In 1864, the Rev. Byron Sunderland, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, prayed before an April session, “Oh, Lord, give us that Thou wilt in Thine infinite wisdom vouchsafe to our rulers and legislators in this Congress assembled more brains. More brains, Lord.”
Today, the Senate still needs more brains. But Washington’s political paralysis has provoked an unprecedented response from progressives – the Democracy Initiative, which has three goals: boosting voter turnout, eliminating big money from government, and reforming Senate rules such as the filibuster, which has been used by Senate Republicans to obstruct governing and will continue after timid reforms reached in a compromise between Senate Republicans and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).
The Democracy Initiative grew from discussions between Sierra Club director Michael Brune, Communications Workers of America (CWA) president Larry Cohen, NAACP president Ben Jealous and Greenpeace director Phil Radford.
“This is really the first time that a broad spectrum of groups has come together around a big agenda that impacts the state and national level,” says Kim Anderson of the National Education Association (NEA), which hosted a meeting on Dec. 10 involving dozens of progressive groups.
Brune, Cohen, Jealous and Radford first contacted allies in June about the united front idea. By December – despite November’s election victories – anger was in the air. Civil rights activists, labor organizers, immigration reformers and environmentalists all saw challenges and brainstormed how to fight wealthy right-wingers and how to achieve aims of their individual organizations and goals they shared.
Those present pledged millions of dollars and staff to launch a national campaign around the three objectives: again, getting big money out of politics, expanding voting rolls while resisting voter suppression, and curbing the abuse of the filibuster.
“It was so exciting,” Brune said. “We weren’t just wringing our hands about the Koch brothers. We were saying, ‘I’ll put in this amount of dollars and this many organizers.’
“This isn’t an optional activity for us,” he continued. “It is mission critical. We’re not going to have a clean-energy economy if the same companies that are polluting our rivers and oceans are also polluting our elections.”
Other participating groups include the AFL-CIO, the Center for American Progress, Color of Change, Common Cause, the National Wildlife Federation, People for the American Way, the United Auto Workers, and Voto Latino.
Previously, such liberal groups have worked together, of course. Health Care for America Now was such a coalition, backing health-care reform in 2009. And in 2003, leaders from EMILY’s List, Service Employees International Union, and the Sierra Club formed America Coming Together, a get-out-the-vote operation.
“The Sierra Club’s philosophy is to work with others,” said Joyce Blumenshine, chair of the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club. “The Sierra Club has quite a good history of working with other groups, like the BlueGreen Alliance with the Steelworkers, the Union of Concerned Scientists and others. There are legislative issues and demonstrations – the Heart of Illinois group marched alongside workers at a steel plant in Henry [Ill.].
“There are shared interests,” Blumenshine continued. “Something we have in common is that we’re all citizens of this planet, so the survival of the planet is vital.”
Whether climate change or corrupting campaign contributions, it can seem that politics is rigged against everyday folks by powerful forces that have taken over the courts and Congress, but some are optimistic.
“I think there’s hope,” said Don Jackson, past president of the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). “The last election is the best example of grassroots organizing versus big money spent by corporations.
“Since 1970 corporations have come to think they should spend a lot of money on lobbying or candidates – to benefit bosses more than stockholders or employees,” he continued. “There’s plenty of money in the till for elected officials to pass legislation or relax regulations to benefit corporate executives to the detriment of stockholders or the public.
“After ‘Citizens United’ [the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled corporations are people and money is speech], I thought all hope was lost,” Jackson added. “But, lo and behold, good grassroots organizing showed we have more votes than they have dollars.”
For now, the Democracy Initiative can build on Americans’ disgust with Capitol Hill.
Also in 1864, an editor of the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette described Congress in a way many would repeat: “They are a set of gaseous, windy blatherskites who do little else but eat, drink, draw their pay and make bunkum speeches.”
[PICTURED: Illustration from CWA District 6]
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