| Scholars, policy makers debate state of American democracy BY ADRIENNE FRANK Two Pulitzer Prize winners—Washington Post columnist David Broder and Martin Luther King Jr. biographer Taylor Branch—highlighted last Monday’s first biennial Conference on the State of American Democracy. The event aimed to explore “issues essential to the health of democracy,” including redistricting, voting law, and campaign finance reform, said Curtis Gans, director of the sponsoring Center for the Study of the American Electorate. In the opening address Broder noted that the conference was undertaking an important mission at a critical time. “Whether it’s because of the way districts are drawn, the way campaigns are financed, or the ways in which parties are organized, [today it is] almost impossible for individual members of Congress to live up to their own expectations. “Institutionally, we need the kind of change that will make it possible for politicians to begin to behave in a responsible way,” he explained. “I do not think we suffer from a lack of capable people in our government. Whatever you think about their agendas, the people who come to Congress now come with ideas, and they come with an inclination to try and change things for what they consider the better.” Also addressing the loaded issue of redistricting reform, former congressman David Skaggs, director of the Center for Citizenship and Democracy, remarked that fewer than 40 congressional districts are considered competitive. This means the political process is “less vibrant, real, and authentic to the American people.” Reform, he noted, would result in a “Congress that’s much more reflective of the population, and elections that are much more exciting.” Taking his turn at addressing the state of our democracy, Branch explained how King “put one foot in the Scripture and one foot in our constitutional and patriotic documents,” thereby illustrating how faith-based movements can be a transforming element in democracy. “MLK spoke about religion and politics every day in sermons. He had many enemies. And what’s remarkable to me in looking back at the record of his career is that I can’t find one single instance in which his enemies, critics, or rivals criticized him for mixing church and state. “King talked about equal souls and equal votes as a common underpinning of our secular and our spiritual heritage that opens a politics that is far beyond liberal and conservative, that goes to the core of what democracy is,” continued Branch, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Parting the Waters. Asked to comment on where we go from here, Gans replied, “We start addressing the deeper underlying issues that make the state of American democracy, at this point, not very good. We cease being one of the only democracies in the world that doesn't regulate political advertising on television. We do something about redistricting. We do something about improving both the ethics and the organization of Congress. We go beyond HAVA [Help American Vote Act] to better registration and voting law.” Gans believed the message got out, that the scholars and policy makers from across the nation who gathered for the day left with the fire to address these issues. |
