Building a new pipeline of civic talent

The U.S. has long underperformed when it comes to sufficient and accurate knowledge about how politics works and how to influence it.

Numerous surveys reveal a large civics blackout, including a 2024 report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation showing 70% of Americans fail a basic civic literacy quiz. The foundation called their report a “five-alarm fire drill for the civic health of the nation.” Liberals and some conservatives see the dire need to rebuild civic confidence through our education system.

The president of Johns Hopkins University, Ron Daniels, believes universities are the natural place to give students from all walks of life a democracy education. He thinks a democracy curriculum should be required at the university level.

“The citizen is at the heart of the democratic project, but the capacities of good citizenship are not innate,” wrote Daniels in What Universities Owe Democracy.

The good news is that several universities are putting more emphasis on civic engagement and public service.

When it comes to a political and civic workforce, jobs in the public sector don’t require an advanced degree like medicine and law do. That reduces the barriers to entry, but I think a new emphasis on cultivating and equipping new civic and political leaders is paramount.

Outside of the university, accelerator courses can ensure a higher level of strategic thinking and skill to meet the moment and fill consequential gaps in knowledge and skills. This goes for Gen Z but also leaders in their 50s and 60s who have little political experience.

Specific topics for the accelerators could include:

• Purpose: Believing in civic agency and the power to make change through some form of political or public service.
• Leadership: A strategic vs. activist mindset; the art of compromise; relationship building; and emotional intelligence. (For instance, leaders have to keep in mind that anger can sometimes backfire, step on their message, and turn people off from the political message.)
• Strategic communications. How to win people over with the right message. (Don’t cancel them.) Meet people where they are.
• Research. The increasingly valuable role of research, qualitative and quantitative, to get a more accurate picture than what’s on social media or in movement circles.
• Fundraising. How to raise substantial money will always be a vital skill to bring in low-dollar and major donors.

The political right has been providing a version of a professional education in movement building and politics through its Leadership Institute, which opened its doors in 1979.

“[D]onors on the right have long understood the payoff from such investments,” writes David Callahan, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Inside Philanthropy. “The conservative Leadership Institute has trained more than 300,000 people, including movement leaders, students and politicians. It pulled in $43 million in contributions in 2023. But despite its well-documented impact over more than four decades, this institution still has no analog on the left.”

Build the left-of-center equivalent, beyond candidate training programs that are geared on running for office. Educating a new talent pool of civic leaders, young and older, is vital to moving the U.S. out of our toxic paralysis and reimagining democracy after the authoritarian threat recedes. Architectural blueprints and construction crews will need to be at the ready to build new things for a renovated republic.