A Chance To Enact Critical Reforms

President Trump is crashing in the polls.

Two recent polls have a Democrats’ “blue wave” in the making, with 14– and 12-point leads in the generic vote for House races.

And the stage is being set in Congress for a historic effort to begin early next year to fix our broken and corrupt political system, if Democrats win control of the House.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer each have publicly committed to passing a package of fundamental democracy reforms as a first order of business in the new Congress.

The comprehensive legislation will include reforms to address the corrupt campaign finance system, to ensure every citizen can easily exercise their right to vote, to end partisan gerrymandering, and to strengthen Executive Branch and congressional ethics rules.

Enacting these vital reforms will not be easy or quick.

The last major campaign finance legislation, the McCain-Feingold soft money ban, was enacted in 2002, after a five-year battle in Congress.

Early passage of the democracy reform package in the House next year would then shift the battle to the Senate to build support for the legislation. The democracy reform effort would also be injected into the national debate during the 2020 presidential election.

A recent poll by Kaiser Health found that voters listed corruption as the “most important” topic for 2018 candidates to discuss.

It’s important to recognize that we cannot fix the campaign finance system unless we provide candidates with an alternative way to finance their races. Otherwise, candidates will remain dependent on, and obligated to, those who provide the massive amounts of influence-seeking money that currently dominate the system.

At stake in the coming battles is nothing less than whether our democracy will serve all our citizens or just the wealthiest and most powerful.