For the People: Mobilize now
The cost of allowing the current corruption and assault on voting rights to move forward is vast. It is paid in freedoms stolen and fears stoked, in lives lost and poverty escalated.
Dear friends: I worked on another piece that highlighted the provisions of the For the People Act focused on curbing corruption via reform of campaign financing and ending gerrymandering. These are critical tools in curbing our country’s dangerous slide toward oligarchy, and I encourage those of you who are interested to read more about them.
But now, things seem more urgent. Two mass shootings in two weeks, and the passage of new voter restrictions in Georgia, exhibit our challenge in stark relief. Four years ago, a huge network of activists and allies mobilized to save the Affordable Care Act. We need that kind of effort now.
It might seem as though the For the People Act is more abstract: health care touches our lives daily, and we vote episodically. But the right to vote, and the way our system organizes representation, is the foundation for everything else we ask from our government.
For decades, the majority of Americans have voiced support for common-sense measures like universal background checks and restrictions on the most deadly types of guns and bullets. For decades, the money that pours into campaigns from the National Rifle Association (funneled from gun and ammunition manufacturers) has silenced that support. Our country loses thousands of beautiful souls every year to gun violence, and our federal government remains paralyzed. Campaign finance reform and an end to gerrymandering could change this situation dramatically. No more dark money, and no more districts that are “safe” for a party, calling out the most extreme elements of that party to vote in primaries, moving representation farther and farther away from the majority.
In Georgia, the current governor signed into law one of the most draconian rollbacks of voter access in years, while sitting under a painting of a plantation whose owners enslaved more than one hundred humans, and while a duly elected Black representative was led away by county sheriffs for refusing to stop knocking on the door, asking to be allowed in to witness the signing (see source, thanks to Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, cited below the photo).
It is hard to imagine a more potent symbol of the world view that political rule should be restricted to an elite group who are most “suitable” to manage the work of government, and who are willing to organize that government primarily for the benefit of that same elite group.
One set of details from the Brennan Center’s analysis of federal campaign donations stands out. (Emphasis mine.)
As of 2018, roughly $1 billion had come from just 11 people. Dark money groups that keep their donors secret, but which we know are funded by many of the same donors who back super PACs, have spent well over $1 billion more.
In the two most recent midterm elections, the top 100 super PAC donors gave almost as much as all the millions of small donors combined.
At the highest contribution levels, the donor class has long been overwhelmingly white (and disproportionately male).
The For the People Act addresses these problems head-on by amplifying the voices of the everyday voters, primarily through small donor matching. It manages this at a vanishingly small cost.
But the cost of allowing the current corruption and assault on voting rights to move forward is vast. It is paid in freedoms stolen and fears stoked, in lives lost and poverty escalated.
Friends, if you live in my state, our Senators already support the For the People Act. But in order for it to pass, the despicable use of the threat of filibuster to kill legislation supported by the majority of Americans must be ended. Call, email, use your social media (a link to resources on how to take action is after the photo).
It is all-hands-on-deck time to take a stand for participation and representation for all.
As always, I am deeply grateful for your company on this journey.
Here’s a good source for action to take to support the For the People Act: https://represent.us/putdemocracyfirsthub/
Here’s the Brennan Center’s deep dive into its provisions and how they will help to end corruption, and shore up voting rights: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/congress-must-pass-people-act
Here’s the piece from Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch on the bill signing in Georgia: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/georgia-governor-brian-kemp-painting-slave-plantation-20210326.html