What will hold us together, though, is the stability of our institutions—if we can restore them. Writers like Ari Berman, Jon Ward, and Spencer Overton and attorneys like Marc Elias have waved red flags of warning about voter suppression. Historians Carol Anderson, Kevin Kruse, and Heather Cox Richardson remind us that we’ve been here before. Hansi Lo Wang has doggedly educated America about what’s at stake in the 2020 census, and Nikole Hannah-Jones has educated America about the consequences of 1619 and the arrival of slavery on American shores.

