π¨ DECIPHERING NED DROP 1οΈβ£: WHAT IS? "DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING" π³οΈ
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. taxpayer-funded NGO with active members of Congress on its board. While it presents itself as a promoter of democracy, in practice it has long served as a front for the CIA, carrying out foreign influence operations that would be politically or legally unacceptable if done directly by U.S. intelligence.
As I've documented extensively in threads and on Substack, NED also works closely with George Soros's network of NGOs and has largely adopted his ideological agenda, especially overseas.
They publish an academic journal, NED Journal of Democracy, which is extremely revealing.
The New World Order- that is, the world order that dominated since the Cold War- is based on the concept of "Open Society" versus "Closed Society."
Peace and national security is not measured in terms of absence of war or violence, but in terms of how many countries are an "Open Society."
It doesn't matter if a country elected their own leader in a democratic or peaceful way. If they are not an "Open Society," they are a "Closed Society" and thus an enemy.
It is a binary worldview, binary mindset.
Under the same binary worldview, assimilation of other nations as Open Societies is the top priority of foreign policy. Which means- pouring massive amounts of foreign aid into them (and NGOs). And military intervention if that fails, as with Afghanistan or Iraq.
Remember, this worldview is strongly binary. They cannot suffer other opinions to exist. If you oppose foreign aid, or oppose military interventions for regime change, you are a member of a "Closed Society" and thus the enemy. This makes MAGA-style populism just as big a threat as Russia, if not worse.
And this is the thrust of NED. They are ostensibly the CIA front and should be spending their time discussing other nations. But in reality, they spend as much time discussing how to handle dissident opinions in the USA as they do. They see MAGA as a national security threat.
If this scares you, good. It should. This is what most of intelligence and Congress supports.
This is the reason why our infrastructure crumbles, our health care system decays, SS goes bankrupt, but they keep insisting on sending foreign aid.
They don't care about Americans because Americans are their enemy.
Now, NED and other Open Society aligned groups have their own set of vocabulary. It will be through these drops that I will slowly decipher the vocabulary.
Let's start off with the most simple- 99% of the time, they don't refer to themselves as "Open Society." Instead, it's "pro-democracy" or "Western."
With that in hand, we'll look at the first article of the day today... "Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding", by Thomas Carothers and Brendan Hartnett, published in the Journal of Democracy, Volume 35, Number 3, July 2024.
"Backsliding" is used a lot in these journals, especially when talking about the post-Trump United States.
What does it mean?
You might think it refers to things like election fraud, political violence, or coups. Sometimes it does. But just as often, "backsliding" is used to describe perfectly legal, democratic elections... simply because the winner isnβt to the liking of global elites, NGOs, or foreign-policy circles, including CIA/NED.
Here's a quote which indirectly defines backsliding: "The onus for backsliding belongs on those leaders who gain power for a wide range of reasons... but then once in power relentlessly amass unconstrained power by overriding countervailing institutions and undercutting basic democratic norms and procedures."
Note the keywords "overriding countervailing institutions." That's NED and Soros-speak for themselves. Backsliding happens when people elect populist, America-first leaders or vote against corruption.
This is a definition that is used almost universally across universities, media, and foreign policy officials. They have effectively re-defined democracy to mean themselves and their network of NGOs.
Trump's election and re-election means the United States is "backsliding." Doesn't matter if he was democratically elected- he is automatically an enemy of democracy because he isn't for Open Societies.
Also from the article: "Backsliding is less about a failure of democracy to deliver than about a failure of democracy to constrain β that is, to curb the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders."
Translation: Democracy is backsliding when courts, media, NGOs, and bureaucracies fail to stop elected populists from exercising their mandate.
Think a minute about what that means. NED / CIA is outright saying that in order to save democracy, you have to use anti-democratic approaches to subvert the will of the people.
They're actively writing articles about how to take away our vote, how to ban the Republican party, and so on.
As I've said many times, active members of Congress sit on NED. This is is what our politicians think of us. They hate us to their core.
