President Biden has called America's commitment to democracy "the most urgent question of our time" and "what the 2024 election is all about." He is correct, but his message is incomplete — the election cannot only be about saving democracy, it must also be about fixing it. Otherwise, he is asking voters to preserve a status quo in which most have lost faith.
Likewise, Biden was correct to single out Donald Trump as the most significant current threat to democracy, but that message also is incomplete. Democracy is not safe if voters reelect the Republicans currently in Congress. They include 126 members who violated their oaths of office by participating in the former president's fake-electors scheme. They have shown they lack the character and backbone to defend democracy and the Constitution.
So far, President Biden and democracy's defenders among Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans have been a disappointment. Trump is clear about how he would subvert democracy. A coalition of hyper-conservative think tanks has handed him a detailed playbook for creating a right-wing totalitarian government. But pro-democracy leaders have not responded with a detailed plan to restore the American people's faith in our republic and its governance.
America is a 250-year-old experiment in representative democracy where voters elect leaders to make laws and policies. Money and the cost of election campaigns have corrupted this system. As a result, our elected leaders too often work for special interests rather than the people. The evidence is the yawning gap between what the people want and what government delivers. Over 70 percent of voting-age Americans now have little faith in the federal government's ability to make progress on the country's critical issues.
The electoral system is corrupt, too. Donald Trump's "big lie" is one reason public trust in elections is damaged. Another is that partisans are rigging the system. The Brennan Center for Justice says states put more restrictive voting laws in place last year than in all the previous decade.
Now, only 28 percent of U.S. adults, a record low, are satisfied with how democracy is working. More than 60 percent have little or no confidence in our political system. And nearly 60 percent of voters say our system of government needs major reforms or a complete overhaul.
How might a "save-our-democracy" platform address these problems? Here is what public opinion research tells us:
Reform campaign finance: Americans believe government "is run by a few big interests looking out for themselves," rather than for the benefit of all the people. Over 70 percent of Americans want limits on campaign spending by individuals and corporations. Overwhelming majorities across party lines say Congress is too influenced by large donors (80 percent) as well as lobbyists and special interests (73 percent). Congress should strengthen public financing of campaigns, set limits on campaign spending, and eliminate dark money contributions.
And because the Supreme Court has shown such flawed judgment by equating money with free speech and corporations with personhood, Congress should exercise its power under the Exceptions Clause in Article III of the Constitution to keep campaign finance off limits to the Court's discretion.
Protect voting rights: Legislation to do this is gathering dust in Congress. It would establish national voting standards, end partisan gerrymandering, make November Election Days a public holiday, enact automatic voter registration for each state, require same-day voter registration and early voting periods, and create protections for nonpartisan election officials.
Scrap the Electoral College: Nearly two-thirds of Americans want the popular vote rather than the Electoral College to determine the winners of presidential elections. Congress should send states a constitutional amendment to make this change. In the meantime, more states should join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and agree to assign all their electors to the winner of the national popular vote.
Create ideological balance on the Supreme Court: Nearly 60 percent of Americans disapprove of how our highest court is doing its job; 56 percent say the court leans too far left or right. The next Congress could authorize the president to appoint several new justices to establish greater ideological balance and require future presidents to sustain it. Congress should also create term limits for justices and require them to enforce a strict and effective ethics code.
Confront climate change: Most Americans want the federal government to do more, and 69 percent supported steps to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. Nearly half of young Americans aged 18-29 — the citizens who will bear the brunt of climate change — support a complete phaseout of fossil fuels. It's time to end America's long-standing "all of the above" energy policy and to make the hard choices necessary to confront climate change.
Reform immigration policy: Last year, 68 percent of adults said immigration is a good thing for America, but 60 percent worry about illegal immigration. President Biden and a bipartisan group in Congress are working on a border-security reform deal, but Trump has urged Republicans to oppose it because it would eliminate one of his campaign issues against the Biden presidency.
What other gaps should the plan address? Polls show sizeable majorities of Americans want stricter gun laws, reproductive rights, greater income and wealth equality, a more effective Congress, equal pay for equal work and more affordable higher education, among other things.
As unlikely as it seems in this time of hyper-partisanship, a coalition of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans would produce the ideal plan. As Biden said, it is up to all three groups to "honor the sacred cause of democracy, not walk away from it." Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, who calls this "a time of testing and challenge and peril for our democracy," agrees. "There are a number of areas where we could come to agreement in a bipartisan way," she says.
It's worth a try. Democracy's enemies have told us what they would do. Democracy's defenders must respond in bold and substantive detail.
William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and contributor to Democracy in a Hotter Time, named by the journal Nature as one of 2023’s five best science books. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.
