DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED How the Decay of Meaningful Elections Drives ROSA Inequality and Injustice LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE by John Nichols Table of Contents

Home , Kshama Sawant

DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED How the Decay of Meaningful Elections Drives ROSA Inequality and Injustice LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE By John Nichols Table of Contents

A Low Point of American Democracy. By the Editors...... 1

Democracy Disregarded

How the Decay of Meaningful Elections Drives Inequality and Injustice...... 2

By John Nichols

State of Democratic Dysfunction...... 3 Voter Turnout: Off the Democratic Grid...... 5 Plutocrats and Dollarocracy...... 7 Money Power...... 9 The Complicit Media...... 11 Manufacturing Bankruptcy: The Case of Detroit...... 12 Voter ID Laws: The Myth and the Mania...... 13 Shaping a Real Democracy...... 15 A New Era of Democratic Renewal...... 18

Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, March 2014

Editors: Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016 Email: [email protected]; Phone: +1 (917) 409-1040

With support from the German Foreign Office

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is an internationally operating, progressive non-profit institution for civic education. In cooperation with many organizations around the globe, it works on democratic and social participation, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, alternatives for economic and social development, and peaceful conflict resolution.

The New York Office serves two major tasks: to work around issues concerning the United Nations and to engage in dialogue with North American progressives in universities, unions, social movements, and politics.

www.rosalux-nyc.org A Low Point of American Democracy

The United States of America is a beacon of opportunity, freedom, and democracy, values long en- shrinedn i the hallowed document of the U.S. Constitution. Or so the story goes. The truth, on the other hand, is a good deal more complicated. As is often the case, the crucial qualifier is found in the question: Opportunity, freedom, and democracy for whom?

The Supreme Court’s April 2014 ruling McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which eliminated existing campaign-finance regulations, provides a clear answer: The United States are turning from a representative into a corporate democracy. This most recent ruling is only the peak of a long-term trend. On the heels of the Bush v. Gore ruling that “the individual citizen has no federal constitutional righto t vote;” on the heels of Citizens United, which made it much easier for corporations to buy elections; on the heels of dozens of recent attempts, big and small, to chip away at and undermine the Vot- ing Rights Act of 1965, key achievement of the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality: we may sadly surmise that U.S. democracy—and by extension the American Dream—is in a state of dysfunction and decay.

We n live i a land of plutocrats and dollarocracy, where billionaire activists like the Koch brothers and media moguls like Rupert Murdoch wield unprecedented influence over the electoral process. Their preference? An ugly political process that discourages popular engagement and even actively disen- franchises those who might vote for meaningful change. Opportunity, freedom, and democracy for the rich; diminishing returns for the rest of us. It would be one thing if these attacks on democracy came only from our familiar foes on the right, but, as socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has said: “While, obviously, the Democratic Party is far preferable to the right-wing extremist Republican Party, one would be very naïve not to know that the Democratic Party is also heavily influenced by corporate interests and big-money interests.”

What is to be done? A host of left-wing movements—think fast-food strikes, immigrant rights marches, “Moral Mondays,” the campaign for a $15 minimum wage—are coming up with responses. For the most part this activism tends toward the non-electoral political realm. While of great value, at some juncture this energy must also engage and support a broad renewed effort to take back our democracy, to take back the vote.

In this essay, political journalist John Nichols traces the historical ebbs and flows of U.S. democracy and explains how we arrived at this current low point. Perhaps more importantly, he suggests how we might revitalize our electoral process. John Nichols is the Washington correspondent for The Nation and the author of a number of books, including “The S Word: A Short History of an American Tradition…Socialism” (Verso 2011). He is also the author of “To Begin the World Over Again,” a study on the Wisconsin uprising of 2011 and 2012, published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office.

Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Co-Directors of New York Office, March 2014

1 Democracy Disregarded How the Decay of Meaningful Elections Drives Inequality and Injustice

By John Nichols

We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot too often repeat, that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened… It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted. Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas

Eight decades after the end of the American by Evers and his comrades in Europe had not Civil War, 80 years after the 13th Amendment changed hearts, minds, or circumstances on to .S. the U Constitution abolished slavery, 78 the ground in the Mississippi. years after the 14th Amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law, 76 years after Democracy, denied and permitted and denied the 15th Amendment promised that “the right again over the preceding century, was not on of citizens of the United States to vote shall not that day allowed in the Apartheid South of the be denied or abridged by the United States or United States of America. by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” Medgar Wylie This denial and diminishment of the franchise, Evers surveyed the history of the American the most basic avenue of engagement for a experiment and determined that he could and citizen; this refusal of even the opportunity to shoulde b allowed to cast a ballot in the 1946 participate as an American in the formation of Democratic primary of his native Mississippi. a more perfect union, was not an occurrence uniqueo t 1946 or to the segregated state of Evers’ conclusion, by every moral measure, Mississippi. From the founding of the American and by the standards that Americans believed experiment, the United States has struggled even then should be applied to other coun- with the question of how much democracy to tries, was sound. permit.o T be sure, there have been periods of progress, during which respect has been high Butt i was not shared by the white citizens of for the franchise and the potential of self-gov- Decatur, Mississippi. Evers, a combat veteran ernance that extends from it. But this regard for of World War II honorably discharged from the popular will has not been constant. And to- the.S. U Army, was not white. And when he day democracy is decaying in America. The dark organized fellow African American veterans to circumstance of the moment is made all the march with him to the Newton County Court- more serious by the fact that the United States housen o the morning of June 2, 1946, the never achieved a state of popular involvement proud veterans of the American fight against and engagement that was sufficiently robust fascism were met by heavily armed white citi- to realize the full promise of representative zens who made it clear that the victory secured democracy—let alone the broader prospect of

2 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

participatory democracy. Indeed, by compari- While this may read as a narrow statement son with much of the rest of the world, and par- fromn a activist court, it speaks to the broad- ticularly with the countries against which the er reality highlighted during the deliberations United States tends to measure itself, American that preceded the December 2000 interven- democracy is dramatically under-developed tiony b a majority of the justices to block the and increasingly dysfunctional. recounting of Florida votes that might have prevented George W. Bush from becoming Indeed,s a we were reminded as recently as the3 4 rd president of the United States. Chief December 2000, in the extraordinary Bush v Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Jus- Gore ruling: “the individual citizen has no fed- tice Antonin Scalia made it abundantly clear in eral constitutional right to vote for electors their grilling of lawyers for Democratic pres- for the President of the United States.” That’s idential nominee Al Gore that they did not right,ts i i now juridical ruling that Americans see—or even begin to imagine—a constitu- do not have a defined right to vote. They have, tional right of suffrage. As American Univer- at n most, a assumed right that is, sometimes, sity law professor Jamin B. Raskin explained protected by Voting Rights Act provisions and it: “In the eyes of the court, democracy is the interventions of the Civil Rights Division rooted not in the right of the American peo- of .S. the U Department of Justice. But that as- pleo t vote and govern but in a set of state- sumed right is constantly reframed for political based institutional arrangements for selecting purposes. leaders.”