The article proposes a barrage of media coverage, NGOs, courts to stop backsliding.
Sounds a lot like exactly what is happening today.
π₯ Think about what this really means.
NED is openly arguing that to "protect democracy," we must override democratic elections, weaken voter power, and use unelected institutions to block political outcomes they don't like.
They are publishing articles on:
πΉWhether to end voting rights for populists,
πΉHow to ban anti-establishment parties, and
πΉHow to channel foreign money into media and NGOs that manipulate the political process.
These strategies are being funded and implemented globally on your tax dollars, and it is also happening right here in the United States.
Members of Congress sit on NED's board. This is how our political class thinks.
Let it sink in: They do not want you to choose your leaders. And when you vote the "wrong" way, they call it backsliding, and look for ways to stop it.
In short, they despise you. And if you despise them back, you are the threat to democracy. π§¨
This ends Drop 1οΈβ£, but more to come. π§΅end
Final note, if you think I'm being sensational... then you have a short memory.
β’ β’ β’
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
π§΅ THREAD: You've heard the phrase "OUR DEMOCRACY" a million times. But what exactly is "OUR DEMOCRACY"? π€
When they say "democracy," they don't mean a republic. They don't mean consent of the governed. They don't mean your right to choose your own leaders.
They mean a system where "institutions" - NGOs, multilaterals, the permanent bureaucracy - advance a set of values they consider settled: equality, social justice, cosmopolitanism, global governance. These values aren't proposals to be voted on. They're treated as moral prerequisites that must be true *before* your vote counts.
Despite what they say, they aren't for checks and balances. Checks and balances limit what government can do to you. This limits what you can do to *them*. The brakes are on accountability, not power. The institutions that set the boundaries of acceptable policy have put themselves beyond the reach of the electorate, and they call that arrangement "democracy."
Trump has been an existential threat to this system since the moment he said "drain the swamp" ... because the swamp IS the system. When he threatened those institutions, he didn't threaten the republic. He threatened their immunity from it.
And they said so. On camera. At their own events. In their own words.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread.π
Robert Kagan:
"I would say there is an argument for saying give me some smoke filled rooms... they weeded out the Donald Trumps of this world."
Backroom deals instead of primaries. Because primaries are how you got Trump... and the old gatekeepers would have stopped him.
Think Kagan's an outlier? Here's Brookings senior fellow William Galston at the National Endowment for Democracy's (NED) most prestigious annual lecture.
He explains that "liberal democracy" requires "some abridgement of majoritarianism."
Translation: democracy means limiting what the majority can do.
π§΅π¨ THREAD: How the Charlottesville rally and SPLC birthed an entire billion-dollar-plus "democracy" ecosystem π¨
11 federal counts. Wire fraud. Money laundering conspiracy. But here's what the SPLC headlines are missing:
β’ The indictment describes a paid informant in the leadership chat that PLANNED Unite the Right
β’ That informant "helped coordinate transportation" to the rally... at SPLC's direction
β’ There is ONE publicly identified organizer whose documented role was transportation coordinator
β’ His Discord posts about running over protesters were made 26 DAYS before Heather Heyer was killed by a car
β’ The indictment says postings were made "under the supervision of the SPLC"
β’ Charlottesville then became the founding event for a billion-dollar political machine
β’ SPLC installed itself as that machine's definitional gatekeeper
I report. You draw your own conclusions.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread. π
It is NOT confirmed fact that Chesny, who appeared to be encouraging running over protesters, was SPLC's informant.
But the indictment (paragraph 11a) describes informant F-37, and it matches Chesny:
β’ Member of the online leadership chat that planned Unite the Right
β’ Attended Charlottesville (at SPLC's direction)
β’ Made racist postings (under SPLC's supervision)
β’ Helped coordinate transportation for attendees
Now here's why this matters beyond the fraud charges.
Charlottesville became the single most consequential founding event in modern American political infrastructure. Every one of these organizations says... in their own words.... that they exist or were transformed because of August 12, 2017.
