There is one thing that has always made democracies great. It’s not the institutions, the systems, or even the leaders. It’s the people.
But when institutions start to hold more power than the people, the precious balance necessary to a healthy democracy is threatened. We believe this is happening right now with our two political parties, which have outgrown their usefulness and become a distraction. The result is less participation, poorer dialogue, and an unhealthy democracy.
We believe that we can do better, and the trick is simple – give you more power. No matter who you are or what your political ideology is, Ruck.us will 1) match you to politically like-minded people; 2) enable you to exchange information; and 3) take collective action on the issues that matter most to you. It's that easy: Connect. Engage. Change your World.
Democracy is often called the “great experiment of self-government.” It is up to us to make sure our experiment succeeds. We hope you will join us.
Here is the team behind Ruck.us:
Nathan Daschle, CEO
The Founder and Chief Executive Ruck.us Bringer is Nathan Daschle. Nathan is a reformed lawyer and political operative. From 2007-2010, he served as the Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association. During this time, Democratic Governors and candidates suffered historic losses, particularly in key battleground states. Nathan hasn’t slept a full night since. Scarred by this experience, Nathan now dreams of a day when people can shed their partisan labels and organize freely around the issues they care about most.
Ray Glendening, Chief Strategy Officer
Growing up in suburban Maryland, Ray always figured he would spend his adult life playing for his beloved Orioles. However, after taking the Myers Briggs career test, the results discouragingly happened to come back “fire watcher”. Always one to take good advice for what its worth, Ray did the next closest thing… he became a Democratic campaign consultant. For 6 years, Ray ran campaigns across the country before serving as National Political Director of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) from 2008 through 2010. He now hopes he can be part of a new way of looking at politics at Ruckus.
Assaf Weinberg, CTO
The CTO of Ruck.us is Assaf Weinberg. Assaf coordinates design, development and product strategy teams to create what you see on Ruck.us. Before becoming a chief ruckus bringer, Assaf spent 10 years hacking code, running development teams, and managing startups. When not working on Ruck.us, Assaf is probably just passed out on his keyboard.
Board of Advisors
Ruck.us is also fortunate to receive the advice and counsel of a diverse and engaged Board of Advisors:
- Mark McKinnon - Senior Advisor, George W. Bush for President (2000, 2004); John McCain for President (2008)
- Joe Trippi - Chief Strategist, Dean for President (2004)
- Bradley Tusk - Campaign Manager, Michael Bloomberg for Mayor (2009)
- Rich Tafel - Founder, Log Cabin Federation
- Doug Ulman - President and CEO, LIVESTRONG
- Peter Choharis - Attorney and former Executive Director, 2004 Democratic Platform Committee
- Tom Davidson - Founder and CEO, EverFi
- Aaron Earls - Co-Founder and VP, New Media Strategies