The Ills That Kill Democracy

I arrived in Washington, DC fifty-two years ago full of vim and vigor to take part in the great pageant of American reform, convinced that in the years ahead the political arc would bend ever-upward toward a fuller democracy. Yet all change is not progress.  The arc hits speed bumps along the way. The awful damage we have inflicted, or let happen, to our democracy now threatens its very existence. Democracy’s discontents are many, and I will expand on a few of them below, but note first that every passing day of not confronting them makes democracy’s fulfillment ever less likely. In truth, our democracy is crumbling. Money, gerrymandering, the filibuster, the judiciary, media, and technology are some of the things that ail our democracy. There is a time to debate and a time to act, but there will only be action if we, the people, demand it. The time for spectator democracy is past. The time for participatory democracy is here. Now.

[Michael Copps leads the Media Democracy and Reform Initiative at Common Cause and served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011.]