π§΅ THREAD: The true reason Pete Hegseth is being targeted is because he's standing between President Trump and a coup
@PeteHegseth named the institutions... CFR, Brookings, the general class... in 37 seconds in a video by @Liz_Wheeler . Within 72 hours of his nomination, a color revolution planning document cited him as an insider threat.
They didn't go after him because of drinking. They didn't go after him because of women. They went after him because every color revolution manual ever written says the same thing: you cannot topple a government unless the security forces defect. And a loyal Secretary of Defense is the one person who makes sure they don't.
I have the receipts. Their own documents. Their own training sessions. Their own words on camera.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread. π
@PeteHegseth @Liz_Wheeler This is not my theory. This is theirs.
Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan β the two most cited scholars in the color revolution field β studied 323 regime change campaigns. Their finding:
Security force defections make campaigns FORTY-SIX TIMES more likely to succeed.
@PeteHegseth @Liz_Wheeler So what did co-author Maria Stephan do next?
She became Chief Organizer of the Horizons Project. And on July 16, 2025, she trained New Kings participants on video.
"Security forces refused to obey orders to repress protesters."
π¨π§΅ THREAD: Braver Angels says they're bipartisan and just bringing people together. Their own leadership coordinates with an anti-Trump political infrastructure network.π¨
This thread is not about BA's members. Many are sincere, and I thank @wilksopinion and @JohnRWoodJr for communicating with me.
This is about the infrastructure steering them: IMIP.
On August 18, 2025, Harry Boyte, a former Democratic Socialists of America board member, YES, that DSA announced Maury Giles' new role as Braver Angels CEO on video and their shift in strategy from depolarization to civic action:
"David has put together a featured plenary at the National Conference on Citizenship... which will be a launch of a new stage for Braver Angels that some of us have been working on for a while."
IMIP is the Inter-Movement Impact Project. It coordinates BA's strategic direction. Its own May 2025 document quotes David Brooks approvingly:
"Short term: Stop Trump. Foil his efforts. Pile on the lawsuits."
Braver Angels' members are bipartisan. Their leadership is adjacent to anti-Trump infrastructure. This thread has all the receipts.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread.π
@wilksopinion @JohnRWoodJr IMIP's own document from May 5, 2025 quotes David Brooks and calls for a nationwide civic uprising:
"Short term: Stop Trump. Foil his efforts. Pile on the lawsuits. Turn some of his followers against him."
Then: "IMIP has been working to help answer [this] since late 2017."
@wilksopinion @JohnRWoodJr Walt Roberts runs IMIP. June 30, 2025:
"We've adopted Rachel Kleinfeld's strategy number four as our thing... a broad-based, multi-stranded, pro-democracy movement."
Flood the country with NGOs (including Braver Angels) is strategy #4. What are the other four strategies?
I appreciate you engaging, sincerely. You're one of the few people in this space who actually responded, and your tone was decent. So I want to return the courtesy... and this is my first multi-part Hello.
You wrote: "Is any organized effort that involves people working from across the aisle necessarily a conspiracy?"
No. It isn't. And I haven't called it one. I've called it what it is: a funded, coordinated, strategically managed field.
Let me start with you.
You are the National Ambassador of Braver Angels. Braver Angels pulled in $5,651,273 in 2024, up from $958,681 in 2019... mostly from major foundations.
But your public videos repeatedly frame it as a "grassroots" or "national citizens" movement.
These two things cannot both be true. A $5.6 million-per-year operation funded predominantly by major foundations is not a grassroots citizens movement. It is a professionally managed nonprofit. There is nothing wrong with that... unless you describe it as something it isn't.
(2/4)
Now, here's where it gets interesting. And here's where I think you may genuinely not know the full picture.
In the above video clip, you say:
"We are in this moment where the depolarization movement I think is beginning to coalesce. I mean, I think you and I are in a position to sort of feel it. Braver Angels, Millennial Action Project, all of the amazing organizations in New Pluralists, National Conversations Project."
