Democracy Lives in Darkness - How and Why People Keep Their Politics a Secret

Democracy Lives in Darkness is about why people choose to hide their political beliefs from others and how they do so. Emily Van Duyn follows a secret political organization in rural Texas whose all-female membership meets in secret out of fear of their conservative spouses, friends, family, and neighbors. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations of this group throughout the Trump administration, as well as U.S. representative survey data on secret political expression, this book explores what it means to be politically outnumbered and how intensifying political polarization has changed that experience over the past several years. Amidst these changes, Van Duyn argues that democracy in the United States may exist in darkness, but, more optimistically, that it uses this darkness to move forward.