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In this age of cynicism, with democracy under attack around the world and with gridlock and partisanship paralyzing America, the 1988 No Campaign in Chile and the recent film about it, called No, offer a timely message of hope and inspiration. I recently saw the movie, and it was a wonderful reminder of an important event in the struggle for democracy in our world.
In 1987, the National Democratic Institute (a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support democratic institutions worldwide) asked me to go to Chile and work with a truly amazing opposition coalition of 17 political parties that had accepted the challenge to end the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet by participating in a plebiscite, or peaceful election.