You named New Pluralists by name. So let's talk about what New Pluralists actually is.
In 2017, Mark Gerzon, president of the Mediators Foundation, consultant to the United Nations Development Programme, distinguished fellow at the EastWest Institute, organized a private meeting of major political funders at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Pocantico Conference Center. Representatives of both the Koch and Soros networks were in the room. The project was co-launched by Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Out of that meeting came the New Pluralists.
Today, New Pluralists is a funder collaborative, not a standalone nonprofit. It is fiscally sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Templeton, Hewlett, Einhorn, Fetzer, Klarman, Lubetzky, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are all partners. MacKenzie Scott gave $4 million. The stated goal is $100 million over a decade.
Braver Angels is listed as one of approximately 60 "Field Builders." So is Tim Shriver's Dignity Index. So is Horizons Project. So is David French.
The same foundations that fund the New Pluralists collaborative also fund Braver Angels directly. Templeton gave $1.26 million to Braver Angels. Hewlett gave at least $75,000 plus undisclosed seed funding. They are also governing partners of New Pluralists. The money goes to the funder collaborative AND to the organizations the collaborative funds. It is the same pipeline.
You described this as "a moment where the depolarization movement is beginning to coalesce." New Pluralist's strategic plan describes it as a $100 million coordinated investment in field infrastructure. Both descriptions are accurate. The difference is yours sounds organic. Theirs sounds like what it is.
(3/4)
You wrote: "I do know Tim Shriver. He and I did a Braver Angels podcast together."
Good. Then you know who runs the Dignity Index.
The Dignity Index is operated by Project Unite. Its theoretical framework was developed by Donna Hicks, a Harvard specialist in international conflict resolution. Its framework was designed for mediating foreign wars. Then it was applied to scoring American political speech on a 1-8 contempt-to-dignity scale. In Utah. And it was piloted at UVU, the same campus where Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
One of the official websites to come out of the Biden White House's "United We Stand" summit was dignity[.]us. That URL now points to the Dignity Index.
Braver Angels has a formal partnership with the Dignity Index. You announced it. The pledge: "connect all 124 Braver Angels alliances" with Dignity Index training.
You wrote in your thread: "The Dignity Index, as I understand it, is meant to be a tool for holding all politicians accountable."
With respect... "as I understand it" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The Dignity Index was built on a foreign conflict resolution framework, launched from a White House summit that identified populist movements as domestic threats, and piloted in the same Utah institutional ecosystem that was hosting MWEG conferences for three consecutive years at UVU. None of that requires a conspiracy. All of it is documented. Most of it is on their own websites.
π§΅π¨ THREAD: Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. Within TWO HOURS, leaders of 7 "bridge-building" organizations assembled on a conference call. Why so fast? Because UVU was THEIR campus. π¨
This is Maury Giles, incoming CEO of Braver Angels, admitting on camera at the National Conference on Citizenship:
"Within two hours of the assassination, a group of us, all Utahns, we gathered on a call. We'd become friends over the last 5 years through our work in the community. And we also happen to be leaders in seven different national organizations that work in civic renewal."
Two hours. Seven national organizations. But this wasn't a spontaneous reaction to a tragedy. This was a network protecting its home turf. Because UVU wasn't just the place where Kirk was shot. It was the institutional center of the entire bridge-building / Dignity Index apparatus... and had been for years.
And the kicker?
These seven national organizations don't hide their own intent: replicate color revolution tactics in the United States. And, yes, that includes MWEG - Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
I have the receipts... they all admitted this on camera.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread. π
MWEG on their own GROW video:
"UVU has sponsored for us for the past three years so that we can have it there on their campus."
UVU SPONSORED their annual conference for three consecutive years. UVU is not a neutral venue in this story. It's a partner.
A speaker on MWEG's own Civics Learning Week video from 2023 admits she got a faculty position at UVU partly BECAUSE she was involved with Braver Angels... the same organization whose incoming CEO organized the two-hour call after Kirk was killed.