REFORMING ELECTION LAWS

This post is NOT about the Big Lie that Biden rigged the election. Now we have that out of the way.

This post is about how our election process works, or doesn't work, and what, if anything, we can and should do to fix it.

The Electoral College.  I'll leave this one to the experts; however, there is one solution I've read about that could be a simple solution. A number of states have already signed on to a proposal under which all of the state electoral votes would be assigned to the winner of the popular vote. If this were to be the process in every state, it would basically bypass the role of the Electoral College, and the winner of the popular vote would be the winner of the election. 

Money in Politics.  Campaign spending on the 2020 election was about $14,000,000,000 (14 billion). For the presidential contest, Trump raised $785 million and Biden raised $1.06 billion, totaling $1.85 billion, between January 1, 2017 and November 23, 2020.(1) In my humble opinion, this is obscene and out of control. We need to limit the amount of money in electoral politics. Citizens United went the opposite way, so we need to overturn that through legislation, or a constitutional amendment. There should be strict limits on the amount of money spent, no dark money, complete transparency and more. It is a fact that electeds spend a huge amount of their time every year doing fund raising. And yes, big donations result in favors or special treatment.

Politics should be Local.  Why do we allow people (or corporations and other entities) to get involved in elections for people who will not represent them? In other words, donations to and campaigning for political candidates should be limited to the people who will be represented by the elected person. In many elections at the local, regional, state and federal levels, outside money and campaigners can flood into the process and determine the outcome. In Oregon, for example, we have a ballot initiative process, and we often find that some person or organization from outside Oregon sponsors an initiative, puts big money into campaigning for it, and can win over Oregon voters for it. Why is this O.K? 

The recent presidential and senate elections in the State of Georgia is another good example of outside influence. Many millions of dollars poured into the Georgia election from outside Georgia. Georgia voters were inundated by many thousands or millions of letters, postcards, telephone calls, text messages from people outside Georgia. Wouldn't it be a better process if the citizens of Georgia made their own decisions without all the outside money and labor trying to persuade them? (Yes, I know that if you are a Democrat, you don't like this idea; but it works both ways.) 

This issue, of course, goes back to the issue of money in elections. Think about it, if every candidate was given the same amount of money by government to spend on campaigning, and was not allowed to use outside money, a lot of the problems would go away. 

Voter Registration.  Voting in America is not just a right, it is a responsibility. As such, it should be easy for citizens to become registered voters. In fact, there are some who think that every eligible person should automatically be registered by some process, and even make voting mandatory. The 2020 election had the largest voter turnout, by percentage, in more than a century, at 66.3%. In other words, one-third of American voters didn't vote. Certainly we can and should be better at this.

Voter Suppression. A shameful aspect of voting in America is the efforts by political bodies at every level to suppress the votes of specific groups, mostly people of color. The formation of the United States only allowed white men to vote, and this was not completely corrected until the twentieth century. Today there are efforts to redraw voting districts to favor a specific political party (usually Republicans), there are laws passed to make it more difficult for certain people to exercise their voting right, and the act of voting is often made more difficult for minority communities by limiting the number of voting locations and understaffing them. Many solutions abound, including a national vote-by-mail mandate. Credit is due to the dedicated people who worked hard to make the 2020 election one of the most secure in history, and in the midst of a pandemic. 

Stop the Lies.  Elections and campaigning should be based on fact and truth, not lies and deception. Candidates should be punished in some way for mounting advertisements or making speeches that convey false statements - lies. Broadcasters should be regulated, as they used to be, to only allow truthful statements and facts to be aired. Unfortunately, lies were the foundation of the Trump administration, and this will be difficult to unwind.

Back to the Basics.  Unfortunately, American politics has become a partisan money game, instead of the ideal we strive for. According to the Constitution:

• The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.... [Article 1, Section 2]
• The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof....[Amendment XVII]
• The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States....[Article 1, Section 8] 

(emphases added, above)

In other words, each State should elect the people to represent it, and these members of Congress have the responsibility to "promote the general welfare" of the country. Nowhere does the Constitution say or imply that the job of members of Congress is to promote their party or their own fortune. 

Yes, I know, things are not that simple; but seriously, our system is totally screwed up, and smart people can certainly find ways to make the system more fair, more transparent, and more representative of voters. And that's my opinion.

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Footnote:

(1) Source:https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_campaign_finance,_2020

(This post was modified several hours after the original posting.)

WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

On January 6, 2021, at 1:24 PM, the assault on American democracy continued, this time in the Congress of the United States of America.  In a joint session of Congress, more than 100 members of Congress, all Republicans, gave a rare standing ovation to the objection by a representative of the State of Arizona to the counting of Arizona electoral votes for Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris. 

Scholars, lawyers and pundits on both political sides agreed that this grand side show had no chance of changing the results of the 2020 presidential election; it was pure political theater designed to appeal to the Trump/Republican base and burnish the Trumpian credentials of aspirants to the presidency in 2024. This cynical move, however, was more dangerous than not, as it continued the constant drumbeat of lies and conspiracy theories spewing from the mouth of the U.S. President and his co-conspirators. The fabricated lie of a stolen election had convinced a huge number of Americans that Joe Biden and the evil Democrats had cheated Donald Trump out of a second term to make America great again, again. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R Texas) spoke first in the Senate after they reconvened to debate the challenge to Arizona votes. He said "...almost half of Americans (Republicans, 39%, Democrats 17%) think the election was "rigged." He called for "appointment of an Electoral Commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit, to examine the evidence...." The problem with Cruz's argument was that there is no evidence of election fraud - zero - as determined by every state and every court. Cruz used circular logic; "we kept telling the people the same lie, and look, a lot of them believe it!"

As Congressional Republicans attacked democracy in the House and Senate chambers, Donald Trump was inciting a huge crowd of his supporters to attack the Capitol Building. He instructed them to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, repeatedly saying that he would march with them (he didn't; he went back to the White House and watched on T.V.). And so thousands of screaming and yelling Americans stormed the Capitol of the United States, overwhelmed ill-prepared Capitol Police, broke in, vandalized the hallowed halls of government, threatened members of Congress, who fled to secure locations, and tore a gaping hole in the American facade of "united." Five people died, including one policeman; many more were injured. All of the facts of this incident have yet to be uncovered, and we can assume that it was much worse than we think now. 

Time will tell the extent of coordination and possible collusion around this mob invasion of the Capitol. Many questions remain unanswered. One thing, however, is crystal clear: authoritarianism has taken root in America.

In November, 2020, 74,224,501 Americans voted for Donald J. Trump; this was  46.82% of the votes cast in the election (about 6 million more voted for Joe Biden). 

On the morning of January 6, 2021, 15 Senators and 141 Representatives were on record as intending to challenge state-certified electoral college votes for Joe Biden (7 Senators and 2 Representatives changed their minds after the Trump mob attack on the Capitol). Assuming the original number of Senators and Representatives would have voted their opposition had the mob riot not occurred, 28.3% of Republicans in the Senate, and 71.6% of Republicans in the House of Representatives would have voted against the democratic election process and in favor of giving the election to Trump. Combining the Senate and House numbers, 62.4% of Congressional Republicans intended to vote against the democratic process. 

Let's be very, very clear here about this critically important take-away from the 2020 presidential election process: almost half of American voters (47%) and almost two-thirds of Republicans in Congress (62%) chose authoritarianism (Donald Trump) over democracy!  (see update at end)

This fact has to be foremost in our minds moving forward. Many of us assume that every American believes in and supports democracy, as opposed to fascism or authoritarianism. The facts show otherwise. The far-right in America, led for the past four years by Donald Trump, has convinced a significant number of Americans that only they can save America, make it great again, and keep the socialists and "others" (re: people of color, immigrants) from taking over their country. Using lies and fear-mongering, the right has somehow convinced these Americans that a man like Donald Trump is actually their champion and has their best interests in mind, even though any intelligent person can see clearly that Trump and his minions only have the interests of themselves and the very wealthiest people in mind. This is a truly dangerous time for America. 

Soon-to-be President Joe Biden ran on a platform of unification, of working across the aisle, of being the president of every American, not just those who voted for him. This is a great ideal; however, in practice, Mr. Biden will need to charge ahead with the critically needed new programs and reforms that will, in fact, benefit the vast majority of Americans, including those who chose authoritarianism. He must find ways to open people's eyes to the realities of Trumpism by showing them the tangible benefits of improved wages and meaningful jobs, health care, education, building a carbon-free energy system, improvements in air and water quality, and many other aspects of life. This will be a tough job, and the Biden team, including all of us who want him to succeed, have the next two years, until the mid-term election of 2022, to show fickle American voters what major progress looks like. 

