insisted on facts and truth.