In May of 2022 we lost Rob Stein - an architect of progressive infrastructure and one of the most visionary strategists of his generation.
Rob was deeply respected and warmly regarded by nearly everyone who met him, regardless of politics or background. Over his long career in the nonprofit and private sectors, government service, and political strategy, he helped launch multiple organizations that have shaped the progressive movement for decades.
He is best known as the founder and first CEO of the Democracy Alliance, where he brought together a network of major donors committed to building durable progressive infrastructure. That work channeled billions of dollars into organizations that continue to have national impact - from policy think tanks to voter mobilization efforts.
Rob’s legacy is not just in the institutions he built, but in the thousands of people he inspired with his vision, strategic brilliance, and unwavering belief that sustained investment can drive transformational change. His passing left a profound void, but his example continues to guide and motivate those working for a more just and equitable future.
In addition to his behind-the-scenes leadership, Rob understood the power of storytelling. Three days before his death, he created the video below to capture both the history and the urgency of building a permanent progressive infrastructure. It is not just a history lesson - it’s a call to action for anyone who cares about the future of our democracy.
Video Summary: The Development of the Right-Wing Network
Shortly before his dealth Rob recorded a final video. It rings even more true today. Rob’s presentation traces how the modern conservative movement deliberately built a long-term infrastructure over six decades. Key points include:
Origins in the 1950s–1960s
McCarthyism and the John Birch Society injected conspiracy thinking and hardline anti-communism into the GOP. Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign marked the takeover of the party’s soul by its most uncompromising wing. The message: compromise is betrayal, and institutions that constrain conservative power are enemies.
The Powell Memo (1971)
Lewis Powell’s memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was a call to corporate America to organize and invest for the long haul. It helped trigger the creation of a web of conservative think tanks and advocacy organizations, heavily funded by wealthy families like the Kochs, Coors, and Bradleys. Business leaders were told to treat politics like any other capital investment - and they did.
Building Policy Infrastructure
By the 1970s–80s, institutions like the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, the Federalist Society, and state-level policy networks proliferated, shaping legislation and public opinion across the country. They wrote model bills, vetted judges, trained activists, and fed a steady stream of ideas and personnel into government.
Citizens United & Dark Money (2010)
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision supercharged conservative capacity. Rob describes how Americans for Prosperity and allied groups built “the most powerful, privately funded political trust in the history of democracy,” aligning billions in regulated and unregulated spending to dominate elections in more than 30 states. Money, message, and mobilization were woven into one machine.
Trumpism & Disinformation
The right weaponized lies, distrust, and cultural resentment. A for-profit disinformation ecosystem — from Fox News to Breitbart to localized digital outlets and influencer networks — now aggregates 40–50 million loyal consumers, shaping narratives and fueling authoritarian populism. The goal is not persuasion in the traditional sense; it’s identity formation. They repeat the same frames across talk radio, cable, social media, churches, and local pages until they feel like common sense.
Global Authoritarian Links
American authoritarian networks are reinforced by and connected to regimes like Russia and China, spreading disinformation and undermining democracy worldwide. The same narratives and tactics show up from Budapest to Brasília to school board fights in the U.S.
Rob’s core conclusion is blunt:
The right built a permanent, coordinated infrastructure — not campaigns.
They achieved message discipline and narrative repetition, converting talking points into culture.
They did it through strategic philanthropy, with donors investing in institutions instead of one-off projects and candidates.
He makes the case that progressives must do the same: commit to long-term investment, align around shared goals, and build institutions that can shape public opinion and policy for generations. It’s a candid, urgent reminder that political wins are fleeting unless they are backed by enduring capacity.
In this final video, Rob clearly and powerfully laid out the challenge — and the need for a progressive response.
What We Must Do Now: Building the Counter-Infrastructure
Honoring Rob’s work means doing more than admiring the diagnosis. It means acting on it. Based on his analysis - and on what we now know about disinformation, media deserts, and the right-wing messaging machine - a progressive response needs to focus on five big shifts:
1. Build Permanent, Local Communications Infrastructure
The right doesn’t “do a campaign” and go home. They fund a 365-day ecosystem. We need to match that:
Local digital outlets and community pages that talk about people’s real lives - schools, jobs, health care - not just national politics.
