A NEW DEMOCRACY, POSSIBLE?

by Ruth A. Sheets



Furious, that’s the word that comes to my mind when I think about the way our democracy is being torn away from us.  We only occasionally hear the ripping sound, like when the Supreme Court says corporations are persons and THEY can put as much money into elections as they want because money is speech.  What!!



Another ripping sound comes when Black people are abused and murdered by police, often, followed by attempts to “prove” the victims were really criminals and deserved what they got, well, maybe not death, but the officer “feared for his life,” you know.  “I thought the guy had a gun,” while shooting the person in the back or choking him to death.



There are more rips that are not as noticeable individually, but are accumulating.  I just finished reading a disturbing book, Supreme Inequality, the Supreme Court’s 50-Year Battle for a More Unjust America by Adam Cohen.   The author identifies step by step the ways the court has removed rights from the American people and handed them over to corporations, police departments, rich white men, and conservatives, none of whom care what losing those rights means to the people.  There is a “war” against folks who are poor, working class, old, young, women, disabled, Democrats, and the rest.  Because it was done a snip at a time with a pause here and there when a stitch of a right or two were preserved, most people didn’t notice.  Well, African-Americans, poor people (particularly women and children), and some workers noticed and complained, but weren’t heard.  



The whole mess started with Richard Nixon, you remember him, the Watergate guy.  Well, it turns out he did a whole lot more than cover up a break-in.  He sabotaged the Supreme Court, threatening justices until they resigned even though they hadn’t done any of what he and his crooked cronies were accusing them of.  That gave Nixon the chance to appoint 4 justices in a very short time.  That turned the Court to super-conservative, a condition it still suffers from with the help of Senate Republicans all along. 



The series of chief justices along with their minions have systematically  done a lot of damage to nearly every group but the rich white men and their corporations. Here are some examples.  See if you remember losing that right.



- In the area of education, Brown v. Board of Education has nearly been overturned.  Districts do not have to integrate, pay for kids’ transportation to school if they don’t want to, and teachers don’t have to join the union or pay any fees yet are required to still get any benefits the union gains for the members.



- Voting is only sort of a right.  States can purge voting rolls if someone hasn’t voted in an election.  Voter I.D. is OK no matter how hard it is to obtain for poor, disabled, and older people.  Gerrymandering is also OK if the state’s legislature wants to do it.  Voting places can be limited no matter how hard it is for a voter to get there.  Then voting districts with a history of discrimination, particularly against African-Americans , no longer have to report any changes they make in their voting requirements for accountability -– and they don’t.



- Corporations can get away with doing all kinds of illegal activities because they can’t be penalized more than a few times the amount awarded to their victim.  As mentioned previously, corporations can spend as much money in elections as they choose and if they hide their payments in non-profits that then dole the money out, no one has to know.  Corporations can force arbitration on employees with complaints, even harassment, no matter what the inconvenience or cost for the employee, and they can tuck such requirements in the fine print which the employee may not even notice is in the contract.  Then, arbitrators nearly always side with the corporation because it is the corporations that arrange to hire the arbitrators and will not hire them again if they don’t rule in their favor (nice little racket huh!).  If this were not enough, the Court has said that the only class actions that can be brought against corporations require the participants’ cases to all be identical (which, of course, is impossible).  All Republicans and some Democrats in Congress must go along with all of this because it is the corporations and their wealthy patrons that pay for their campaigns.  Corporations do not care about workers except how they can use those workers to bring in more profits and please the stockholders, which of course, does not include the workers who are rarely able to afford any of the stocks.      



- The criminal justice system has been allowed to run amuck:  public defenders can be drunk, high, or simply incompetent or inexperienced and be considered satisfactory to defend their clients.  This has led to most poor persons taking a plea deal even if they are not guilty; police can use investigative techniques that invade people’s privacy and deny them of their rights; the Court rarely rules in favor of the accused, unless they are rich and white.  Violence in prisons by guards has been ruled the fault of the prisoner. 



Yes, our democracy is being torn away chunk by chunk, and the vast majority of Americans are not aware of or  in favor of the Court’s decisions, but the conservative justices clearly don’t care, neither do Republicans in Congress.  They want to go back to some nebulous time pre the 1930s when government only took care of rich white men and everyone else scrambled to get whatever they could while being abused by the rich white men.  That is the wish of a young child who wants whatever he wants and does not yet know that sharing is the way life prospers for everyone.



Since only white wealthy men matter now to the Court, it is hard to imagine how this scenario is going to change unless, the pandemic combined with Black Lives Matter force our nation to create a new democracy.  What could that look like?  I am not sure, but I hope



- poor people will no longer be seen as criminals or lazy or both.  They would be given a living wage or stipend to allow them to care for their kids and have decent shelter.  Minimum wage would be $15 an hour to start.

- police departments would be totally reorganized in ways that will put “serve and protect” at the center of everything they do.  Their numbers would reflect the communities they serve, and they would be held accountable for their actions, and there would be far fewer of them.  All police unions would be reorganized to be true unions, not enforcement and protection agencies.

- Automatic voter registration would happen the day a citizen turns 18.  Vote by mail would be available to anyone who wants it with no excuse necessary.  Voter roles would rarely be purged, and then only with independent oversight.

- Corporations would be held accountable for injuries on the job, destruction of the environment, bad products and actions designed to harm the public and the punishments would be designed to see that the actions don’t happen again.  The Occupational Health and Safety Agency would be fully funded and have the expectation that they will actually investigate complaints, and they will be responsible to clean up their pollution.

- unions would be free to organize and work for better wages and working conditions.  Everyone who benefits from the work of the union will contribute to its cost. 

- Trained arbitrators would be provided by the state to resolve conflicts and have no direct connection with corporations that use their services.  There would also be independent oversight

- programs in every industry would be established to enable Black workers to progress and develop skills on the job toward leadership positions.

- At least 2 new members of the Supreme Court would be added to counter the 2 conservative justices inappropriately added to the Court by Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell.  They Court has forgotten their task is to serve the Constitution and the American people, not just their rich privileged friends.  Limiting the time of justices on the Court would help too. 

- Public schools would be well-funded and the buildings would be equally cared for no matter where they were located.  Teacher salaries would be appropriate to their education and experience based on equivalent incomes and degree of education in their area. 

- Corporations and individuals as well as Congress would be forced to deal with global warming and its impacts particularly on Black and other minority communities.



There is so much more to be considered, but I want the Black Lives Matter team and other interested parties to put their proposals forward so we all can begin moving together in the right direction.  Staying on the course we now walk is leading us to disaster.  As a patriotic American, I want better for our nation and the world.