A trustworthy and enduring democracy includes all voices. It gives all serious perspectives a chance to be heard. When dialogue ends, democracy dies.
Working in partnership with RealClearPolitics (RCP), the RealClearFoundation (RCF) seeks to advance genuine dialogue in America’s public life. Not a false form of dialogue, in which deep-seated conflicts are papered over, but a true one, in which disagreements are addressed openly, honestly, and civilly.
You can see this commitment in RCF’s signature initiative, RealClearInvestigations (RCI), which treats competing positions evenhandedly and fills in gaps in news coverage, particularly when it comes to voices that would otherwise remain marginalized from mainstream discourse. To give a few examples:
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In covering the rise of speech codes in professional associations, RCI interviewed proponents who think that the codes will create a fairer society, as well as those who worry that they could invite censorship of religious beliefs and controversial political and policy opinions.
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While a transition to clean energy is often touted as a win-win -- millions of good-paying jobs while fighting climate change -- RCI talked to workers, union organizers, developers, and regulators about the realities of many green jobs, including low wages, inadequate training, and hazardous working conditions.
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As California considers making ethnic studies a graduation requirement for all 1.74 million high schoolers in the state, RCI heard from a range of voices, from advocates who say that ethnic studies are empowering and heal psychic wounds, to critics who view the curriculum as political indoctrination and tantamount to the imposition of a state religion.
RCF is also working to keep fact-checking organizations, the umpires of public dialogue, honest. Informed by empirical research, RealClear Media Fellow Kalev Leetaru and his colleagues have identified systemic weaknesses in the fact-checking ecosystem relied on by social media platforms, from the pitfalls associated with fact-checking websites that are explicitly satirical in nature to the problem of fact checks being performed on claims that weren’t really made.
And no issue matters more to the fairness of democracy than trustworthy elections. From state-level investigations to informing debate over proposed federal reforms, RCF will treat citizens’ concerns and officials’ statements with the seriousness and skepticism that they deserve, while advancing policies that can give all sides confidence in the electoral process.
If you find these efforts to maintain and strengthen democracy compelling, please support our mission through a tax-deductible donation.
