David Leonhardt and others have wisely sounded alarms about threats to democracy in the United States. 

But their analysis misses the key question: How are we actually empowering people to participate in making the rules under which they must live, and limiting the power others have over them – including the destructive power inflicted by the climate crisis?

Instead Leonhardt and others rush into questions of representation, and partisan politics. It would be better to preface these latter questions with a nonpartisan solution to the fundamental problem: That given the way we plan families, today people are not actually being empowered.

That solution could be as simple as steeply redistributive baby bond legislation designed to incentivize family planning that actually gives all children equal opportunities in life, socially and ecologically. There is no need to ignore the long run threat, while dealing with immediate ones.

Take action: Urge @dleonhardt to cover the story that really matters – how we work together to ensure a natural and democratic future.