The Liberal Consensus
This is one of the most important themes in the entire book, as it informs Richardson's argument about what most Americans since the Founding have agreed is important to them. It is the idea that the federal government has a responsibility to be active and salutary in terms of regulating business, building infrastructure, keeping a social safety net for citizens, and promoting civil rights. It was crystallized in the New Deal and the Great Society and expanded in minor ways throughout the 21st century.
Ordinary People
Richardson argues that ordinary people are the ones who have really upheld and furthered democracy. Activists, abolitionists, suffragists, farm workers, and laborers, for example, have not been content with America's shortcomings and failed promises, and have tenaciously endeavored to ameliorate or eliminate them.
True Democracy
True democracy, Richardson contends, is a work in progress. It articulates goals of liberty, equality, freedom, and representation in government and its adherents do their best to implement those goals. There are always those who would undermine democracy and it certainly is not always easy to uphold, but it is the best form of government because it values and respects the individual and desires/needs their participation.
Dangers of Authoritarianism
Richardson provides numerous examples of how dangerous authoritarianism is: it limits basic freedoms such as speech and press; it collapses difference into hegemony; it wields the military in an oppressive way; it limits migration and immigration; it fosters violence; it takes away citizens' voices; it freely marginalizes anyone it deems "other"; it rewrites history and abolishes the truth.
Tactics of Authoritarians
Authoritarians like President Trump have a variety of strategies they use to attain and retain power, many of them culled from the playbook of Hitler and Mussolini. For example, they lie and spread alternative facts and history, keeping people guessing as to what's real and what's not. They skillfully use the media and take attention away from real issues. They cultivate support among street gangs that they can use to intimidate their enemies. They talk in stark, simple, emotional language that eliminates nuance and sets up binaries (patriotic and unpatriotic, us and them). They get rid of anyone around them that isn't sufficiently loyal and instead place sycophants in those roles.
History
Richardson makes a case for history that neither ignores the problematic moments in the past (this is something that conservatives have done in order to make people think that the past was better and that they need to get back to it) or sees it as a complete failure of principles and ideals (something some detractors of American history do when they claim democracy was always a failure and everything was corrupt and ignoble).
Our Responsibility
In both the conclusion and the afterword Richardson makes it clear that the American people have a responsibility to uphold democracy. She isn't discounting how powerful the authoritarians are and does not suggest that this would be an easy thing to do, but her book has detailed how ordinary people came together to protect and expand democracy even in the face of conservative and authoritarian resistance. It is our responsibility to stop Trump and people like him from destroying our democracy; history will not look kindly on us if we do not do what is right in this moment.
