The People’s Movement Our Future Depends On

As we reflect on 2025, one truth stands out clearly: this was not a normal year—and the challenges we face demand systemic solutions.

Across the country and around the world, people confronted deepening crises: unchecked corporate power, rising authoritarianism, accelerating climate devastation, economic precarity, and political systems increasingly unresponsive to the will of the people.

Today, we are happy to share our 2025 Annual Report: Building Power for a Real Democracy—the story of what you helped build

Affiliate Spotlight: Miami County, Ohio

As the year came to a close, Move to Amend Miami County, Ohio offered a powerful reminder of what sustained, relational organizing looks like.

Before we rush into the intensity of 2026, I want to take a moment with you — a breath, a look back, a recognition.

The story of 2025 is not only one of crisis— it is also the story of a people who refused to back down. It’s the story of communities who organized, educated, marched, petitioned, built networks of solidarity, demanded constitutional change, and expanded a movement rooted in justice and real democracy

Move to Amend — and democracy itself — need you right now.

Tonight, we arrive at the longest night of the year—the Winter Solstice—when darkness stretches to its fullest breath and the world seems to hold still. For generations, people have gathered at this threshold not in surrender, but in quiet faith that the light is beginning to return.

Our democracy stands in a solstice moment of its own.

The night feels long. Corporate money still floods our elections. Corporate power still drowns out the voices of the people. Authoritarian forces press their advantage, measuring how much we will endure.

And yet—this moment, too, carries a promise.

Thom Hartmann here, progressive political commentator. Many of you know me from the #1 rated progressive nationally syndicated radio show, the Thom Hartmann Program. I’m also the author of several dozen books, including Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights and The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America

I'm also a long time supporter of Move to Amend!

Please support their work to end corporate personhood and the corrupting influence of billionaire money in political elections.

This effort is more important than ever before.

Recording of the discussion with Greg Coleridge, featuring his monthly series of articles exploring the cultural takeaways from significant U.S. social movements over the last two and one-half centuries that are applicable for Move to Amend’s effort to enact the We the People Amendment.

Series on Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

• January – Introduction
• February – Abolition of Slavery
• March – Women’s Suffrage Movement
• April – Environmental Movement – including rights of nature
• May – Labor Movement
• June – LGTBQ+ Movement
• July – Colonial Revolution
• August – Peace / Anti-Nuclear Movement
• September – Civil Rights Movement
• October – Populist Movement of the 19th Century
• November – Direct Election of Senators
• December – Cultural Lessons from U.S. Movements for Advancing Move to Amend & Enacting the We the People Amendment

last in a series

Social change in U.S. history has always required both structural change – laws, institutions, constitutional amendments –  and cultural change –  a shift in shared values, beliefs, identity, and collective consciousness. However, laws follow culture. Transformative structural change has always begun with societal cultural change. People’s beliefs, identities, and shared sense of justice and inclusion shifted before laws and the constitution shifted. This sequence appeared across every major movement examined in this series. Each movement altered culture, some sooner and more deeply than others, before institutions were significantly altered.

The effort to pass the We the People Amendment, which would abolish all corporate constitutional rights and the doctrine of money as political speech, has always been more than a legal and constitutional campaign. It’s also been a cultural campaign to help supporters reorient how they think about themselves, democracy, and about who governs. Both are needed for the Amendment to pass as a first step toward greater constitutional renewal. Understanding earlier movements offers essential guidance for our movement in terms of how they changed narratives, built solidarity, empowered marginalized people, used culture (art, music, stories), and sustained momentum over years or decades.

I claim no definitive expertise on any single one of the described movements in this series,  lessons for today, or even whether the chosen movements were the  best to draw upon to compare and contrast with Move to Amend. Rigorous researchers can, no doubt, challenge particular descriptions and have differing take-a-ways of the essence of any one of the movements. The reflections represent simply my perspectives rooted in the privilege of organizing locally, state-wide and nationally for social change on a wide range of issues for over four decades, which required being exposed to people, ideas and historical and contemporary information on issues of race, gender, economic justice, peace, nonviolence, democracy, and how to create social movements.

Mindful of these limitations, here are a few important lessons learned from the ten examined movements.