State of Democratic Dysfunction

This state of democratic dysfunction has that Benjamin Franklin outlined more than two broad economic, environmental, and social centuries ago when he said: “They who have consequence for the United States in the 21st no voice nor vote in the electing of represen- century. The purpose of this study is to exam- tatives,o d not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely ine current debates over voter suppression, enslaved to those who have votes.” voter disenfranchisement, voter turnout, and democracy itself in this broader context. The Franklin, who with Thomas Paine was among question posed here is whether Americans will the too-small circle of founders who objected respond now, as they have in the past, with a to human bondage, was prescient in his as- determination to address not just threats to sessment. The American experiment has been democracy but the potential of democracy to warped from its beginning by bloody battles address inequality, injustice, and inaction so between, in the words of historian Eric Foner, that,s a Langston Hughes proposed, equali- perceptions of “voting as a right and voting as ty may again “be in the air we breathe.” This something that only the right people should is about much more than the narrow, if still do.” There have always been forces in America vital, technical discussions of ballot design or that prefer to establish the outlines of democ- polling-place locations. It goes to the heart- racy without the reality, that seek, as Foner puts and-soul concern of whether the people shall it,o t “purify the electorate” so that a privileged rule; a concern rooted in the understanding faction might rule in their own interest. Against

3 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

those forces have been arrayed the small “d” first African American president, she recalled democrats who declare: “The people shall rule.” not a just “ history of disenfranchised votes” but a contemporary path “blanketed by thorns It was an understanding of the full and true of oppression and rippled by pains of despair.” meaning of Franklin’s observation regarding She spoke of an as yet unrealized “promise of the degraded condition of those denied the America.” franchise, and of his own circumstance, which inspired Medgar Evers to militant activism on Myrlie Evers-Williams made a precise connec- behalff o not just voting rights but the fuller tion that day. possibility of democracy. This commitment would ultimately cost him his life, as he was as- A history of disenfranchisement and ongoing sassinated by white segregationists outside his oppression prevents America from realizing Mississippi home, 17 years after his attempted the promise that Abraham Lincoln outlined voten o that June morning in 1946. In short or- whene h imagined “government of the people, der there would come a March on Washington by the people, for the people.” And this failure for Jobs and Freedom, a Voting Rights Act, a of democracy touches every issue of conse- constitutional amendment to ban the poll tax quence. America cannot offer “liberty and jus- on voting, and another to extend the franchise tice for all” if our elections are little more than to 18, 19, and 20 year olds so that those eligible crude, desultory exercises in character assassi- toe b drafted to serve their country might also nation that offer voters limited choices and are have some say regarding questions of war and defined not by a great civic engagement but by peace. For a time, the arc of history seemed to the machinations of the millionaires who have be responding to the sacrifices of Evers and become definitional players in our politics. those who marched, suffered, and died with Only with a fully engaged and vibrant democ- him. racy, where debate is wide-ranging, voter turnouts i high and governments are organized to Yet,s a the 20th century gave way to the 21st, reflect the will of the whole people—not just there would come a Supreme Court interven- in the aftermath of a voting day but across tiono t prevent the full recount of the Florida the full period between one election and the votes that should have decided a presidential next—can this country begin to address fun- race; restrictive voter identification laws; the damental economic, environmental, and social returnf o the word “suppression” to the elec- challenges. toral lexicon; gerrymandering of congressional districts as never before seen; proposals to re- That is not the case today. arrange the U.S. Electoral College so that the winnerf o the popular vote might regularly lose Indeed, America is drifting away from the dem- the presidency; the trivialization and abandon- ocratic moorings that were established during ment of the essential role of a free press in in- the great struggles of the 20th century not just forming the electorate; and the dismantling of to extend voting rights but to limit the influ- campaign finance reforms coupled with a fullf- ence of the wealthy on the political process. ledged reassertion that “money power” should Democracy is decaying in what legal scholar make elections the playthings of the wealthy. Garrett Epps suggests could be one of “the pe- riodsf o contraction” that have afflicted Amer- Sot i was that on January 21, 2013, when Med- ica at critical stages in the nation’s history. If gar Evers’ widow Myrlie delivered the invoca- such a period has arrived, Epps suggests, “we tion at the second inauguration of the nation’s should be aware that we are turning away from

4 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

the f text o our own fundamental law, from the There are many ways in which to assess demo- only just basis for self-government, and from cratic dysfunction. The most common of these the standards of human rights Americans have is the most basic: voter participation. And it is tried, sometimes by force of arms, to impose appropriate to begin here because United Na- on the rest of the world.” tions statistician and economist Howard Ste- ven Friedman is right when he identifies voting The experience of covering U.S. elections for 30 as “the most obvious measure of citizen partic- yearss a a newspaper and magazine reporter ipation in the democratic process.” and radio and television commentator, along with the experience of 15 years of examining The question of how many people vote in how the health of the American experiment with many elections gets to the fundamental is- Robert W. McChesney for a series of books suef o legitimacy. Are the officials who govern on media and politics, has led me to conclude America the choice of the whole American peo- that Epps is correct in his concern but perhaps ple? Or does their power extend from a con- too cautious in his assessment of the extent to strained process that fosters frustration and which the electoral and governing infrastruc- disenchantment so immense that a great mass turef o the United States has been weighted— of Americans simply surrenders to an injustice formally and informally—against democracy. that seems inevitable?

Voter Turnout: Off the Democratic Grid

The answer to these questions is an unsettling Electoral Assistance, regularly rank the Unit- one that is too little discussed when considered States near the bottom on global turnout ing the American circumstance. While our me- measures. It is not uncommon for turnout in dia spends a great deal of time measuring and the.S.o U t be less than half that of countries commenting on the Gross Domestic Product, with established electoral systems that actual- it does not even attempt to measure and com- ly promote high levels of participation. While mentn o the Gross Democratic Product. Were Malta’s most recent parliamentary elections ito t d so, we would recognize immediately saw a 93 percent turnout, the 2010 congressio- that the country is in crisis. Tens of millions of nal elections in the U.S. drew under 40 percent. Americans have opted out of the political process, making the United States an outlier when But Malta is a small country, as are other turn- it comes to electoral participation. This is the out leaders, such as Belgium. great story of the moment in American politics, andts i i a story of immense consequence not What of more comparable nations? “Regardless just for our politics but for our economic de- of which metric of eligibility you use,” Friedman bates,s a a “representative democracy” that is notedn i a 2012 Huffington Post Politics piece, not representative of the great mass of Amer- “the United States has one of the lowest voter icans is far more likely to respond to the de- turnouts of any of the comparator countries…” mands of economic elites. What happens when we compare the United Groups that monitor voter turnout, such as States with Germany, a large stable democra- the International Institute for Democracy and cyo t which the U.S. is frequently likened, and

