A New Proven Way to Protect Democracy: SWAY

Sway Is How We Turn Protest Into Power—And We Need All Hands On Deck

I have some really good news today, and I hope you read, share, and act on this article.

For years, millions of Americans have marched against ICE, organized rallies, and raised their voices against a system that has terrorized immigrant communities, separated families, and operated with near-total impunity. But too often, that energy dissipates once the march ends. Meanwhile, ICE continues to kill Americans at record rates, rape and abuse women, and sexually abuse children. People march, then go home hoping lawmakers listen, hoping the next election changes something, hoping outrage alone is enough.

Hope is not a strategy. Organization is.

That is why I want to tell you about Sway—a new (free) app designed to help us build collective voter influence at a scale politicians cannot ignore. Let’s Address This.

What Sway Does—Simply and Powerfully

Let me get something out of the way. This is not a sales pitch to buy Sway. Sway is free. No donations required. No paywalls. No gatekeepers. Just action.

With that elephant in the room addressed, here’s why Sway is so special and effective.

Sway allows voters to organize around clear policy demands and translate that organization directly into electoral consequences. Right now, I am partnering with a team of amazing human rights activists on a major goal: 1 million voters organizing together to abolish ICE.

Here’s how it works.

• Voters join a group—like the Abolish ICE group—and receive a local voter guide showing which candidates have pledged to defund and disband ICE.

• Candidates can publicly pledge their support and, in return, see real-time evidence of how many voters are organizing to support—or oppose—them.

This flips the traditional power dynamic. Instead of politicians making vague promises and disappearing, voters make their expectations explicit and visible. Elected officials can see, in real time, how many people are prepared to organize against them if they choose corporate donors over their constituents.

If they choose the will of voters, voters reward them with their vote. If they choose the demands of corporations, voters organize to remove them from office and replace them with someone who actually cares about people, not profits.

Watch my live conversation with Ali Parovi from Sway

Today, I went live on Substack to hear from Ali Partovi, CEO of NEO and chair of Sway. Ali explains how Sway works, how voting groups can send members personalized voter guides ahead of elections, and why this model can help translate public energy from rallies and marches into real political leverage.

You can watch our conversation on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe and support Let’s Address This on there as well if you haven’t yet.

No Data Harvesting. No Fundraising. No Spam.

Protecting our privacy and PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is a non-negotiable for Sway. Accordingly, after verifying your PII to check against the voter database, Sway does not store sensitive personal information like your full name, street address, or date of birth. That data simply does not remain part of the system. To function as a voter-organizing tool, Sway does require a phone number or email address so it can maintain an account record—but that info is not sold, shared, or used to spam you.

The goal is not surveillance or fundraising; it is coordination. This takeaway should be simple and reassuring: Sway keeps data minimal, avoids sensitive PII, and exists solely to help voters organize more effectively and confidently. In return, voters get something tangible and useful—a clear, localized voter guide that makes participating in elections feel easier, more informed, and more powerful.

The Right Way to Use Sway

Sway works best when used collectively, not passively. Signing up is the first step, but the real impact comes from sharing. Once you join a voting group (in this case Abolishing ICE) and see which candidates have pledged to your priorities, step two is critical: share that information with your community. Text it to friends and family. Post it in group chats. Bring it to marches, meetings, and organizing spaces. Sway is designed to turn individual intent into visible collective pressure, and that only happens when people invite others in. This is how momentum carries forward between protests and elections, and how elected officials come to understand—clearly and unmistakably—that voters are organized, informed, and prepared to act together at the ballot box. This is why we are seeking 1 million Swayers right now.

Corporate money dominates politics because it is organized, consistent, and relentless. Grassroots movements often have the numbers—but not the infrastructure to sustain pressure between election cycles.

Sway changes that.

So now, when you attend a march, you can ask people to do something concrete in that moment. Instead of marching, going home, and hoping turnout materializes months later, you can help people sign up on the spot. Momentum doesn’t evaporate—it compounds. Somewhere around 50,000 to 100,000 people read each article I write. Imagine if at the March 28 No Kings March, every person who reads this article signs up just 10 people to Sway. Very quickly we’d approach 1 million people.

This allows for sustained organizing at the local, state, and federal levels. It allows voters to show up not just once, but repeatedly, with clarity and coordination.

This is collective action without financial barriers—people working together in a way that has never been scaled like this before.

The Politics Are Already With Us

Here’s something politicians don’t like to admit: public opinion has shifted.

Recent polling shows that for the first time, more Americans support abolishing ICE than protecting it. The people understand this. What’s missing is organized pressure strong enough to force political alignment.

That is exactly what Sway is built to create.

And the timing matters. We have two weeks before a critical vote on DHS funding. This is not theoretical. This is an opportunity to organize at scale and make clear that continued funding for ICE comes with electoral consequences.

What I’m Asking You to Do

If you follow me on Substack or on any social platform, I’m asking you to join my ballot initiative on Sway to demand that we abolish ICE and end this terror on the American people once and for all. Here’s what that involves:

1. Sign up for Sway.

2. Share the link for Sway: https://www.sway.co/g/4ug5naoy?ref=76ia8ofh

3. Post the link across your socials.

4. Sign up neighbors to Sway at protests, meetings, and conversations.

You can copy and share this message directly:

I will vote for candidates who pledge to abolish ICE. Join me and see all candidates on Sway who have pledged to defund and disband ICE: SWAY

This is how we defeat corporate money—not by matching it dollar for dollar, but by out-organizing it person to person. And as the old saying goes, organized people beat organized money. The will of the people is already there. Now we have the tool to make that will impossible to ignore. Let’s get to work.