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A Roadmap to A Better Democracy By: Wes Messamore Reform activists from around the country gathered in the Country Music Capital of the World –– Nashville, Tennessee –– over the last weekend in March to celebrate an absolute tidal wave of policy victories in 2018; listen to inspirational speeches; share and learn the nuts and bolts of policy reform; and even to air fierce differences of opinion over the best way to reform elections in America and over other areas of public policy. How they buz

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. And once we put it all together, it’ll be news you can use — an easy way to join the Second American Revolution, now in progress. First, the bad news: You are being violated by your own government. Hustled and conned. We all are. Our voices and our votes. Our tax dollars, too. On a piece of parchment that birthed this country, our founders emphasized that lawmakers would derive “their just Powers from the consent of the governed.” That’s us. But those

There are hundreds, literally hundreds of organizations and individual campaigns working right now to fix the myriad of problems that face our political and electoral processes -- from the local to the national levels. The organizations tackle voter rights, primary election reform, ballot access, gerrymandering reform, campaign finance reform, alternative voting methods, electing candidates outside the two major parties, and more. The following are 10 of the biggest organizations working to ref

Perhaps it is not surprising that Friday’s vote on HR1, the omnibus election reform bill, broke strictly along partisan lines...

“The establishment of democracy on the American continent was scarcely as radical a break with the (European) past as was the necessity, which Americans faced, of broadening the concept to include black men.”-  James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son" From the founding onward, race has been the American fulcrum, the nexus by which the country is united or divided, with the African American community pivotal in the long struggle for a broad-based inclusive American democracy. Race and place perpet

The 2020 presidential field is already taking shape. Nine Democrats have announced their campaigns since December, many of whose announcements went under the radar because the lack of media coverage: * Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana * Julian Castro, former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and former HUD Secretary * John Delaney, former Maryland congressman and businessman * Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii congresswoman * Kirsten Gillibrand, US Senator (NY) * Kamala Harris, US Senator (Cal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWUXpMO3-88 Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute convened the Terminate Gerrymandering Summit on January 10 at the University of Southern California. The Summit brought together campaigns, academics, activists, and redistricting commissioners to celebrate the victories of the 2018 midterms. The first panel from the Terminate Gerrymandering Summit and Fair Maps Incubator Launch featured Arnold Schwarzenegger and le

Those of us who inhabit the space in American politics between the 40-yard lines have watched with dismay as the nation’s two major parties retreat to their respective ideological end zones. As election after entrenched election passes, we have to wonder about the potential for a third party that would occupy the ground near midfield that has been abandoned by Democrats and Republicans. I’m a former California Republican, now an independent. In California that means I’m NPP — registered as “no

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is leaning strongly toward running for president in 2020 as a third-party candidate -- the wisest course for him. But if he does, he should make systemic political reform part of his agenda. That’s because, out of sight of most of the media, there’s a growing movement around the country actively working to “unrig” a system that now works for the Republican and Democratic Parties, their donors and affiliated special interests, rather than the American people. The movement

There were two elections on November 6. The first was a national referendum on President Trump that saw Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives after nearly a decade out of power, while Republicans added seats in the Senate. The national election results continue to be the subject of endless punditry as races in Arizona were reversed and returns in Florida were subject to mandatory recount. It was a contest between two parties – Team Red and Team Blue – that will end up costin