Dollarocracy (52 page)

This is a critical construct for reformers to recognize as they propose and advance constitutional amendments. Nothing about restoring the right of elected officials—or voters via referendums—to govern the financing of elections infringes on the free speech rights of citizens, as historically or currently understood by any but the most partisan political players. And nothing about the extension of a positive liberty, the right to vote, diminishes the American experiment as it was understood by Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, it provides, finally, for the realization of Jefferson's best and final hope for America.

In the summer of his eighty-third year, Jefferson was asked by Roger C. Weightman, the mayor of Washington, DC, to attend a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1826. Jefferson declined but sent to Weightman what would be his last testament to the radical endeavor in which he had engaged. Jefferson did not spend much
time reflecting on what had been. Rather, he looked forward, across the democratic vistas that would soon be charted by a young poet, Walt Whitman, who would declare his intention to “speak the password primeval . . . to give the sign of democracy.”
⁷⁷

“May it be to the world what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self government,” wrote Jefferson in his response to the mayor of the nation's capital city. “All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”
⁷⁸

If it is true that human beings have not been born with saddles on their backs, if it is true that they can refuse to be ridden by a “booted and spurred” favored few, then surely in a civil society the vote is the tool by which they must assert their equal humanity. This is the essential understanding for which countless Americans marched and organized. For which far too many perished. Surely, it cannot be left to chance. Not any longer.

The favored few have reasserted themselves, via their courts and their fortunes and their political connections. They have forged a Dollarocracy that serves their interest. But that very Dollarocracy strangles the will of the people and the forward progress of a great nation. The time has come, finally, for citizens to burst the chains and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. The time has come, finally, in this great reform moment, to heed the signal of America's founding, to speak Walt Whitman's “password primeval,” to give the sign of democracy.

1
. Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” Poetry Foundation,
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174745
(accessed February 15, 2013).

2
. From the review of Al Gore,
The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change
(New York: Random House, 2013), by Leonard Gill that appeared in the
Memphis Flyer
, February 14, 2013.

3
. Quoted in Robert Gehrke, “Huntsman Bemoans a Broken U.S. Political System,”
Salt Lake Tribune
, May 31, 2012; and in Eric Dolan, “Huntsman Calls for Third Party: ‘The System Is Broken,'”
Raw Story
, February 23, 2012.

4
. Quoted in Bill Barrow, “Jimmy Carter: Citizens United Ruling, ‘Financial Corruption' Are Threatening Democracy,” Huffington Post, September 12, 2012.

5
. Quoted in “Jimmy Carter: Money Ruining Elections,” Associated Press, September 12, 2012.

6
. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Why We Can't Wait
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2011).

7
. Barack Obama, “The 2013 State of the Union Address,”
www.whitehouse.gov
(accessed February 12, 2013).

1
. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Where Do We Go from Here?: Chaos or Community?
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2010).

2
. Lawrence Lessig, “The Founders Versus the Funders,”
The Progressive
, October 2012, 21.

3
. Alex Seitz-Wald, “Feingold: Even Worse Than We Expected,”
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/even_worse_than_we_expected/
, September 22, 2012. Accessed March 12, 2013.

4
. Editorial, “Election Winners and Losers: Americans Voted in Large Numbers, but Voters Need to Be Better Served at the Polls. Meanwhile, Republicans Must Pause to Reflect,”
Christian Science Monitor
, November 9, 2012.

5
. Nicholas Confessore, “Results Won't Limit Campaign Money Any More Than Ruling Did,”
New York Times
, November 11, 2012.

6
. Jillian Berman, “Most Americans Say Economic Structure Favors ‘Very Small Portion of the Rich': WSJ/NBC Poll,” Huffington Post, November 8, 2011.

7
. Jeffrey A. Winters, “Democracy and Oligarchy,”
The American Interest
, November/December 2011, 18.

8
. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “A Hostile Takeover of Our Country,” EcoWatch, October 29, 2012.

9
. See Jane Mayer, “The Voter-Fraud Myth,”
New Yorker
, October 29, 2012.

10
. Martin Luther King Jr., “Give Us the Ballot,” address at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC, May 17, 1957.

11
. Quoted in Ron Hayduk,
Democracy for All: Restoring Immigrant Voting Rights in the United States
(New York: Routledge, 2006), 3.

1
. A July 2012 Gallup Poll found the two top issues rated as “extremely important” by voters are creating good jobs and reducing corruption in the federal government. See Jeffrey M. Jones, “Americans Want Next President to Prioritize Jobs, Corruption,”
gallup.com
, July 30, 2012.

2
. Rasmussen Reports, “59% Say Election Rules Rigged to Help Congressional Incumbents” (2012), and Rasmussen Reports, “53% Say Elections Are Rigged to Help Incumbents in Congress” (2011),
http://www.rasmussenreports.com
.

3
. Quoted in Selah Hennessy, “Annan Commission Criticizes US Election Financing,”
voanews.com
, September 14, 2012.

