The Small Planet Institute’s motto is “living democracy, feeding hope,” so we are delighted to share with you our Field Guide to the Democracy Movement.

 

For us, democracy is the “mother of all issues.” Whether one’s first “love” is ending hunger, addressing climate change, or fixing our biased justice system, we at the Small Planet Institute believe that progress depends on governance accountable to citizens.

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And we are not alone. Today more and more citizens recognize that getting money out of politics and ensuring the right to vote are essential to realizing the America we want and need. We’re heartened by this powerful upsurge of passion for achieving equality of citizens’ voices.

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Such profound change cannot happen overnight, of course. It will come only through a vibrant, inclusive, compelling, sustained, and powerful Democracy Movement achieving step-by-step gains. Those steps include electing pro-reform officials who will pass tough campaign-finance legislation and ensure voting rights from local to national elections. 

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We created this Field Guide to serve the emerging Democracy Movement. Here we share our learning about dozens of organizations that are the ever-growing foundation of this movement—those working to prevent big, private wealth from dominating U.S. politics and to ensure the right to vote for all Americans.

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In composing this guide, it dawned on us that roughly two-thirds of the groups presented here are quite new—launched in 2000 or after: yet another sign of the accelerating pace of the Democracy Movement’s growth.

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Like democracy itself, the Field Guide is not a “one-off” project. It is an iterative undertaking in which we need and want your help. So please send us your thoughts on how this guide could be more useful to you.

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The Crisis of Money in Politics

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Imagine a crowded auditorium in which everyone is assured the right to speak, but only a very few are allowed to bring in electronic megaphones. Their earsplitting sound easily drowns out everyone else. This scene captures the essence of our election rules today: They allow money to become those deafening megaphones, as the biggest donors—individuals, corporations, and special interests—line the pockets of candidates, fund super PACs, and pay lobbyists to bend policy to their benefit.

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Americans get it. Seventy-nine percent of us agree that “large political contributions prevent Congress from tackling important questions.” This unprecedented bipartisan alarm is spurred by the staggering increase in political spending, with the aggregate cost of all federal races climbing from $4 billion in 2004 to over $5 billion in 2008, more than $6 billion in 2012, and an estimated almost $7 billion in 2016. This increase has been enabled by a series of Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1976 that removed limits on private spending and increased secrecy in elections.

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The billions flooding our political system come from a tiny sliver of the American populace. Less than 1 percent of 1 percent of the U.S. population contributed 60 percent of all the super PAC money spent in the 2012 election cycle, notes Professor Larry Lessig, legal scholar and activist. As a result, voices of regular citizens are increasingly drowned out by the cacophony of big money. A study of policy outcomes during the 80s and 90s document this truth: It found that average citizens had near-zero influence whereas the elite class had significant policy impact.

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This stark imbalance generates anger and political alienation, no doubt contributing to the election of Donald Trump.

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Defending and Extending Voting Rights

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Voting is not guaranteed in our constitution. Indeed, the first American elections were reserved only for white, landowning men. It took centuries of struggle and three constitutional amendments for all socioeconomic groups, women, and people of color to gain the right to vote.  Even after passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, as Ari Berman recounts in his book Give Us the Ballot, systematic and insidious efforts have worked to keep people from voting.

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Recently, barriers to voting have grown.

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In the past decade alone, more than twenty states have enacted laws requiring voters to show certain government-issued identification at the polls—including photo IDs that many Americans do not own. Many states have also eliminated state-sponsored voter registration drives, shortened the early-voting period, eliminated election-day registration, and even abolished pre-registration for sixteen and seventeen-year olds. These anti-democracy steps disproportionately affect communities of color, the elderly, and youth (especially students).

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Much like its rulings on campaign-finance laws, the Supreme Court has actually abetted this assault. In the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling, the Supreme Court cut the heart out of the Voting Rights Act.

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Joining the Democracy Movement

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Removing big money from control of our political system and ensuring the right to vote are essential to solving our nation’s challenges. Without these foundational elements, Americans will continue to feel shut out and betrayed—in a sense, evicted from their own home, democracy itself.

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Though achieving such foundational reform will be difficult, millions in the Democracy Movement are already committed. As more and more of us join them, we generate people power and in this process become grounds for hope ourselves. Together we wage the “good fight”—an historic struggle for the heart and soul of American democracy. Please join us all in this deeply rewarding work.