Katrina vanden Heuvel: Our Dysfunctional Democracy (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 05/07/2007 @ 3:03pm
Our Dysfunctional Democracy


Isn't it time that the US stop all the talk of democracy promotion abroad and start walking the walk here at home? As I suggested last November, let's bring democracy home. And while we're facing a crazy primary schedule and a $2 billion election which will shatter all campaign fundraising records… here are three recent and ongoing pro-democracy efforts that all good small "d" democrats should know about and fully support.

1. DC House Voting Rights Act. The House recently approved legislation to grant nearly 600,000 disenfranchised District citizens a voting representative in Congress as well as a fourth seat for largely Republican Utah. (Utah was less than 1000 people short of meriting an added seat, according to the 2000 Census which failed to account for thousands of missionaries abroad at the time.) The Senate will now take up a similar bill introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Orrin Hatch.

On Sunday, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher suggested one of the reasons the District now stands its best chance since the 1970's to gain voting representation: "In the shadow of an unpopular war and a gloomy cloud of anti-American sentiment around the world, an increasing number of Republicans are looking for ways to counter criticism that the United States is less than a paragon of democratic virtue at home."

"We don't need Republicans to vote for the bill," Republican Representative Tom Davis--who cosponsored the House bill--told Fisher. "We just need nine to stop a filibuster, and we think we have them."

And former Republican Congressman Jack Kemp said, "Young men and women are being sent from DC to Baghdad. The hypocrisy is painful. It's just unbelievable how Republicans could turn away from American citizens who want to vote. I don't see how they can sleep at night."

A lot of good groups have kept up the pressure for this legislation, including DC Vote, FairVote, Common Cause, and others. Tell your Senator to bring democracy home by supporting the DC House Voting Rights Act (S. 1257) today.

2. National Popular Vote. Last month I wrote about Maryland becoming the first state to sign a National Popular Vote Bill into law. The legislation calls for the state's electoral votes to go to the popular vote winner instead of the winner of the state vote. (It would take effect when states representing a majority of votes in the Electoral College agree to join a binding National Popular Vote compact.) ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=193008