Dollarocracy
With the underpinnings of civil society under assault, it is easy and often necessary to be drawn into the fight of the moment, to battle as teachers in Wisconsin and women in Texas and African-Americans in North Carolina have to preserve gains once thought to be permanently enshrined. Those battles are vital and cannot be neglected. But they are not enough. Merely responding to the constantly emerging symptoms of the crisis or waiting in hopes of a better election result or the next Supreme Court appointment simply locks in a “new normal” that is certainly not new and should never be normal.
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John Nichols
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His next appointee for FCC chair could determine whether robber barons consolidate their domination of the public discourse.
These new political monsters have let loose an avalanche of scorched-earth, negative campaign ads—and enriched TV stations in the process.
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The government shutdown is all about electoral politics—particularly the gerrymandering of Republican districts and primaries that make compromise impossible.
The city of Washington lacks budget autonomy, so local officials are forced to cobble together a shutdown response. Why?
A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt declared: “At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth. That is nothing new.” Roosevelt’s words helped to usher in a transformational age of reform. At the start of the 1910s, children who should have been in school were changing bobbins in mills. Workers who dared to organize unions were mowed down by paramilitary forces. Women who could not vote were dying in sweatshop fires. The government lacked the ability to collect the revenues necessary to address the basic demands of a nation experiencing dramatic but horrifyingly unequal growth. Progress in Washington was stymied by millionaires who bought Senate seats in back-room deals. Reformers decried a “money power” that made a mockery of the promise of popular governance.
Ten years later, the Constitution had been amended so that women could vote, the Senate was directly elected by the people and Congress had the power to implement progressive taxation. At the same time, child labor, workplace safety and pure-food and -drug laws were implemented; labor unions were re-energized; and the rough outlines of what would become the New Deal were taking shape in states that came to be known as “laboratories of democracy.” The great leap forward was made possible by a recognition that we needed fundamental change and that some of that change required amending the Constitution. It was the same in the 1960s and early ’70s, another age of reform that saw constitutional amendments banning poll taxes and clearing the way for 18-year-olds to vote. For a moment it seemed likely that another amendment would eliminate the archaic Electoral College, and that the promise of one-person, one-vote might end the gerrymandering of legislative districts. In that age of democratic ferment, it became possible to conceive and implement a Civil Rights Act, a Voting Rights Act and economic justice measures like Medicare, Medicaid and the War on Poverty.
Since then, reformers have generally worked within political, regulatory, legislative and judicial confines. That was understandable as long as it seemed that a framework for open and honorable politics was on the way. But that’s no longer happening. The United States is tumbling down that Economist list, on the brink of being reclassified as a “flawed democracy.” Today’s crisis is different from the ones that inspired the two earlier periods of activism. But it demands a response that is every bit as ambitious.
We fully support legislative and legal initiatives that advance democracy. But we do not believe they will succeed unless they are part of a broad campaign for constitutional reform. Yes, we’re for a new Voting Rights Act. But we agree with Representatives Keith Ellison and Mark Pocan—and the folks from Fair Vote and Color of Change—who argue that America should not leave voting rights to chance. We need a constitutionally defined and protected right to vote. We need to eliminate the Electoral College, so that never again will a candidate who loses the popular vote, as George Bush did in 2000, be able to manipulate his way into the presidency. We need to bar gerrymandering and make real the promise of one person, one vote. And we need to make it clear once and for all that money is not speech, corporations are not people and government is not for sale to the highest bidder.
Not every challenge of the current crisis requires constitutional reform. We can repair our broken media system through supercharged funding of public broadcasting, robust support for community media and content-neutral systems that subsidize independent, not-for-profit journalism. We don’t agree with most proposals for vouchers, but we like variations on economist Dean Baker’s plan to issue citizens $100 democracy vouchers that they can direct to independent, not-for-profit media.
Yes, we know that many of these measures are “impossible.” Indeed, every fix of consequence was once deemed impossible. As impossible as the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act or marriage equality or the vote for women and 18-year-olds, as impossible as banning poll taxes or ending the appointment of senators by state legislatures. As impossible as creating an income tax.
When progressives wrap their heads around the idea of fundamental change, the range of possibility expands. The demand moves beyond the technical to the aspirational. We don’t suggest that it’s easy to amend the Constitution or to reshape political or media systems. And it may really be impossible to win some fights. But any honest assessment of America’s arc of history tells us that it has bent toward justice only when the demand has been sufficient to address the crisis.
Our current crisis requires a great demand. The people know this. That’s why the most successful reform movement of the moment is the most ambitious: sixteen states and more than 500 communities—from the city of Los Angeles to the town of Mount Desert, Maine—are, at the encouragement of Free Speech for People, Move to Amend, Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way and other groups, calling for a constitutional amendment to restore the ability of cities, states and the federal government to regulate money in politics. It is an audacious demand, one that could overturn Citizens United. But it is not sufficient to renew American democracy. For that, we need a new age of reform that answers the call for voting rights, for free and fair elections and for a media system that informs rather than discourages voters. To offer anything less underestimates the task at hand. We must recognize anew, as Dr. King did a half-century ago, that “America is at a crossroads of history, and it is critically important for us, as a nation and a society, to choose a new path and move upon it with resolution and courage. It is impossible to underestimate the crisis we face in America. The stability of a civilization, the potential of free government, and the simple honor of men are at stake.”
It is too late for timid supplications. It is time to demand democracy—and nothing less.
In “The Money & Media Election Complex,” John Nichols and Robert M. McChesney explained how, unchecked by campaign finance regulation, unchallenged by a journalism sufficient to expose abuses, a nearly unbeatable force opposed progressives in 2010.
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