Everyone agrees that the political system is broken.
While there is no silver bullet, we believe that inclusive, meaningful debates are a critical part of the solution. Voters are thirsting for more thoughtful, substantive, and forward-looking political discourse. By oversimplifying complex ideas and policies into false binary choices, our current system does a disservice to all of us. Now more than ever, we need to open up the system to new ideas, fresh voices, and better choices.
Open the Debates will shine a bright light on the fundamental and widely-held principles that exclusionary debates violate:
- Our democratic republic is healthiest with a well-informed electorate
- Voters deserve to learn about all of the choices on their ballot
We will use the small number of local and statewide elections in 2019 as a proving ground for our strategies. We will organize to bring grassroots pressure to bear on the people and institutions that work together to justify, excuse, implement, and promote closed debates. We will organize broadly to change the narrative about what's possible in the fight to fix a broken political system.
The time is ripe to open up the political debates of our nation at every level of government. We hope you'll join with us and support the fight to end the travesty of closed debates.
OUR STORY
Since 2012, a small group of citizens across the political spectrum who felt marginalized by exclusionary debates has been using social media to challenge the duopoly control of these important public interest forums. We each had petitions on Change.org that were gaining traction, but we decided to pool together our efforts to create a unified, non-partisan and cross-partisan voice, and have been coordinating ever since as Open the Debates, without spending a dime.
Now we are taking the fight for open debates to the next level. We are confident that with the right organizing, we can win some victories, build momentum, and grow our support to over 100,000 people in 2019 and one million strong in 2020—becoming a force that can no longer be ignored.
USE OF FUNDS
The money raised here will go directly into the startup costs for getting Open the Debates off the ground as an effective national organizing vehicle on this critical issue, including an e-communications infrastructure and the hiring of a full-time director. In order to continue on a full-time basis, we need to hit our $10,000 crowdfunding goal this month, and hope to raise another $20,000 from major gifts.
DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT
Great news! Thanks to a generous donor, all donations through this crowdfunding campaign will be doubled, up to $10,000!! Help us smash through our $10,000 goal by donating & sharing widely!
GOT QUESTIONS? GOOD!
Visit our
Frequently Asked Questions Page!