4
. Sources: Total vote 1948–2008: Voter Turnout, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance,
http://idea.int/vt
(accessed November 23, 2012). Total vote 2012: “Elections 2012,”
New York Times
(updated November 25, 2012),
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president
. Voting-age population 1948–2008: U.S. Census Bureau, “National Estimates by Age, Sex, Race: 1900–1979 (PE-11),”
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/pre-1980/PE-11.html
, and “Historical Data: 2000s,”
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/2000s/index.html
. Voting-age population 2012: U.S. Census Bureau, “2008 National Population Projections: Table 1. Projected Population by Single Year of Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: July 1, 2000 to July 1, 2050,”
http://www.census.gov/population/projections/data/national/2008/downloadablefiles.html
.

5
. Our figures may be somewhat different from others because we include all Americans who are legal residents of the United States. Whether prisoners, ex-prisoners, and legal aliens are entitled to vote in elections is always a political decision, so all of these people belong in the denominator. “Voting-Age Population Turnout” is defined as the percentage of the “Voting-Age Population” (VAP) that actually voted. In this calculation, the VAP is defined as everyone legally residing in the United States, age eighteen and older, which is in accord with the U.S. Census Bureau. This figure includes prisoners and those on probation or parole regardless of whether they are eligible to vote in a given state. It also includes noncitizens, who constituted 8.6 percent of the population in 2010 according to the United States Elections Project,
http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html
. However, according to the American Community Survey, the estimate of noncitizens in 2011 was only 4.7 percent. Sources: Total vote 2004 and 2008: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), Voter Turnout,
http://www.idea.int
. Total vote 2012: Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2012
. Total Population: U.S. Census Bureau, “Table 1 Intercensal Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex and Age for the United States.” (2004 and 2008) and “2008 National Projections.” (2012). We also consult and rely on the University of California at Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project data, found at:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/turnout.php
.

6
. See the data of the International IDEA,
www.idea.int
. The twelve nations are Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, India, Canada, Russia, Spain, Australia, and Canada.

7
. Bridget Hunter, “2011 U.S. State, Local Elections Important Despite Low Turnout,” Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State, November 9, 2011.

8
. Wendy R. Weiser and Lawrence Norden, “Voting Law Changes in 2012,” Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, October 3, 2011.

9
. For an extended discussion of this issue, see Robert W. McChesney,
Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
(New York: New Press, 2013).

10
. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “Nonvoters: Who They Are, What They Think,”
people-press.org
, November 1, 2012.

11
. We converted the 2008 figures to 2010 dollars and then applied them to 2010 income data. We rounded to the nearest whole number. Income percentile is a rough estimate made by converting mean household income estimates into 2010 dollars and then using a percentile calculator to determine which percentile each group would fall into. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates for 2008 and 2010, “Mean Household Income of Quintiles.” American FactFinder,
http://factfinder2.census.gov
(accessed November 27, 2012); Current Population Survey, “Voting and Registration Supplement,” 2008 and 2010, DataFerret Microdata.

12
. Walter Dean Burnham, “The Appearance and Disappearance of the American Voter,” in Thomas Ferguson and Joel Rogers, eds.,
The Political Economy
(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1984), 112–137.

13
. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson,
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), chap. 4

14
. In 2012, two major studies were published along these lines. See Martin Gilens,
Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012); and Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, and Henry E. Brady,
The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012). See also Larry M. Bartels,
Unequal Democracy
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008); and Martin Gilens, “Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness,”
Public Opinion Quarterly
69, no. 5 (2005): 778–796. There is a superb discussion of inequality and governance in Hacker and Pierson,
Winner-Take-All Politics
, chap. 4.

15
. The manner in which the two parties seized control of presidential debates is striking in this regard. See George Farah,
No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates
(New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004).

16
. See Gary Johnson, “Breaking the Two-Party Stranglehold That Is Killing American Democracy,”
The Guardian
, November 3, 2012.

17
. “2012 Congressional Elections Demonstrate Need for Fair Voting,” Fair Vote: The Center for Voting and Democracy, November 2012.

18
. Emily Bazelon, “It's Appalling That Gerrymandering Is Legal,”
slate.com
, November 9, 2012. Republicans controlled redistricting in twenty-four states, compared to eight for the Democrats. Democratic votes being highly concentrated in urban areas made it much easier to do effective gerrymandering for Republicans as well. See “The No-Wave Election,”
The Economist
, November 3, 2012, 29–30.

19
. Rob Richie and Devin McCarthy, “FairVote's Unique Methodology Shows That 52% of Voters Wanted a Democratic House,” FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy, November 13, 2012.

20
. Mark Karlin, “Most American Voters Elected a Democratic House, but We Got a Tea Party Congress,”
Truth-out.org
, November 26, 2012.

21
. “How to Rig an Election,”
The Economist
, April 25, 2002.

22
. Adam Liptak, “The Vanishing Battleground,” Sunday Review section,
New York Times
, November 4, 2012.