5 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

with which the U.S. likes to compare itself? In earlier, the election turnout was 78 percent. In Germany, as in the United States, there are France, turnout in recent elections has topped complaints about electoral systems and struc- 80 percent. In Belgium, turnout is usually at or tures, and about the overall quality of the dem- above 90 percent. ocratic experience. Thoughtful Germans read- ily volunteer that their democracy is a work Whent i comes to voter turnout, the United in progress, as do thoughtful Americans. But Statess i off the democratic grid. It is governed that distinction between the countries when it by officials who are often elected with the sup- comeso t voter turnout is stark. In the fall of portf o a small minority of possible voters. In 2013, Germany gave Chancellor Angela Merkel many states, and often at the national level, a new mandate after what much of the German the range of debate is defined by “leaders” who media referred to as a dull election campaign. obtain their authority in off-year (non-presi- Throughout most of the campaign, there was dential) elections where the vast majority of a general sense that Merkel’s Christian Dem- possible voters do not even cast ballots. ocratic Union would get the most votes, and that it would be the dominant party in the next That may meet some definitions of democracy, government. but it falls far short of the standard for a gen- uinely representative politics and governance. Yet, while drama was in short supply, the Sep- tember 22, 2013 election drew an estimated Why is the U.S. system stumbling so badly? turnout of 72 percent. That’s4 1 percent more than the turnout of eligible nvoters i the 2012 Turnoutn i the United States used to be quite U.S. presidential election, and almost 20 per- high—coming close to 65 percent among eli- cent more than the turnout in 2012 among the gible voters and the overall voting-age popu- overall voting age population of the United lationn i 1960. But the detailed studies of the States. And remember that Germany was not United States Election Project reveal a marked electing a president. Germans were electing and relatively steady decline since then. Worse a new Bundestag, which roughly parallels the yet, turnouts of eligible voters and of the vot- U.S. House of Representatives. If we compare ing-age population have since the early 1970s the 2013 German turnout of 72 percent to the beenn o dramatically divergent tracks. In other U.S. turnout in the congressional elections of words, fewer people are voting and more peo- 2010—which shifted control of the U.S. House ple are disenfranchised or discouraged from and statehouses across the country to conser- voting—in some cases deliberately, but often vative Republican control—it’s much worse. In because the rules and structures employed by 2010, the overall turnout among eligible voters many states are, at best, archaic. Other coun- for the highest office on the ballot in districts tries have addressed barriers to voting. But the across the country was 41 percent. The overall U.S, for the most part, has not. “Convenience turnout that year among all voting-age Ameri- impacts voter turnout. In the United States, in cans was just 37 percent. all but one state, voters must go through a sep- arate registration process before voting, and So Germany, after a “boring” election that drew the vast majority of states do not allow Elec- a turnout on the low side of historic patterns, is tion Day registration,” notes Friedman. almost doubling off-year election participation in .S. the U And Germany’s turnout rates are far This two-step process—register, then vote—is from the highest among established democra- more complicated than the process in many other cies around the world. In Norway, just weeks countries and discourages some Americans from

6 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

voting. In Austria, Canada, Germany, France and Any serious discussion of democracy in Amer- Belgium, voter lists are generated from larger ica must begin with an honest acknowledge- population databases or by other government ment that the United States has established agencies, thus simplifying the voting process. For example, Germans who are eighteen or older on electoral and political structures—and prac- voting day automatically receive a notification tices—that frequently deny votes the meaning card before any election in which they are eligi- they must have for an election to be anything ble to vote. In Canada, the income tax returns are more than a theatrical exercise. Benjamin used for voter registration. In the United Kingdom, Franklin and Medgar Evers believed that vot- every residence receives a notice of those regis- ing could and should free the great mass of tered within the household, and additional voters can be registered by mail. people from repression, and they did not limit the forms of repression that concerned them. The United States makes it hard to vote. This is Neither should we. As the great American la- one important reason that the U.S. has slipped bor leader and socialist A. Philip Randolph said to No. 21 on The Economist’s “Democracy In- whene h initiated the “March of Washington” dex,” t and i will be discussed later in this piece. movement: “A community is democratic only But even if the United States were to make vot- when the humblest and weakest person can ing dramatically easier, it would not adequately enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social address the deeper sources of frustration and rights that the biggest and most powerful disenchantment with our politics. possess.”

Plutocrats and Dollarocracy

There are many reasons that America does continuous” because elites would continually not meet the test Randolph established. Some regroupn i order to claw back whatever gains are as old as a republic that at its inception ex- had been extracted by marchers and move- tended the franchise to barely one in twenty ments. Americans. Some are as new as the interven- tionsf o the billionaire Koch Brothers, and the Today, the politically and economically power- right-wing infrastructure they have funded to ful secure their status by arguing that markets, undermine voting rights in the states. The con- rather than democracy, should define soci- stantsn i a economic calculus that recognizes ety. The neoliberal economic dogma, which that the wealth and power of elites is enhanced preaches abundance for the few and austeri- by narrowing rather than expanding the defi- ty for the many, challenges democratic values nitionf o democracy. American history, to this and institutions at every turn. When at the pointt a least, is not a story of steady evolution closef o the Cold War Francis Fukuyama argued toward fully realized democracy. Rather, it is that the world had reached an “end of histo- a f story o advances and retreats. “Freedom is ry” moment, in which Western liberal democ- never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; racy and free-market economics would define its i exacted,” explained Randolph. The great the future, my late friend Tony Benn, a senior strategist of the electoral and economic de- member of the British Parliament, noted that mocracy campaigns of the 20th century always the story finished in a most unsatisfactory reminded his allies that “the struggle must be manner: with massive inequality, grinding pov-

7 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

erty, environmental degradation, discrimina- I am not a Democrat because the Democratic Par- tion, and violence. In the years since Fukuyama ty today does not—and has not for many years— imagined that end of history, the circumstance represented the interests of my constituency, which is primarily working families, middle-class has grown steadily more unsettling—so much people and low-income people. While, obviously, so that the author would return in 2010 with the Democratic Party is far preferable to the right- an essay that asked: “Is America a Plutocra- wing extremist Republican Party, one would be cy?” Fukuyama’s response to his rhetorical very naïve not to know that the Democratic Party question was blunt: “if the question is taken to is also heavily influenced by corporate interests and big-money interests. mean, ‘Do the wealthy have disproportionate political influence in the United States?’ then the answer is obviously ‘yes.’” Sanderss i right about that. He is right, as well, whene h says that: “If present trends continue, That “yes” speaks to a breakdown of democra- what politics will be about will be a handful of cy that has robbed the people of not just polit- billionaires sitting around a room with a map ical power but also economic stability. “Scan- in f front o them, deciding how many hundreds dalous as it may sound to the ears of Repub- of millions of dollars they want to put into this licans schooled in Reaganomics, one critical effort and that campaign.” measure of the health of a modern democracy is its ability to legitimately extract taxes from When someone like Sanders sits in the Senate, its own elites. The most dysfunctional societies when someone like progressive Democrat Bill in the developing world are those whose elites de Blasio is elected mayor of New York City, succeed either in legally exempting themselves whenn a open socialist like Kshama Sawant is from taxation, or in taking advantage of lax en- electedo t the council of a major city such as forcement to evade them, thereby shifting the Seattle,e w may recognize that the “handful burden of public expenditure onto the rest of billionaires” has not taken full charge of the of society,” Fukuyama wrote. Yet he also not- experiment. But we should be cautious about ed the insufficient response from an “opposi- letting exceptions to the rule offer us unreal- tion” that too rarely opposes: “The Democratic istic comfort. In more ways than not, the ob- Party, which one would have expected to be servations of British sociologist Colin Crouch the principal focus of such political advocacy, are correct: with the acceptance of neoliberal floundered. It managed to regain majorities in fabulism by both major parties in the United the House and Senate, and it did hold the pres- States,e w have entered a “post-democracy” idency between 1993 and 2001 (and, of course, moment in which elections and indeed the regained it in 2009), but its electoral successes whole of the political process is degenerating have not turned on economic fairness issues. intoa “ tightly controlled spectacle, managed Ton a unexpected degree, Democrats drank by rival teams of professionals expert in the the Kool-Aid of market fundamentalism during techniques of persuasion, and considering a the 1990s and in so doing reflected larger intel- small range of issues selected by those teams.” lectual trends.” Elections occur on schedule, governments change, but the handful of billionaires seem al- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has wayso t get their way: bailouts for Wall Street, servedn i Congress for more than two de- no new taxes, free-trade policies that benefit cadess a an independent socialist, confirmed investors but devastate communities, cuts to this point in an interview we did late in 2013, essential programs, and assaults on the labor almost five years into the presidency of Barack unions and public institutions that defend and Obama. define the commons.

