The Conscience of Democracy: Introducing FAIR's American Experience Webinar Series

Oct 17, 2025

Dear Friends of FAIR,

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, we stand at a crossroads. While it’s tempting to regard our founding principles as museum pieces or admirable artifacts from a distant past, treating them as relics betrays their very essence.

FAIR’s new American Experience webinar series takes a radically different approach. Rather than merely celebrating what our founders accomplished, we’re exploring how today’s Americans – across every demographic, background, and belief system – are breathing new life into those foundational principles. We’re proving that democracy isn’t a monument to preserve, but a living experiment that demands our active participation.

Our inaugural webinar, The Conscience of Democracy, launches Monday, October 27th at 7pm ET. FAIR Executive Director Monica Harris will guide a conversation between two extraordinary voices in American civic life: renowned civil liberties champion and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Princeton University professor and constitutional scholar Robert George. Together, they’ll examine one of democracy’s most essential yet endangered practices: the art of respectful disagreement.

In an era when political opponents are increasingly viewed as enemies, when social media algorithms reward outrage over understanding, and when ideological bubbles insulate us from challenging perspectives, this conversation couldn’t be more urgent. The Conscience of Democracy sets the tone for our entire series because before we can tackle any of our current challenges – inequality, polarization, institutional trust, global competition – we must first reclaim our capacity to engage productively with those who see the world differently.

This isn’t about civility for civility’s sake; it’s about recognizing that democracy’s greatest strength has always been its ability to transform conflict into progress through structured disagreement and peaceful persuasion. Drawing on examples from the fierce debates of the Constitutional Convention to the clash over tactics in the Civil Rights Movement, our panelists will explore how constructive criticism and principled dissent have historically strengthened American pluralism.

From October 2025 through July 2026, each monthly webinar will explore themes that reflect our democracy’s evolution. But this won’t just be a history lesson. We’ll also examine how Americans are reviving these democratic muscles in town halls, school board meetings, community organizations, and online spaces while honestly confronting the barriers that have prevented full participation. How do we distinguish between destructive division and productive disagreement? What does it mean to be democracy’s conscience in 2025? How can we teach the next generation that conflict, channeled constructively, is not democracy’s weakness but its core strength?

This webinar series directly supports FAIR’s American Experience curriculum, which helps students understand that Americans throughout our nation’s history have consistently found ways to bridge differences, overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges, and inch closer to that “more perfect union.” FAIR’s curriculum doesn’t shy away from our country’s failures and contradictions; instead, it shows how acknowledging and wrestling with these tensions has always been part of the American story.

Join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking evening that educates, sparks dialogue, and reminds us why American democracy, despite all its flaws and challenges, remains humanity’s most audacious experiment in self-governance.

Register now at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j7KLsnS7T56x4Z5si66QiA

With gratitude,

Monica Harris
Executive Director

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Part One of FAIR’s Curriculum Webinar Series: The Conscience of Democracy

Join us on October 27th at 7pm EST for a discussion between Nadine Strossen and Robert P. George, moderated by our very own Monica Harris! Rather than merely looking backward at what our founders accomplished, we will examine how today’s Americans—across all demographics, backgrounds, and beliefs—are applying those same foundational principles to solve contemporary problems. We’ll demonstrate that democracy isn’t a relic to be preserved, but a living experiment that demands our active participation.

FAIR in Conversation - Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth

Join FAIR in Conversation on October 29th at 7pm EST as we take momentary detours from our mechanized lifestyles and reflect on the ideas and values that have truly enabled us to flourish as humans. Amid today’s highly technical, material, and fast-paced world, it is easy to lose sight of the thing that matters most – our common humanity and where it is headed. In pursuing FAIR’s work of promoting a pro-human culture based on common and shared values, the October FAIR in Conversation highlights the increasingly popular book, Against the Machine.

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