Make America Great Again - MAGA - is a dog whistle for Keep America White. This fact is much more evident today than it was a week ago or four years ago. The contrast between the law enforcement response displayed at the nation's Capitol Building compared to that at every Black Lives Matter demonstration in D.C. and across America is shockingly stark. Although there are numerous videos of Capitol Police seeming to accommodate the white rioters, even befriend or assist them in some cases, overall the officers appeared to try to keep the crowd back and protect the building and the people inside until realizing their lives and safety were at risk against impossible odds of success, and they pulled back. One officer was killed, and many others injured. The failure of law enforcement at the Capitol was a failure of leadership; it remains to be seen if this was intentional. It appears that a "demonstration" of white people did not present the threat that demonstrations by Black Americans is assumed to present. We can only imagine the extent of injury and death of rioters had they been persons of color. However, an alternative explanation could be that this was an intentional plan to set up a situation that would allow "demonstrators" to overwhelm law enforcement in order to stop the Congress from approving the electoral college certification of the election of Trump's opponent. This is a conspiracy theory alternative explanation, but in the Trump-era, it has to be considered. Hopefully, time and investigations will determine the truth. 

I believe that the American democratic republic is strong and will endure; however, I also believe that the many flaws in our system must be corrected, and the tide of authoritarianism must be defeated. America was founded in white supremacy, and its history has followed that shameful track to this day. Advances and improvements have been made along the way, but the framework of systemic bias remains. To move forward, we must change the framework.

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UPDATE (January 27, 2021): Yesterday, I finished reading the book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson. She recounted a question by Taylor Branch during their discussion: "...if people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?" This is an important word substitution I accept instead of "authoritarianism," above. 

DECEMBER 31, 2020 - AT LAST!

It's been awhile. I guess I just haven't had the heart or the will to post here since early November.  The Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ticket won the election, and Donald Trump and his minions stepped up their denial snake oil pitch and continued to make a mockery of the office of president and the Republican Party. He left for Florida and has spent the days playing golf and tweeting bile while many more thousands of Americans sickened and died from the killer virus. Trump will be gone soon - not soon enough - the Retrumplicans will stay on, and the new administration will have a daunting job ahead, to say the least.

2020. A year of infamy. Many people have or will write about the year that ends tonight, and I have nothing new to say. At the end of a year, I usually scroll through my digital calendar from January 1 to December 31 as a way of reviewing the year. For 2020, this scroll-through looks pretty typical for us; dinners out, theater evenings, museum visits, doctor appointments, gatherings with friends and family for normal activities or special events. But it all changes starting March 11. After March 11, the calendar is filled with video calls; first using Skype, then exclusively Zoom. And grocery pickups. Zoom gatherings and grocery pickups, all...year...long. We have been "sheltering in place" to avoid exposure to the virus. 

>19,970,000 COVID-19 cases; >344,000 people dead as of today in America since February, 2020. A lot of this was preventable. There are vaccines now, but the distribution system is screwed up, so it will be a long time until enough people are vaccinated to clear this train wreck off the tracks. The Biden-Harris administration will hopefully fix a lot of what's broken. Fingers crossed.

Our family has been fortunate. We elders are retired and comfortable; the kids (anyone under 60) are hanging on and getting on well enough. No-one in our immediate circle has tested positive, or been ill with the virus. And no deaths. We grieve for the many families - too many - in our country who have been visited with pandemic tragedy, and we are saddened by the loss of jobs, economic and social stresses so many families are experiencing. And yes, we are mad as hell that the Repugnicans in Congress have dithered away the time with their partisan politics, their Trump-support nonsense, instead of doing the job the Constitution requires them to do: "promote the general welfare." A pox on all their houses!!!

A friend remarked yesterday that it was not really the new year until January 21. Agreed. While it is true that much of what happened during 2020 was brought by nature, it is also true that the Trumpsters made everything worse, every time. An old adage is: everything is political. 

As I complete this short post today, 01/01/2021, I know that today is simply the day after yesterday, and that the "new year" is only symbolic. Nothing has changed from yesterday that is outside the trend lines from the yesterdays. And yet, we can symbolically take a deep breath, look ahead, see the end-of-tunnel light is a bit larger and brighter, and renew hope for a better year. And maybe, just maybe, if we all work together, we can make it so. 

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