8 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

Structural changes have exacerbated this state ings over four decades that cleared the way for of affairs. The abilit y of voters to define the polit- the wealthiest Americans—freed from centu- ical discourse has been so diminished that even ry-old limitations—to effectively buy elections. decisive results like Obama’s 2012 reelection— Previously, the high court’s ruling Citizens Unit- when the president secured a five million popu- ed v Federal Election Commission allowed corpo- lar-vote victory and a 332-206 Electoral College rationso t spend freely to influence elections. landslide—have strikingly limited impact. Even Unhindered by downsized and diffused media when voters reject proposals for austerity cuts that frequently rely on revenue from campaign to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (and ads, those who pay for the ads now have more candidates like 2012 Republican vice presiden- power than at any time since the development tial nominee Paul Ryan who propose such cuts), of television to set the rules of political engage- economic elites regroup and renew the threat ment. Monied interests so dominate politics before the last votes are counted. that the squabbling of Democrats and Repub- licans, liberals and conservatives, is a sideshow Some of this comes down to simple econom- to the great theater of plutocracy and plunder. ics. The Supreme Court’s decision McCutcheon This is not democracy. This is what Robert W. v Federal Election Commission in April 2014 re- McChesney and I have described as “dollaroc- moved the caps on aggregate contributions to racy.” Dollarocracy is the antithesis of democ- political candidates and parties. But that deci- racy. In a democracy, votes are definitional. In a sion was just the most recent in a series of rul- dollarocracy, money is definitional.

Money Power

But there is more to it than that. Battered by a U.S. House and the U.S. Senate; it also shaped floodf o money, the structures of civil society state and local contests, as well as judicial and have begun to crumble and the underpinnings referendum votes. While the sources of spend- of popular participation in decision-making to ingt a all levels of government tend to be the decay. This is tremendously beneficial to the same wealthy donors, corporations, and in- “handful of billionaires,” whose ability to de- terest groups, their influence at the local and fine and dominate the political course—and to regional level is too-rarely noted by a Washing- advance a neoliberal agenda of upward wealth ton-obsessed media. When we recognize the redistribution—is made dramatically easier by reachf o the “the money power,” the full pic- the shrinking of the electorate and the dimin- ture confirms that the Citizens United ruling has ishment of democratic structures. Some as- ledo t a rapid restructuring of U.S. politics—a pectsf o the phenomenon are easily identified. process that will further accelerate due to the For instance, few would debate that money is McCutcheon ruling. now the lingua franca fo our politics. The 2012 election cycle was the most expensive politi- It is only marginally less accepted that both cal moment in America history, with spending parties defer to “the money power.” It would be of roughly $10.5 billion. A massive infusion of silly to suggest that the Democratic and Repub- campaign cash defined the direction of high- lican parties are the same; they’re not. Indeed, stakes federal elections for the presidency, the on a range of major issues they are starkly

9 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

different. But it was equally silly for pundits al, and community needs may look like “grid- to peddle the line after the 2012 election that lock” for most small donors and the great mass President Obama’s victory “proved” grassroots of Americans, who voted for more activist gov- activism can still beat big money. That’s a fan- ernments in the 2008 and 2012 elections. But tasy.n I fact, Obama and his supporters raised it looks pleasant indeed for the elites who are and spent more than $1.1 billion, while Mitt on the winning side of the income-inequality Romney and his supporters raised and spent divide. more than $1.2 billion. It is true that Obama’s campaign collected more small individual Sunlight Foundation senior fellow Lee Drut- contributions than Romney’s. But Obama’s man noted in 2013 that “big corporate money campaign also collected more large contribu- is often quite eager to see gridlock. Just ask Big tions than did the Republican’s. Romney’s rel- Oilft i i would like an active Congress on climate atively slight money advantage resulted from issues. Or ask hedge fund donors if they’d like the higher level of spending on his behalf by an active Congress on the taxation of carried billionaire-funded Super PACs. The bottom interest.” Even when the wheels of government lines i what matters: In 2012, big money beat do turn, the result rarely represents a radical big money. Or, as the Center for Respon- break with failed approaches. Rather, leaders sive Politics explains: “Every politician loves of both parties seek to “repair” a broken ex- to talk about all the ‘small’ donations they’ve isting order by steering federal dollars to the received, but the money that really pays for private-sector overseers of that order. So it elections comes from big donors, not little was that when the Obama Administration and ones.” Congressn i 2009 and 2010 sought to address a health-care crisis that had left tens of millions The campaign contributors and Super-PAC of Americans without coverage and tens of mil- donors who write the biggest checks define lions more with inadequate coverage, the “fix” the process. And they get what they pay for. was a plan that moved money to existing in- When House Budget Committee chair Paul surance companies. A simpler, more equitable Ryan, an austerity-minded Republican, and and more universal single-payer “Medicare for Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray, All” reform could have been implemented with a relatively liberal Democrat, announced that little of the drama that accompanied the rollout they had cobbled together a “bipartisan bud- of what Republicans decried as “Obamacare.” get n deal” i late 2013, the agreement included But the political priority of caring for corpora- no new taxes for the wealthy or multinational tions trumped the economic common sense corporations and closed no tax loopholes. So and the moral priority that says: “health care how t did i pay for modest deficit reduction? is a right.” The circumstances grow even worse By refusing to extend jobless benefits for the when the debate turns to questions of auster- long-term unemployed while forcing federal ity economics. With the frequent collaboration employees and military personnel to pay for of mainstream media, which typically buys into moref o their benefits. Any honest assess- the most simplistic spin, politicians of both ment would characterize the agreement as a parties often become indistinguishable as they win for the big donors, who were already do- promote cuts and privatization schemes that ing quite well under the arrangements made answer the demands of billionaire projects by previous congresses. Maintaining a sta- like those of the Koch brothers, the Ameri- tus quo that fails to address income inequal- can Legislative Exchange Council, or Pete Pe- ity, wage stagnation, structural unemploy- terson’s austerity-advancing “Fix the Debt” ment, and pressing environmental, education- project.

