How firefighters and construction workers should work together

Editor’s note: Earlier this year, Democracy Notes published Democracy Notes 2025 Trends, a report on the U.S. pro-democracy ecosystem.

One trend we identified was the tug between firefighters and construction workers — two modes of operation at play within our community.

In this piece, Democracy 2076 Founder and Executive Director Aditi Juneja lays out three lessons from Democracy 2076’s work on how those two archetypes should work together.

I’ve always thought of myself as a firefighter — someone who runs toward danger and crisis and is calm and helpful. That was my role in the first Trump administration. During the second Trump administration, I’ve increasingly found myself playing a different role: a construction worker. I believe that we can’t stop fires if the foundations our houses are built upon are damaged.

The Democracy Notes 2025 Trends report identifies a tension I’ve seen throughout the democracy ecosystem: between firefighters and construction workers, defense and offense, short-term and long-term work. Having spent time in both roles, I’ve come to believe the question isn’t which role matters more. Both are essential. The challenge is figuring out how they work together. Over the last three years, Democracy 2076 has experimented with that question. Here are three lessons we’ve learned.

Construction workers are most useful when they create the space for firefighters to step back from immediate crises and help shape longer-term strategies.

For many firefighters, the challenge isn’t a lack of interest in long-term thinking. It’s a lack of capacity. Firefighters often have the time to participate in long-term work, but not to lead it. Construction workers can add value to the pro-democracy ecosystem by creating the space, processes, and infrastructure that allow people closest to today’s challenges to contribute to shaping tomorrow.

When Democracy 2076 began developing a Constitution for 2076, we brought together organizers from 41 states alongside futurists and constitutional scholars. Rather than starting with advocates for particular reforms, we wanted ideas to emerge from people closest to communities and constituents. They were able to participate in long-term thinking and our value-add was holding the space and creating the process for their contributions.

Long-term work often fails because construction workers design based on heady analysis rather than utility. It is not enough for a report, scenario, or strategy to be interesting. If firefighters do not know how to apply it in the present, it is unlikely to shape their work.

Construction workers should design long-term work with users, applications, and implementation in mind from the beginning. We learned this lesson through our Coalitions for 2076 research. From the beginning, we involved membership-based organizations and other leaders. We got their feedback on both the 17 emerging wedge issues defining our realignment and the scenarios for how it might play out.

After publication of the report, we found that while many partners thought the work was interesting, few organizations were reaching out for support on how to use it. So, we began proactively reaching out to organizations we thought might find the work useful and brainstorming possible applications with them.

We also heard repeatedly that one of the biggest barriers to adoption was capacity. Organizations found the ideas compelling but did not necessarily have the time to design a workshop, create a slide deck, or integrate the work into an existing program. So, we offered to take the first pen in doing that for them. We walked away understanding the importance of not only involving firefighters from the beginning of every design process, but also supporting them in adoption to ensure insights are useful and actionable.

In response to Democracy Notes 2025 Trends, we’ve seen competing pieces on whether we need greater alignment or a diversity of tactics. In our experience, that is the wrong question.

Long-term visions are most useful when they help us determine where alignment is necessary and where a diversity of approaches is valuable.

Our Imagining 2076 program found that roughly three-quarters of people recognize significant problems with democracy, but only about half report a strong sense of agency, and only around 30 percent can imagine a better democratic future. Those findings suggest a shared challenge for the democracy ecosystem; if agency and imagination are low across audiences, increasing both is a goal around which many of us can align.

But this research also suggests there is no universal story that creates agency and imagination for everyone. Different audiences have different values, heroes, stories, and visions of the future. We may benefit from alignment around outcomes while still needing a diversity of tactics to achieve them.

Aditi Juneja is the Founder and Executive Director of Democracy 2076.

Have thoughts on this piece? You can submit a pitch to Democracy Notes Perspectives here.