Democracy's Long Odds
If there's one lesson from the last election cycle and its aftermath, it's this: democracy in America is not as nearly resilient as we might like to think. So what does a truly functioning democratic republic look like -- and what is required of us to actually create it?
Dan Moulthrop is the CEO of the City Club of Cleveland, one of the nation's oldest free speech forums. One of their recent projects, Democracy Unchained, looked at these questions with the help of more than 100 different thinkers, writers, and elected officials. Join us for a conversation with Dan about what it will take to preserve democracy for future generations.
This event will be broadcast digitally on the Jefferson's Facebook page and made available on our website.
Dan Moulthrop is CEO of The City Club of Cleveland, one of the nation's great free speech forums. Founded in 1912, The City Club convenes more than 120 programs every year on just about every issue and topic of importance to Northeast Ohio.
He was a co-founder of The Civic Commons, a Knight Foundation project creating a social media environment designed for civil civic dialogue. Prior to that, he was the award-winning host of Sound of Ideas on 90.3 WCPN ideastream.
A former public high school English teacher, Dan serves on the board of the Teacher Salary Project and Teach for America in Greater Cleveland. He also serves on the boards of the Ohio Debate Commission and Borderlight, Cleveland’s International Theatre Festival. He was a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2014 and a 2019 Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Dan is also co-author, with Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, of the best-selling book Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers (The New Press, 2005), which provided the basis for the 2010 documentary "American Teacher." He was also co-editor, with RA Washington of A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City (2016). Dan is a frequent moderator of public conversations and has appeared on stages across the country, including the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Commonwealth Club of California. He received both his BA in English Literature and a Master’s of Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his wife and three children.