10 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

The Complicit Media

The power of money that is channeled into po- dominate the discourse in most major cam- litical campaigns—and more broadly into influ- paigns,o d not convince voters to switch their encing the governing process—is supercharged preference from one candidate to another. by the fact that campaign spending is no longer They convince prospective voters to abandon balanced by a journalism that upholds the pub- both their preferred candidate and the process lic interest. U.S. journalism, an essential under- itself. This fits neatly within the broader voter pinningf o our democracy, is in crisis. Waves of suppression strategies of political players who consolidation and profiteering, in combination prefer small, easily managed electorates. In- with the flight of advertising from traditional steadf o objecting, the owners of TV stations media platforms that produce a great deal of shave minutes off local newscasts to make local, state, and national “content” to new me- space for more ads because, in electoral bat- dia platforms that tend to aggregate content tleground states, political money has become and comment upon it, have created a situation the mother’s milk of local television. So it is in which investors are no longer investing in that some of the loudest critics of campaign the infrastructure of newsgathering and dis- finance reform are the media conglomerates semination. This has led to high-profile closings that profit by giving Americans less news and of newspapers and the radical restructuring of more political propaganda. radio to make it more of an entertainment me- dium and less of a serious news source. A fundamental disconnect has developed. Elections are supposed to have consequences, A parallel contraction of print and broadcast not only with regard to the filling of official po- newsroom staff completes the pattern of de- sitions but with regard to the direction of com- cline, leaving vast areas of politics and gover- munities, states and nations. In young coun- nance uncovered. Major election campaigns tries, and countries that are struggling toward areo s under-covered that it is no longer un- liberation from colonial and internal oppres- common for flawed and unelectable candi- sion, s this i perhaps better understood than in dates for high office—a U.S. senator from countries with rigidly fixed systems. Americans South Carolina, the lieutenant governor of Il- who express frustration with Congress, giving linois—to be nominated. The scant coverage it approval ratings that have dipped as low as that does exist typically confers “legitimacy” seven percent in some national surveys, are basedn o fundraising ability, and analyzes ads appropriately angry. But media, economic, and rather than ideas. A quarter-century after the political elites have been strikingly successful major television networks ceded control of at channeling that anger toward partisanship presidential debates to a consortium managed and ideological wrangling, as opposed to an by the former chairs of the Democratic and Re- understanding of what is really wrong. When publican parties, much of TV campaign cover- election results are not translated into gover- age boils down to spin points recited by parti- nance that reflects the will of the people, de- san talking heads. mocracy decays.

The void created by the contraction of jour- Its o i vital t break the spin cycle and get Amer- nalism has been filled by negative advertising icans thinking about that decay, and about the thatso i s foul that the ads actually drive voters structural changes that must be made to ar- away from the polls. Negative ads, which now rest and reverse it.

11 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

This is not a complex calculus. People around cost the nation one penny to guarantee the the world well understood the significance righto t vote. The problems that we are facing of striking a smart balance between the pro- today will cost the nation billions of dollars.” tection of minority rights and the translation The goal of civil rights and voting rights activ- of democratic decisions into responsive gov- ism,s a Century Foundation fellows Richard D. ernance when Nelson Mandela explained Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit observed in that: “The right to vote, without food, shelter 2013, “was to create a framework wherein the and health care will create the appearance of nation’s poor and working class could procure equality and justice, while actual inequality is their share of the nation’s prosperity.” entrenched. We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without free- These are different times, but the need to trans- dom.” Americans engaged in the struggle for late democracy into governing realities remains social and economic justice in the 1960s well every bit as real. The problem is that democ- understood when the Reverend Martin Luther racyso i s disrespected that it is now, literally, King, Jr. made the connection, saying: “It didn’t discarded in the face of economic demands.

Manufacturing Bankruptcy: The Case of Detroit

Consider the circumstance of Detroit. The city hundreds millions of dollars from the city’s elected a new mayor on November 5, 2013. But economy,” explained Jordan Marks, executive the future of Detroit would not be defined by director of the National Public Pension Coali- decisions made by voters on that election day, tion. “This is a dark day for people of Detroit, nory b the mayor they chose. Rather, it was who worked hard, played by the rules, and are defined a few weeks after the election in fed- now at risk of losing everything.” eral bankruptcy court—by an appointed judge who conveyed broad power to an “emergency Detroit, like many American cities, faces fi- manager” with no democratic legitimacy. With nancial challenges as a result of deindustrial- the December 2013 ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy ization and failed federal and state economic Judge Steven Rhodes, Detroit officially became polices—as well as the missteps and misdeeds the largest U.S. city ever to enter Chapter 9 of local officials. But there are many ways to bankruptcy. Despite his recognition that ne- address those challenges. Unfortunately, the gotiations with creditors outside of bankrupt- most humane and economically sound options cy court had not satisfied good-faith require- have been taken off the table by unelected and ments, the judge cleared the way for the emer- unaccountable political players. The appoint- gency manager and his law firm to advance ed-not-elected judge’s decision gave the au- a f “plan o adjustment” that independent ob- thorityo t guide the city’s affairs to Kevyn Orr, servers predicted would include deep cuts in an “emergency manager” selected by Repub- pension guarantees for retired city employees. lican Governor Rick Snyder, who in the 2010 “In the bankruptcy, the modest pensions of statewide election lost the city of Detroit by a Detroit’s firefighters, police officers, and oth- 20-1 margin. Barely five percent of Detroit voter city employees could be all but wiped out, ers thought Snyder should be calling any of the evens a Wall Street banks continue to extract shots regarding their state and city. Yet, he be-

12 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

came—via his emergency manager, and with employed or underemployed. And that great the approval of the bankruptcy judge he asked challenge extends beyond Detroit. Too many to intervene—the definer of Detroit’s destiny. American cities face financial challenges sim- ilaro t those that have destabilized Detroit. Whatf o Detroit’s new mayor, Mike Duggan, Snyder’s anti-democratic “answer” could well a veteran county official and highly regarded become the model for a response that begins manager who won 55 percent of the vote in an by blaming the victims—often people of color, actual election? “The only authority I’m going often people on the lowest rungs of the eco- to s have i the authority I can convince the gov- nomic ladder—and ultimately denies them a ernor and emergency manager to assign me,” full and effective franchise. “I believe Detroit Duggan, a Democrat, told reporters in Novem- and Michigan are ‘test cases’ for certain right- ber. That does not follow any accepted defini- wing agents who want to do all they can to con- tion of democracy. And it does not follow the trol future elections for this nation’s highest will of the people of Detroit. office and other posts,” argues former Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. “Voter sup- Howoe d w know this? Because the emergency pression, including the Supreme Court’s role manager power that Snyder used to steer the in gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are city into bankruptcy was rejected by the city’s not incidental to the myriad of malevolence in votersn i 2012. Snyder had to develop the new Michigan.” emergency manager law after a previous ver- sion of the legislation—which he had used to There is a lot more at stake in the story of De- take over smaller cities—was overturned by troit than one city’s balance sheet. Our under- Michigan voters in a statewide referendum. In standing of democracy itself is being subvert- Detroit,2 8 percent of voters said they did not ed. want the emergency manager law. But they got it anyway. So it is that this city’s mayor was de- This has nothing to do with budgeting, debt, or nied the clearly defined authority that an elect- broader fiscal matters. Those issues could, and ed mayor should have to protect pensions, should,e b addressed by an elected mayor and preserve labor agreements, and set priorities city council. This has to do with taking power when it comes to the delivery of basic services. away from the people. It has to do with making the voting rights of the majority secondary to Detroit’s greatest challenge was not munic- the economic power of that “handful of billion- ipal governance. It was deindustrialization, aires” Bernie Sanders mentioned. which shuttered hundreds of factories and left hundreds of thousands of city residents un- And it doesn’t stop in Detroit.

