Seizing the Initiative

The All American

The All American is a home for people who recognize that our country is at a tipping point and want to help write the next chapter in American democracy. Three convictions ground our work:

Division is a business model — and we're not buying it. Plenty of forces profit from keeping Americans politically divided and at each other's throats. We work in the opposite direction: surfacing the common issues, humanity, universal values and shared foundations that no one party or owns and every American can claim.

No politician or political party is coming to save us. This isn't a project of left or right, and it isn't waiting on Washington. At every critical juncture in American history, committed citizens — not parties — have written the path forward. Surviving isn't the goal; everyone flourshing and thiving is.

Vision before plan. Our civic and political leadership isn't short on tactics; they're short on a shared answer to what kind of country we're trying to be. Our focus is the WHAT, not the HOW: co-authoring a new social contract that names what Americans expect from our government and what we'll contribute in return. Naming what we're building together is how Americans have always begun to turn the page into a new chapter.

What does the All American do?

Our work moves in four directions, each one feeding the next.

We gather ideas. From civic professionals who've built careers thinking about democracy, and from people whose lived experience is its own form of expertise. The vision for what America can become won't come from one group or the other — it comes from putting them in the same room.

We build community. Through All American MeetUps, in person and online, we convene Americans to debate, discuss, and work toward a shared vision of what comes next. Durable change requires durable bonds. We build them on purpose.

We open paths to action. We create concrete opportunities for civic engagement that advance the vision we're co-authoring with you — building the path as we walk it together.

We demand response. We press elected leaders of every persuasion to listen and respond to what Americans are actually telling them we want.

How It Started

American Futures began early in 2024 when Ilyse, Seth, and Peter—feeling politically homeless themselves—came together around a shared conviction that something new was urgently needed for our unique form of American democracy to continue to flourish and for authoritarianism to be defeated, and that millions of Americans were looking to define a fresh vision for what comes next in American democracy, across the political divide, and rooted in patriotism and universalist values.