Always-on video and social content that lives where people are: Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, OTT/streaming, podcasts.
Real-world + online: connect digital communities to local unions, congregations, neighborhood groups, and civic organizations so online content spills into offline conversation.
These local pages will use local pages and local content to get around the right wing algorythm. The test is simple: when the election is over, are our pages still posting, our creators still creating, and our audiences still growing? If not, we’re still playing the old game.
2. Practice Message Discipline Without Becoming Rigid
The right’s strength is repetition: the same story told a thousand ways. Our strength is diversity and creativity - but we often let that turn into chaos.
We need:
Shared narrative frames: dignity of work, fairness, community, democracy as “we take care of each other” rather than an abstract civics lesson.
A handful of core stories, told different ways for different communities, but anchored in the same values and villains (rigged rules, concentrated corporate power, extremist politicians putting the wealthy and well-connected ahead of everyone else).
Simple, repeatable lines that regular people can say — not just consultants — lines that fit into a Facebook comment, a church parking lot chat, or a 30-second to-camera video.
Cultural awareness, not credential worship: culture crushes credentials. If a message doesn’t sound like it came from their world, it won’t land in their world — no matter how “right” it looks on paper.
We don’t need one script. We need one spine.
3. Turn Real People Into the Main Messengers
Authoritarians win when people feel alone and ashamed - like their struggles are personal failures instead of shared problems.
To counter that, we must:
Start with audiences first, not content first. What they feel, fear, hope, and say in their own language matters more than what we want to teach them. If the messenger doesn’t sound like someone from their world, they’ll never hear the message.
Center “real voices” - teachers, nurses, veterans, small business owners, parents, young people - telling short, everyday stories about how policy shows up in their lives.
Normalize struggle and solidarity: “You’re not failing; the system is rigged. And we can fix it together.”
Swarm, don’t solo: When a lie or attack lands, it shouldn’t be one organization responding. It should be dozens of trusted local messengers posting, commenting, and sharing their versions of the same core truth.
The righ wing firehose of falsehood can’t be met by a single hose of facts. It has to be met by a river of neighbors.
Authoritarians win when people feel alone and ashamed - like their struggles are personal failures instead of shared problems.
4. Invest for the Long Haul, Not Just the Next Quarter
Rob’s central critique of progressive philanthropy was simple: the right invested in infrastructure, we invest in projects and candidates.
To fix that, donors and institutions should:
Commit to multi-year funding for core communications infrastructure: local pages, creator networks, data and testing capacity, training hubs.
Measure success not only in votes this cycle, but in audience growth, narrative gains, and lasting organizations.
Build coordination tables for communications the way we’ve built them for field - so that local groups, unions, and national orgs aren’t reinventing the wheel in separate silos.
The goal is not a bigger boom-and-bust cycle; it’s a steadily rising floor.
5. Treat Disinformation as a Structural Threat, Not a Side Project
Disinformation isn’t an annoying side effect. It’s a strategy to break democracy.
So we must:
Move beyond fact-checking as the main tool. Facts matter, but people move when they feel seen, respected, and part of a community.
Pre-bunk: explain the tactics before people encounter them (“They’re going to tell you teachers are groomers / elections are rigged / protestors are terrorists — here’s why, and here’s what’s really going on”).
Build rapid-response networks of creators, local leaders, and organizations who can respond within hours with short, emotionally intelligent content - not just facts and press releases.
Protect and support messengers who get targeted - especially women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ leaders - so the right’s intimidation campaigns don’t thin our bench.
If we don’t treat the disinformation ecosystem as a core battlefield, it will quietly shape every other fight.
Rob Stein’s final message was that infrastructure decides the future. The right understood that and spent sixty years acting on it. Our task now is to build the progressive, pro-democracy infrastructure that can match that scale — rooted in community, disciplined in message, and serious about the long haul.
That is how we honor his life’s work. And it’s how we give democracy a fighting chance.
Additional Content:
The Firehose of Falsehood—And Why the Right Is Winning the Information War
Fighting the Firehose—How to Counter Right-Wing Disinformation Without Playing Their Game