Voter ID Laws: The Myth and the Mania

Almost 150 years ago, a pioneering American be greater than it ever has been since the downfall jurist, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice of the Roman Empire. And the enterprises of the Edward Ryan, said: country are aggregating vast corporate combi- nations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, There is looming up a new and dark power. […] not for economic conquests only but for political The accumulation of individual wealth seems to power.

13 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

Today that march is organized and efficient, in6 2 states (up from 15), GOP legislators be- andts i i amply funded by wealthy individuals gano t move an assortment of bills resembling and powerful corporations that seek to shape ALEC’s model. At least 33 states saw the intro- our politics and our governance so that they ductionf o “Voter ID” laws in 2011. They have will prevail in policy making. That funding ex- since been passed in states across the coun- tends well beyond campaign contributions and try, despite widespread outcry from newspa- so-called “independent expenditures” at elec- per editorial pages and civic groups such as tion time. the League of Women Voters. The blatantly partisan nature of the initiative was highlight- The American Legislative Exchange Council, a edy b the fight in the state of New Hampshire, national network of conservative state legis- where only a veto by Democratic Governor lators that is funded by multinational corpo- John Lynch prevented the enactment of a law rations, responded to the demographic shifts that the Republican leader of the state House and political trends that gave rise to sweeping admitted was advanced to make it harder for Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008 with a “liberal” students to cast ballots, and which legislative agenda that at ever y turn seemed de- one state representative described as “direct- signed to make it harder for millions of Ameri- ly attributable to ALEC.” ALEC’s goal was not canso t vote. Republicans have argued for years onlyo t influence state politics but to med- that “voter fraud” (rather than unpopular poli- dle with voting patterns in federal elections. cies) costs their party election victories. During The purpose, argued Cristina Francisco Mc- George W. Bush’s presidency, White House po- Guiref o the Progressive States Network, was litical czar Karl Rove began to encourage con- to “give the electoral edge to their preferred servatives to take up voter fraud as an issue. candidates.” Following Barack Obama’s landslide victory in the 2008 election, ALEC’s magazine, Inside ALEC, How does a group like ALEC get away with featured a cover story titled “Preventing Elec- warping and in some cases actually disman- tion Fraud.” Shortly afterward, in the summer tling democratic structures? How do judges of 2009, ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task and “emergency managers” take control of Force adopted “Voter ID” model legislation. Vot- major cities? How do the economically pow- ing rights advocates immediately complained erful have so much leeway to implement such that the goal was not to eliminate voter fraud— schemeso t “purify the electorate,” in the words which the Brennan Center for Justice suggests of Eric Foner? iso s rare that the “problem” is best described as a myth—but to force qualified voters to go American democracy has always had struc- through an arduous process of obtaining prop- tural flaws. But those flaws are now being ex- er paperwork and then presenting it according ploited by the wealthiest and most powerful to the strictest of rules before being allowed to interests in the country—with immense fund- cast a ballot. They also noted that the burden ing and the most modern communications and would fall hardest on people of color, students, campaigning tools—to tip the balance in their and elderly Americans with modest incomes— favort a every level of governance. As long as all groups that tend to be more inclined to vote that exploitation continues, democracy will for Democrats than Republicans. decay, inequality will expand, and the prom- isef o the American experiment will grow ever ALEC leaders—invariably Republicans—de- further from our reach. The people know this nied this. Yet after the 2010 midterm elections better than most politicians and most pun- gave Republicans control of the legislatures dits. They have already begun to push back

14 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

against the most easily identifiable exploita- dividuals and corporations. What Americans tion: that of the electoral advantages conveyed need to understand is that this is nothing byn a activist Supreme Court to wealthy in- new.

Shaping a Real Democracy

Meaningful change, especially that which ing and why. Teddy Roosevelt, a former Repub- might upset economic elites, is always impos- lican president who was hardly the most radi- sible until it occurs. A century ago, in cities and calf o reformers of the period, in 1910 declared towns across the United States, children who that, “One of the chief factors in progress is the should have been in school were changing destruction of special privilege.” bobbins in mills. Workers who dared to organize unions were mowed down by paramilitary It was the same in the 1960s and early 1970s, forces. Women who could not vote were dying another age of reform that saw constitutional in sweatshop fires. The government lacked amendments banning poll taxes and clearing the ability to collect the revenues necessary the way for 18-year-olds to vote. For a mo- to address the basic demands of a nation ex- ment it seemed likely that another amend- periencing dramatic yet wrenchingly unequal ment would eliminate the archaic Electoral growth. Progress in Washington was stymied College, and that the promise of “one-person, by millionaires who literally bought seats in the one-vote” might end the gerrymandering of Senate. Reformers decried a “money power” legislative districts. In that age of democrat- that made a mockery of the promise of popu- ic ferment, the frame of reference expanded lar governance. and it became possible to imagine and implement a Civil Rights Act, a Voting Rights Act, and That was America in 1910. economic justice measures such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the War on Poverty. It became By 1920, the Constitution had been amended possible for college students and the moth- so that women could vote, the Senate was di- ersf o draft-age youth to believe they had the rectly elected by the people, and Congress had powero t stop an unjust war and begin the dis- the power to implement progressive taxation. mantling of the military-industrial complex. It At the same time, child labor, workplace safety, even became possible for democratic social- and pure food and drug laws were being imple- ists like Michael Harrington to provide counsel mented; labor unions were being re-energized; to presidents and senators, and to align with and the rough outline of what would become major union leaders and prominent civil rights the New Deal was taking shape in states that activists on initiatives designed to bring about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis what Harrington called “a humane social or- identified as “laboratories of democracy.” This der based on popular control of resources and great forward leap was made possible by a production, economic planning, equitable dis- broad popular recognition that fundamental tribution, feminism and racial equality.” changes were needed for the United States to meet the demands of a new era—and that Since the 1970s, progressive Americans have somef o those changes required amending the generally worked within the confines of exist- Constitution. People knew what they were doing political, regulatory, legislative, and judicial

