If You Want Change: Go to the Source of Power, Get the Votes
On the same day recently in the New York Times there was a book review and an op ed piece that capture two very different approaches to politics.
Do we talk about changing the “system”, or do we work to achieve a particular goal by gathering the necessary votes and winning an election?
The book review discusses two books, “They Don’t Represent Us,” by Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Harvard, and “The Great Democracy,” by Ganesh Sitaraman, law professor at Vanderbilt.
Both books, the reviewer writes, argue that our democracy is in crisis, the system is rigged, and large structural changes are needed to make our politics representative again of the public’s will. Progress on any issue, climate change, health care, economic disparities, and others, will be possible only when the system is fixed.
Among the fixes the authors suggest are: universal automatic voter registration, public financing of campaigns, eliminating gerrymandering, reforming campaign finance law, scrapping the electoral college, ending the filibuster, restructuring the Supreme Court, and breaking up large economic concentrations of power.
The authors are unclear about how we get from here to there; how to win enough elections and elect enough legislators willing to do the big structural changes so we can get to work on the smaller stuff like climate change and health care. “But the crisis of democracy should be the issue in the 2020 election.”
The op ed piece, “How to Turn Anger and Fear into Political Power” focuses on organizing rather than ideas, pursuing power rather than pushing programs. It was written by Alejandra Gomez and Tomas Robles Jr., co-executive directors of LUCHA, a grassroots political organization in Arizona.
Their movement started with protesting anti-immigration legislation. “First there were seven. Then 50. Then thousands of people, mostly Latino and many undocumented, who held a vigil on the lawn outside of the Arizona State Capitol in the spring of 2010 …”
While protesting got attention, the organizers knew that any lasting change required political power and political power rested on votes. They set out to get the votes.
“The vigil … was a training ground for novice organizers like us who would stop by the snack table, gather clipboards and then head out to laundromats and convenience stores to register neighbors. Since then, activists have brought hundreds of thousands of voters into the political process …”
“We built an organization called LUCHA, short for Living United for Change in Arizona, that serves as a political home for people of color. We talk to working-class families about the issues important to them and how to get involved in politics. …With this power, people of color have ousted racist lawmakers and passed statewide legislation that helps low-wage workers, among a string of surprise victories. … In less than a decade, many organizers who first cut their teeth fighting that bill are now lawmakers, campaign managers and directors of civic engagement groups …”
Why were the protesters in Arizona successful? They moved from protesting to organizing. They recognized that the political power they were fighting and the political power they wanted for themselves rested on the individual votes of individual people. They focused on getting those needed votes.
They created an ongoing organizational structure capable of providing leadership and carrying out the necessary tasks. Initiative came from within the group. They didn’t wait for outside help. They saw what needed to be done in their own communities and they did it. With the political power they gained they were able to move on to accomplish other goals.
That is the story of achieving political change throughout history. The steps are simple. But not easy. You talk to one person at a time; you add one voter at a time. It requires effort and discipline. It takes time. As Thoreau remarked, “The government of the world I live in was not framed … in after-dinner conversations over the wine.”
Douglas Kane is the author of "Our Politics: Reflections on Political Life" published in 2019 by Southern Illinois University Press
[subscribe2]