Government of the People, for the People, by the People

            This week’s title is an abbreviated version of a quote by probably the greatest Republican president ever.  Eisenhower? Sorry, no. Reagan? Hell no.

Abraham Lincoln’s exact words, from his historic Gettysburg Address, are these:

“That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

What American could possibly disagree with a statement like that? One very important and powerful American, judging by his recent actions (which are consistent of course with his long-term approach to his job). I speak not of the megalomaniacal cult leader who currently tweets from the White House.  No, it’s the de facto leader of the Republican Party – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. I suggest to you that McConnell is, and has long been, the greatest danger to true democracy in these United States.

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, a sweeping bill designed to reform the American electoral system in several important, democracy-restoring ways. How sweeping? The Washington Post calls it “perhaps the most comprehensive political-reform proposal ever considered by our elected representatives.”

Here is a brief summary of the goals of the bill, also called the “For the People Act.”

Campaign finance

It seeks to create incentives for elected officials to rely on small donors, rather than large corporate contributions, when running for office and proposes new disclosure requirements on the source of donor money.

Voting rights

The bill seeks to expand early voting, create same-day voter registration, save eligible voters from “voter purging,” and creates a pathway for re-enfranchisement for those who have lost voting privileges due to felony convictions. There is also an amendment to make Election Day a holiday for federal workers.

Anti-corruption

Third, there is a focus on anti-corruption measures. H.R. 1 would require presidential and vice-presidential candidates to disclose their income tax returns and wants paper ballots to be used in federal elections, mainly to reduce the risk of electronic voting machines being hacked.

So those are the goals. Let’s have a quick look at the problems the bill would chip away at, if not solve, if it were to be approved by McConnell’s Senate as well as the House.

Large organizations and interest groups – mainly big corporations and PACs controlled by the likes of the Koch Brothers and Sherman Adelson but, to be fair, also labor unions and progressive organizations – exert enormous influence on policy and politics in this country. That influence has always been there, but it has grown dramatically since the Supreme Court’s shamefully anti-democratic Citizens United decision. HR 1 supports overturning Citizens United, and requiring much more disclosure of the sources of campaign contributions.

On voter rights, a number of states, egged on by right-wing howls of “voter fraud” by individuals who supposedly seek to unfairly sway elections, have accelerated their efforts in recent years to suppress the vote. Voter ID laws targeting immigrants and minorities, laws preventing convicted felons from voting, and, most disturbing, organized purges of voter registration lists have been the anti-democracy weapons of choice for Republican governors and Republican-led state legislatures. H.R. 1 seeks to end these games. A tall order, but an action that has been needed for years.

As for corruption, why oh why has the current president – up until now – managed to defy a protocol observed since the days of Nixon, hiding his tax returns from the American public?  The obvious answer – though every major presidential candidate since Nixon has followed through, there is no law requiring that disclosure. Not yet. Requiring paper ballots (hopefully not strategically confusing designs like Florida’s infamous 2000 “butterfly” ballot) would head off electoral shenanigans both foreign (hacking) and home-grown (take your pick of tricks). This is particularly important when staunch partisans hold the key office of secretary of state, overseeing elections in which they themselves are sometimes candidates. Now there is your actual voter fraud, not that right-wingers who toss around that term are paying any attention.

I have read new posts on social media castigating the Democrats for crafting and passing this legislation now, while they control the House but are under McConnell’s thumb in the Senate. The main attack – they are doing this now when the reform has no chance of passing the upper house, but did not in the early Obama days when they controlled both houses. Good point. Democrats certainly merit criticism. After all, they have been the most trusted advisor and enabler to big corporations for several decades. Only slightly more public-minded than Republicans, who are a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America.

Though the bill is doomed, I assert that it has value far beyond political grandstanding or paying mere lip service to progressive, democratic values. By refusing to even bring the measure up for a vote, McConnell is doing more stonewalling along the lines of what he did to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016 – Merrick Garland. But there is more here. McConnell can ridicule this bill as the “Democrat Politician Protection Act” and a “turkey,” but look again at what the bill is targeting. That is, corruption and unfairness.

By allowing the bill to die, McConnell is showing his true colors as a champion of voter exclusion, corruption and oligarchy. And if you wish to see the full display of McConnell’s Machiavellian machinations and political knavery, just look at his opposite approach to another current initiative, the Green New Deal. He just can’t wait to flap his jowls at that one, because he has the unapologetic votes to kill it, and into the bargain, harness more unjustified public ridicule, attacking “Democratic Socialism.” But if he were to bring H.R. 1 up to a Senate vote, all his esteemed Republican colleagues would have to stand up and show what they really are – defenders of minority rule over the majority, and protectors of the corrupt morphing of a once-democratic system into a plutocracy that does the bidding of the uber-wealthy and powerful, all others be damned.

McConnell badly wants the public to believe he is fighting his good old fight, pushing Republican interests in a fair, principled battle against those of the other party. But he is really fighting the democratic system, lower case ‘d.’ It is probably too much to hope for in wishing that he lose his Senate seat in 2020.  But it is very reasonable to hope that he loses his ability to manipulate the Senate as majority leader once Democrats re-take control of the Senate in that same election. Of course, he will then go back to his favorite old minority tactic, the filibuster.  But that is a battle for a later date. And as for the Democrats, after they win the Senate in 2020, it will be time for us to hold them accountable. That is, we will have to force them to live up to the lofty principles represented in H.R. 1.  And maybe even some version of the Green New Deal.

I believe that my two favorite presidents from history – FDR the Democrat and Lincoln the Republican – would be all in favor of restoring government of the people, for the people, by the people.