15 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

structures rather than seeking to fundamen- post-Civil War era to the present, have made tally change them. That was understandable clear that they are about more than tinkering as long as it seemed that a framework for around the edges of a broken system. open and honorable politics existed and was continuing to develop. But while progressives The most under-covered political movement playedy b the rules, a sophisticated counter- in the United States today—and there are a lot attack was launched by economic elites in the of under-covered political movements in the formf o “think tanks,” lobbying shops, me- U.S.—is the broad-based national campaign to dia networks, and legal strategies designed enact a constitutional amendment to overturn to steer the nation back from the brink of the Supreme Court rulings that ushered in this democracy. new era of big-money politics. Sixteen states have formally endorsed variations of a propos- Nothing shor t of a new era of reform is required, alo t amend the U.S. Constitution to declare one that is every bit as vibrant and energetic as that “money is property and not speech, and those seen in the 1910s and the 1960s. The ge- the Congress of the United States, state legis- nius of the American experiment is that it gives latures and local legislative bodies should have each generation an opportunity to rewrite the the authority to regulate political contributions rules. But the experiment only works if there and expenditures…” is an understanding of both the opportunity and the necessity of a continual refounding. Support for an amendment now stretches Thomas Paine was precisely right when, argu- from coast to coast, with backing (in the form ing against undo reverence for old orders and of legislative resolutions or statewide referen- old rules, he observed that: “The circumstances dum results) from California to Maine. The Dis- of the world are continually changing, and the trictf o Columbia is also supportive of the move opinions of man change also; and as govern- to amend, as are roughly 500 municipalities, ments i for the living, and not for the dead, it is from Liberty, Maine, to Los Angeles, Califor- the living only that has any right in it.” nia—where 77 percent of voters backed a May 2013 referendum instructing elected repre- Today,t i is all too evident that those who sentatives to seek an amendment establishing would limit the scope and character of Amer- that “there should be limits on political cam- ican democracy are prevailing. This is why paign spending and that corporations should the most vibrant politics of the moment are not have the constitutional rights of human often non-electoral: fast-food strikes, immi- beings.” grant rights marches, mass mobilizations of public employees like those seen in Wisconsin The successful work being done by national and Ohio, “Moral Mondays” in North Caroli- groups such as Public Citizen, Common Cause, na, struggles to prevent the closures of public Free Speech for People, and Move to Amend, schoolsn i cities from Chicago to Philadelphia, in conjunction with grassroots coalitions that the campaign for a $15 minimum wage. These are now active from northern Alaska to the tip movements will grow because of the economic of the Florida Keys, is far more dramatic than and social necessity that underpins them. But the initiatives you’ll see from the Democrat- to turn activism into policy, they must be linked ic or Republican parties—which no longer do to democracy movements that will seek to in- much more than fundraise—and the various fuse voting and elections with meaning. To do and sundry groupings on the right and left that this, demands for constitutional change must seek to amplify partisanship. Yet for the most bet a their heart. This is how radicals, from the part, reform victories are afforded scant atten-

16 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

tion even from supposedly sympathetic media. congressional and state levels to address the As such, the fantasy persists that it is impos- Supreme Court’s decision. It will also open the sibleo t achieve real reform—meaning radical discussion for additional amendments to ex- reform that challenges corporate power in the tend political, social, and economic democracy. name of electoral and economic democracy. It is in this spirit that Americans should go A second constitutional movement—less ad- about the work of countering assaults on de- vanced but nonetheless percolating—seeks mocracy and, even more crucially, of shaping to reassert that which has been attacked by a real democracy. This is bold, adventurous Bush v Gore and subsequent Voter ID laws, and work.t I rejects the fallacy that America was made a mockery of by the unbelievable Citi- born fully formed and embraces the truth that zens United and McCutcheon rulings. Working its formation is ongoing. U.S. Supreme Court with voting and civil rights groups, Wisconsin Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg stirred controver- Congressman Mark Pocan and Minnesota Con- sy several years ago when she observed that: gressman Keith Ellison have proposed a consti- “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I tutional amendment that declares: were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” For this, she earned calls for her resignation SECTION 1: Every citizen of the United States, who from the defenders of a dysfunctional status is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental quo. Such is the determination of the elites to right to vote in any public election held in the juris- stifle honest debate over democracy. A. Philip diction in which the citizen resides. Randolph was precisely right when he noted SECTION 2: Congress shall have the power to en- in the early days of the Civil Rights struggle force and implement this article by appropriate that “the beneficiaries of a system cannot be legislation. expected to destroy it.” And the beneficiaries of an order that bestows immense wealth on Americans have considered right-to-vote a privileged few will be every bit as resistant amendments in the past. But the frequency to change as were the beneficiaries of all the with which contentious debates are erupting old orders that were fought against in previ- nationwide—in 2013 alone, according to the ous ages of reform. It is absurd to look to “the Brennan Center for Justice, more than eighty money power” to usher in a democratic order billso t restrict voting have been introduced in that might diminish its power. And it is equally more than thirty states—has added urgency to absurdo t operate within the narrow confines this initiative. As Ellison says: “Even though the dictated by political and media elites. righto t vote is the most-mentioned right in the Constitution, legislatures across the country Those who would repair and renew the Repub- have been trying to deny that right to millions lic must stop worrying about what is “possible” of Americans, including in my home state of and start worrying about what is necessary. Minnesota. It’s time we made it clear once and Other countries do this. When Justice Ginsberg for all: every citizen in the United States has a spoke of a modern constitution in 2012, she re- fundamental right to vote.” ferred to the South African document that was signed by Nelson Mandela and guarantees a Thereso i n question that it will be challenging righto t organize trade unions, a right to health to enact a right-to-vote amendment. But it is care and social services, a right to a healthy en- necessary. And the movement to amend the vironment, and above all a right to vote. The Constitution, if it is broad and vigorous, will U.S. Constitution could do the same. But it will create space for more immediate action at the only do so if the people demand it.

17 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

A New Era of Democratic Renewal

Bernie Sanders believes, as I do, that American nomic turmoil by developing structures and democracy can be saved. Or, more accurately, creating opportunities—through unions, coop- that it is still possible to initiate fundamental re- eratives and programs that handed real power forms with the purpose of creating democratic to real people—to such an extent that Crouch structures that will make voting and elections describes the period, its limitations notwith- matter for all Americans, not just the handful standing, as America’s democratic “peak.” of billionaires. But this shift will not result from minor tinkering around the edges of the cur- The point is not to climb the same peak again. rent system. Changes will have to be radical in Rather,ts i i to recognize that just as democra- the best American sense—which is to say that cy can expand and contract, it can ascend and they must involve a reworking of the Constitu- tumble.e W ought to be striving to ascend. But tion. And they must have as their first goal— too d s we must recognize how far we have though certainly not their last—the realization tumbled. of the full promise of the franchise for which Medgar Evers and so many others sacrificed The United States has made too many wrong their livelihoods and lives. Elections must mat- choices—the high court’s McCutcheon ruling be- ter. That does not mean that elections can or ing the most devastating recent example. It is should be the only mechanism for expressing timeo t start asking why our turnout is so low, the f will o the people: the First Amendment to ando t start finding answers in our own histo- the.S. U Constitution outlines rights to speak, ry and in the experience of countries that rank to publish and broadcast, to assemble, and to higher on global indexes of democracy. Just as petition for the redress of grievances. These Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine borrowed rights are not established for the purposes of from the best ideas of a global enlightenment theater,o s that citizens may merely express to n usher i the American experiment, there is themselves. They exist so that the great mass every reason now to borrow from the best elec- of Americans can challenge and pressure gov- tion practices of other countries—from easy ernments before, during, and after elections. voting structures, to strict limits on spending by powerful interests, to vibrant public-media Butn i a country so large, where power is so coverage of campaigning and governing—to concentrated in national and state govern- usher in a new era of democratic renewal. ments that have become the playthings of wealthy elites and corporations, it is essential But the first step in addressing the democracy to break the stranglehold of money and to deficit in the United States must necessarily in- make the electoral process meaningful enough volve the issue that led Medgar Evers out onto so that representative democracy can begin the streets of Decatur, Mississippi, almost 70 to take shape. This is what happened, imper- years ago, and that cost him his life 50 years fectly but certainly, in the 1930s in the United ago. Congress may apply bandages to a Voting States, when voters brought to power Franklin Rights Act that has been wounded by activist Roosevelt’s administration and the populist judges, but nothing this Congress does on its and progressive governments of states where own e will b sufficient to the task of democra- multi-party democracy briefly flourished. Es- tizing America. We need nothing less than a tablished electorally, these governments re- 21st century suffrage movement. That’s right. A sponded to popular pressure in a time of eco- movement that takes as its charge the guaran-

