Don't Wait for New Leaders. BECOME Them

Today we bring you Story #6 in our Week of Citizening. We’ve already shown you how people are rethinking democracy through libraries, labor, and school boards. Now we’re headed to a place often overlooked but brimming with democratic possibility: West Virginia.

See the visuals and links to all these stories here: https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/dont-wait-for-better-leaders-become 

We’re told politics is about picking the lesser of evils. Ordering off a fixed menu. But what if we left the table… and headed for the kitchen? That’s what the folks behind West Virginia Can’t Wait are doing. And it’s a clear sign that democracy is evolving.

• They’ve passed legislation that’s rare even in liberal strongholds

• They don’t run candidates but communities

• They help hold elected officials accountable and offer ongoing support

This is what Jon Alexander calls the shift from Consumer Democracy to Citizen Democracy. Not just new processes like Citizens’ Assemblies or Participatory Budgeting (though we love those too) — but real people getting a grip on the systems we’ve got, starting from where we are.

“One of the things I’m most proud of in my career is helping to demystify politics. It’s just everyday work for everyday folks.”

— Rosemary Ketchum, West Virginia Can’t Wait

This isn’t happening in some liberal stronghold. This is Appalachia — a place many assume to be too red, too rigid, too far gone. But that’s just not the whole story. I’ve seen firsthand the level of commitment and creativity in Appalachia through my recent travels there for my PBS America Outdoors show. Trust me, these stories are happening in all sorts of underestimated places.

💬 Who else is opening politics to everyday people?

Sign up to share and discover more stories like this: https://stories.howtocitizen.com

Video Produced by: Tess Novotnoy

Week of Citizening Collaborators: Baratunde Thurston, Jon Alexander, Shira Abramowitz, Elizabeth Stewart

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Baratunde here with another Citizens story. This is for April nineteen,
twenty twenty five. I think we're up to story number
six out of eight, just three more to go, and
this one West Virginia can't wait. So I you know,
there's a setup embedded. And the thing my point in

(00:21):
doing this audio in front of the audio from the
video is just to check in with you a little
more loosely. We don't have to keep keep it so
rigid as in the three minute limits on Blue Sky
and Instagram. So we're we're coming into the home stretch

(00:42):
on this effort. And we've been posting these on substack,
on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on blue Sky, on Mailchimp, where else.
We've been putting it the backyard, the front yard, the
bus station, you know, wherever, wherever we can get it.
And this this story is about places that we overlooked,

(01:05):
and it's about people that we overlook in in our
political process. So I love this story because it is
based in Appalachia, and I grew up visiting parts of Appalachia.
I'm from the DC world, uh, Washington, DC world, and
so the Blue Ridge Mountains uh is almost my backyard.

(01:29):
And went camping there with my mom and all kinds
of explorations, and then I got to revisit in my
adult life with the America Outdoor Show I wasted on
PBS and the thing that I felt there, you know,
we we were doing stories about uh, adaptive whitewater rafting,
about regenerative agriculture, about coal miners who became bee keepers,

(01:52):
and I was just like, this is a story of Appalachia.
We're not seeing. We're We're only hearing folks who want
to cling to a particular business model cause it makes
them some money. They want to just cling to the
coal industry they want, you know, in this case, it
was Senator Joe Mansion at the time, who has his
way of doing things and a lot of financial interests

(02:13):
to make sure things stay a certain way. But I
was seeing this new story, this innovative, adaptive, creative spirit
of some fiercely independent but also interdependent people, the people
of of Appalachia, the people of the Hills. And the
story that you're gonna hear today reminds me of that.

(02:34):
It's not about white water rafting, but it is about
navigating choppy waters of our political system and what is
going on in West Virginia. It is a lack of
patience for the status quo, and it's really an invitation
to everyday people to get into the process. But they're aided.
There's facilitation, there's training, there's there's a community around, and

(02:57):
there's accountability and follow through. And so if you're tired
of your politicians, make some new ones, become one. But
do it, you know, not alone, so you don't get
eaten up by the machine. Anyway, I'm not trying to
spoil the whole story. Enjoy the sounds of West Virginia
can't wait, and please if you want to follow through
on what you're hearing in these we're always linking to

(03:21):
uh the substack version of the post where we've got
links to the group, to the Instagram post, to the
LinkedIn post. You want to find all these folks in
their social platforms. You want to support them, you want
to learn from them or or connect it to something
you know going on, which we're trying to make it
easy and just put it everywhere and find us at
stories dot howdositizen dot com. This is a group effort,

(03:42):
by the way, so just a major appreciation to share
a Bromlitz who has been like project managing this to
my partner Elizabeth Stewart, to my brother from another mother,
John Alexander, and to our video producers. That video producers
are test No Vaughtnoy and gut Ridge and Alexa Limb.

(04:05):
And they went out and really conducted these interviews that
you're hearing and edited them down and we try to
package them so they could travel the farthest in this
particular test. All right, enjoy your weekend, and if you
hear this years later, enjoy whatever day it is for
you in the future. I'm talking to you from the past. Look,

(04:26):
time travel is a real thing. Are you tired of
your limited political choices? So am I? And sometimes it
helps to be reminded that we are not limited to
what is on the menu that someone else chose. That
we can just go in the kitchen and start cooking,
mixing ingredients the way we want. But the point is this,

(04:48):
real people can take over the political process, especially when
they work together to do it. And some of the
best democratic innovation in America is happening in that way.
In Appalachia, check out the story of West Virginia Can't Wait.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
We passed a non discrimination ordinance as well as a
ban on conversion therapy. Those things seemed impossible in a
conservative Appalachian city, and they passed unanimously. My name is
Rosemary Ketchum. I am a volunteer and formered candidate for
West Virginia Can't Wait. We have run Republicans, Independents, and Democrats,

(05:29):
all on very similar platforms. Local politics is often very practical.
It's about potholes, it's about preservation and restoration. We want
to make sure that our candidates put these local issues
at the forefront of their campaigns. Folks feel like, well,
I'm not a lawyer. I don't know how to write
a bill. Those are the very people that we need
in elected office. If somebody got elected and they were like,

(05:49):
how do I write this? Are there examples from other cities,
we would be that liaison. So we build a Counsellor's Club,
which is essentially a text group of dozens of city
councilors across this date who can share policy ideas, or
commiserate about a tough council meeting, or essentially have a
friend group. We've seen over fifty one primaries run with
West Virginia Can't Wade candidates and nearly twenty five elected

(06:13):
officials across the state get elected on our platform with
our support. One of our great candidates in Parkersburg, Wendy Tech,
has been working fixing their roads in a new fire station.
Brian Butcher and Ixye Vega in Morgantown, West Virginia have
been focused on houselessness to support their local free shelter.
I think one of the things that I'm most proud

(06:34):
of in my own political career is helping demystify politics.
It is just everyday work for everyday folks.