Democracy is Shaped by the Stories We Tell - and the Ones We Don't.
How do stories and national narratives shape democratic resilience, including in the U.S. and Brazil?
Stories shape power by defining who belongs, what a nation remembers, and how communities respond to political division. Long-term civic health isn't just about ballot access. It's about countering erasure, supporting trustworthy information channels, and empowering citizens to write a multi-racial, cross-partisan future together.
On the Sunday of the first round of Brazil's election, part of our delegation accompanied RenovaBR to better understand the present in São Paulo and part of our delegation joined Guia Negro to better understand the past.
The group with Guia Negro didn't simply take in the sights and what's there; we took in the silence and sought to understood what used to be.
Throughout Liberdade and across the city, Guia Negro guided us through the physical and cultural spaces where Afro-Brazilian history has been minimized or erased, as well as where it's being reclaimed.
The experience underscored something very important: erasing a people's history is a common way to dilute their power in the present.
What do stories have to do with democracy, particularly with elections??
To answer that, let's be honest: How many voters reach the polls with the intricate details of candidates' policy positions top of mind? Not many.
And how many reach the polls informed by party identity, slogans, big picture ideas and stories? Most.
The way we see it, modern elections have become contests between stories - whose stories matter, whose struggles are acknowledged, and who should shape what comes next.
Now back in the U.S., the Brazilian election results are in and our own midterms are days away, the power of stories feels all the more urgent.
Look at a recent parallel between our two countries - and difference in how we responded:
The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC was eerily echoed in the January 8, 2023 assault on Brazil’s seats of power in Brasília. The aftermath revealed profound differences in democratic resilience.
Brazil chose accountability. Its institutions moved decisively to hold those responsible accountable under the law, including those at the highest levels of political power. Put another way, Brazil enforced the rule of law without fear or favor.
The United States did not.
What stories are we telling ourselves now about what happened, why, and what we should have done?
What stories do U.S. voters have in mind as they head to the polls next Tuesday, November 3?
There's a reason three words are core to our work:
🔴 STORIES define who belongs, what a country remembers, and how we decide what comes next.
🟡 CHANGE happens when untold stories and undertold truths challenge the status quo.
🔵 POWER shifts to better serve all of us when our present stories account for the full scope of our past and are clear about what we want to see in our shared future.
October 2026
