Engaged California won’t survive and succeed as a project of one particular politician. It can succeed only if Californians embrace it as their own.

In this dark American moment, California has turned on a small democratic light.

It’s called Engaged California, an online, nonpartisan tool for Californians to deliberate with one another and engage their government.

At first glance, it might not seem like much. When you sign up with your email, pledge to behave with civility, and answer questions about your thoughts on the L.A. fires, it might feel like just another online survey.

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But it is a big deal. Because the U.S., and California, have done little to encourage deliberative democracy, especially online. Which means that Engaged California could launch a new era in which everyday people determine public policy themselves.

Before I go on, I should disclose that, since last year, I’ve been an unpaid advisor to the Engaged California project.

My role was to join Zoom calls, ask questions, connect my fellow advisors and state workers designing the tool to world experts in digital and deliberative democracy.

I confess that, even while advising the project, I didn’t think it would ever be used by the public. I was pessimistic even though, as an advisor, I was working with very smart people at the Carnegie Endowment’s California program and........

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