18 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

teef o voting rights, and by extension the real- tained by standards and structures, buoyed izationf o the promise of democracy. A move- byn a assurance of equal access and oppor- ment that gathers in all other movements for tunity for those who would vote and for those economic and social justice, and for sustain- who would submit themselves to the voters ability and peace, and says: to achieve each of as candidates. It should be characterized by our goals, we must begin by demanding that a steady flow of meaningful information: not our votes and our elections matter sufficient- adsr o spin, but substantive news and anal- lyo s that, if we so choose, we may break the ysis and honest debate that affords every grip of unelected elites and replace an unsatis- citizen the knowledge and the insight neces- factory status quo with a republic in which the saryo t actively engage in setting the nation’s people truly rule. agenda.

We need a movement that takes a cue from The right response to the crisis of democracy Franklin Roosevelt, when he declared: “The afflicting America ought not to be a tinkering first truth is that the liberty of a democracy around the edges of the problem. The re- is not safe if the people tolerate the growth sponse should be robust enough to end, once of private power to a point where it becomes and for all, the whipsawing of our democra- stronger than their democratic state itself.” tic experiment that we have witnessed in Bush v Gore, Citizens United, and McCutcheon. A movement that recognizes self-governance We need to realize, finally, Walt Whitman’s ought not to be characterized by fits and promise that we might “use the words America starts. Rather, it should be constant, sus- and democracy as convertible terms.”

Also by the author

To Begin the World Over Again A Politics of Wisconsin, Occupy, and the Next Left By John Nichols - October 2012

19 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

Recent Publications

Contracting Insecurity Private Military and Security Companies and the Future of the United Nations By Lou Pingeot - February 2014

Self-Determination, Not Termination Past, Present, and Future of the American Indian Movement By Walter R. Echo-Hawk - January 2014

More Than Just a Game Champions for Justice in U.S. Sports By Dave Zirin - October 2013

The Unfinished Dream The March on Washington and the Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. By Albert Scharenberg - August 2013

Lift the Load of Poverty Fighting for Black Equality in the Age of Obama By James Jennings - July 2013

War on Demand The Global Rise of Drones By Medea Benjamin - June 2013

Neoliberalism with Southern Characteristics The Rise of the BRICS By Vijay Prashad - May 2013

The Chicano Movement Mexican American History and the Struggle for Equality By Carlos Muñoz, Jr. - April 2013

Resist, Reclaim, Restructure Unions and the Struggle for Energy Democracy By Sean Sweeney - April 2013

Demand Everything Lessons of the Transformative Organizing Model By Steve Williams - February 2013 JOHN NICHOLS DEMOCRACY DISREGARDED

Death of a Yuppie Dream The Rise and Fall of the Professional-Managerial Class By Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich - January 2013

From Special Interest to Social Transformation? The LGBT Movement in the United States By Dawne Moon - January 2013

Alternatives to War Civil Conflict Resolution in the Context of International Politics By Andreas Buro - January 2013

Teachers on Strike Lessons from Chicago on How to Fight Back By Ethan Young - December 2012

A Brief History of Occupy Wall Street By Ethan Earle - November 2012

Recycle or Reimagine Tracking the Direction of the U.S. Environmental Movement By Lara Skinner - November 2012

Mapping the Left Progressive Politics in the United States By Ethan Young - November 2012

To Begin the World Over Again A Politics of Wisconsin, Occupy, and the Next Left By John Nichols - October 2012

Left Turn in Canada? The NDP Breakthrough and the Future of Canadian Politics By Murray Cooke and Dennis Pilon - October 2012

The Shape of Equality An Overview of the U.S. Women’s Movement By Heidi Hartmann and Martha Burk - October 2012

www.rosalux-nyc.org GLOBAL NETWORK OF ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG OFFICES

NORTH AMERICA AND UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS EAST ASIA New York City/USA Berlin/Germany Beijing/China Directors: Dr. Stefanie Ehmsen and President: Dr. Dagmar Enkelmann Director: Dr. Lutz Pohle Dr. Albert Scharenberg Executive Director: Dr. Florian Weis Email: [email protected] Website: www.rosalux-nyc.org Website: www.rosalux.de SOUTHEAST ASIA MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA AND CUBA EUROPEAN UNION Hanoi/Vietnam Mexico City/Mexico Brussels/Belgium Director: Nadja Charaby Director: Torge Löding Director: Dr. Klaus Sühl Website: www.rosalux.vn Website: www.rosalux.org.mx Website: www.rosalux-europa.info SOUTH ASIA ANDEAN REGION EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE New Delhi/India Quito/Ecuador Warsaw/Poland Director: Dr. Carsten Krinn Director: Dr. Miriam Lang Director: Dr. Joanna Gwiazdecka Email: [email protected] Website: www.rosalux.org.ec Website: www.rls.pl WEST AFRICA SOUTH AMERICA SOUTHEAST EUROPE Dakar/Senegal São Paulo/Brasil Belgrade/Serbia Director: Dr. Claus-Dieter König Director: Gerhard Dilger Director: Dr. Boris Kanzleiter Website: www.rosalux.sn Website: www.rls.org.br Website: www.rosalux.rs EAST AFRICA PALESTINE TURKEY Dar Es Salaam/Tanzania Ramallah Istanbul Director: Siegfried Schröder Director: Dr. Katja Hermann Director: Kadriye Karci Email: [email protected] Website: www.rosaluxemburg.ps Email: [email protected] SOUTHERN AFRICA ISRAEL RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA AND CAUCASUS Johannesburg/South Africa Tel Aviv Moscow/Russia Director: Dr. Armin Osmanovic Director: Dr. Angelika Timm Director: Tiina Fahrni Website: www.rosalux.co.za Website: www.rosalux.co.il Website: www.rosalux.ru

Website: www.rosalux-nyc.org

ROSA Facebook: rosaluxnyc LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE Twitter: @rosaluxnyc