
Democracy in Retrograde
How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
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Narrated by:
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Nikki Massoud
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By:
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Sami Sage
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Emily Amick
About this listen
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A whip-smart combo of self-help and political manifesto that is perfect for anyone who wants to save our democracy but doesn’t know where to start.
In today’s political climate, it’s hard not to get discouraged. Isolated, doom scrolling, lacking a sense of purpose or community...it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the dire state of American democracy and do nothing, because why try when the odds are never in our favor?
At this fragile moment in history, Emily Amick, lawyer and former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, alongside New York Times bestselling author and Betches Media cofounder Sami Sage, want to reframe civic engagement as a form of self-care: an assertion of one’s values and self-respect. This book is not just about voting, but about claiming your singular place in your country and community.
Including real stories of regular people who have made a difference along with helpful exercises and quizzes, Democracy in Retrograde is a choose-your-own-adventure map to civic engagement that will help you:
*Define your values and passions
*Understand how the system works, so it’s easier to know how to change it
*Match your personality, skills, resources, and interests, to meaningful actions within your community
*Implement changes (big and small) that matter
*Build a civic life that’s sustainable and authentic to you, whether you have only a few minutes to spare or are ready to make a lifetime commitment
Democracy in Retrograde will help you learn about much more than just political action. This book will provide a new lens through which to see yourself: a new and powerful light which bridges the personal and the political. In the words of Joan Baez, action is the antidote to despair, and with this helpful guide, even if Mercury is in retrograde, our democracy doesn’t have to be.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2024 Sami Sage (P)2024 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else.
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Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
- By AJ on 07-23-20
By: Anne Applebaum
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Let This Radicalize You
- Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
- By: Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe. Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue, and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.
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together, we fight back
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-24
By: Kelly Hayes, and others
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How Fascism Works
- The Politics of Us and Them
- By: Jason Stanley
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century.
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A Warning Too Clear to Ignore
- By Chip Auger on 10-30-18
By: Jason Stanley
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How Democracies Die
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Democracies can die with a coup d'état - or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively when in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian leader, the abuse of governmental power and the complete repression of opposition. All three steps are being taken around the world - not least with the election of Donald Trump - and we must all understand how we can stop them.
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Connecting the Dots
- By Sharon F on 02-06-18
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
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Star-Spangled Jesus
- Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith
- By: April Ajoy
- Narrated by: April Ajoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Social media influencer and podcast host April Ajoy wouldn’t have called herself a Christian Nationalist when she performed her original song “America Say Jesus” on the Jim Bakker show, or when she participated in Jesus Marches across America, or when she posted cringe-worthy videos on YouTube to campaign for Mitt Romney. April just considered herself a good Christian: faithful, Republican, and determined to make America a Christian nation once again.
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Excellent Overview and Testimony
- By Matt Gambill on 04-24-25
By: April Ajoy
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Where Tyranny Begins
- The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War on Democracy
- By: David Rohde
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country's two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons. Rohde also reveals how, during the Biden years, Justice Department non-partisan 1970s norms that Attorney General Merrick Garland reinforced inadvertently helped Trump, and could fail to deliver a trial and legal accountability by Election Day 2024.
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Review of why we fired trump
- By ludlow on 09-24-24
By: David Rohde
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The Violent Take It by Force
- The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy
- By: Matthew D. Taylor
- Narrated by: Asa Siegel
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the last decade, the Religious Right has evolved. Some of the more extreme beliefs of American evangelicalism have begun to take hold in the mainstream. Scholar Matthew D. Taylor pulls back the curtain on a little-known movement of evangelical Christians who see themselves waging spiritual battles on a massive scale.
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Comprehensively Researched
- By Chuck Anderson on 09-25-24
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Evicted
- Poverty and Profit in the American City
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
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Former Property Manager
- By Charla on 05-18-16
By: Matthew Desmond
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Autocracy, Inc.
- The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran.
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A Triumphant Work -Puts It All Together With Laser Clarity
- By Sjhoffman on 09-19-24
By: Anne Applebaum
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Surviving Autocracy
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In the run-up to the 2016 election, Masha Gessen stood out from other journalists for the ability to convey the ominous significance of Donald Trump's speech and behavior, unprecedented in a national candidate. Within 48 hours of Trump's victory, the essay "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" had gone viral, and Gessen's coverage of Trump's norm-smashing presidency became essential reading for a citizenry struggling to wrap their heads around the unimaginable.
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Good But . . .
- By A reviewer on 06-02-20
By: Masha Gessen
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The Origins of Totalitarianism
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism", beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th century and continuing through the New Imperialism period from 1884 to World War I.
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Vast and intricate analysis of horror
- By Roger on 08-04-08
By: Hannah Arendt
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It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
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The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
What listeners say about Democracy in Retrograde
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kayla Witschonke
- 07-24-24
How to Democracy a realistic take!
Thank you for making this book. I am so inspired to start talking about it with my family and friends. It makes me both hopeful and a little angry, but I guess that’s the point if I want to see change.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kaylin Dillon
- 12-21-24
Don’t skip the end
Don’t skip the “additional resources” section at the end. The lessons on how the government works are great.
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- Sami Ridel
- 01-13-25
Take action in your political landscape- one step at a time
This is a must read for anyone who thinks “ugh what’s the point of voting or fighting for what I believe in? The other party is louder and my action doesn’t matter” this book gives you actionable plans that you can cater to how you would naturally get involved. I learned a lot in this book and I believe a lot of people would gain a ton from reading this book and doing something!
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- SummerMeadow8
- 08-20-24
So many resources
Such good information on how to get involved and (make friends) become a contributing member of a democratic society. So many good and practical ideas.
I have the hardcover to go along with the audio and that was really helpful.
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- K
- 03-21-25
Politics for beginners!
A great book for people interested in making change in the world even if they are not an elected official.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-19-24
Inspiring and motivating
Thank you so much for this book! I’ve listened to it twice now and also have the hard copy to reference when I need to. I’ve felt so helpless and this has really helped me to find a focus and take action. I sent a copy to my mom and am going to host a book club on it!
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- Shara D. Webb
- 08-14-24
Better for reading vs listening
The author did an outstanding job of explaining politics and how to instill change. That said, there were exercises that I feel would have been more useful with a hard copy of the book vs an audiobook. If you truly want to implement change, grab the physical book.
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1 person found this helpful