Dollarocracy (65 page)

55
. The OSCE comprises fifty-six “participating States” from three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. Its member states are home to more than 1 billion people, including Americans. The United States is a longtime member. An OSCE team was on the ground observing the 2012 elections in the United States. Unfortunately, there is not much history of U.S. officials embracing recommendations from overseas missions observing our elections. After the 2008 presidential election, an OSCE mission recommended thirty-eight significant changes to how the United States runs elections and how media approach elections. They were tepid proposals. Yet for the most part they were ignored.

56
. Jimmy Carter, “Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote,”
Washington Post
, September 27, 2004. For a list of elections monitored by the Carter Center, see
http://www.cartercenter.org/peace/democracy/observed.html
.

57
. Thomas Lundberg, “Election Reform in Japan?,” in FairVote, “Voting and Democracy Report: 1995.” Accessed November 16, 2012. A longer version of Lundberg's report appears in “Illinois Assembly on Political Representation and Alternative Electoral Systems Final Reports and Background Publications,” Spring 2002 (Urbana: University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs), 19.

58
. Alex Martin, “Historic Sea Change at Polls Product of Frustrated Public,”
Japan Times
, August 30, 2009.

59
. For information on election reform in New Zealand, go to the government of New Zealand's Ministry of Justice Web site at
http://www.justice.govt.nz/electoral
(accessed February 22, 2013).

60
. Franklin Roosevelt, “Oglethorpe University Commencement Address, May 22, 1932,” in
The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
, Vol. 1,
The Genesis of the New Deal, 1928–1932
(New York: Random House, 1938), 639.

61
. Walt Whitman, “Drum-Taps, Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deep, No. 3,”
www.bartleby.com/142/114.html
(accessed February 22, 2013).

62
. Bill Moyers, “The Power of Democracy,” speech accepting the Public Intellectual Award of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, February 7, 2007, in
Moyers on Democracy
(New York: Anchor Books, 2009), 92.

63
. Epps, “Voting.”

64
. FairVote, “Why We Need the Right to Vote Amendment,”
www.fairvote.org
,
http://www.fairvote.org/why-we-need-the-right-to-vote-amendment#.UQ18P7-x_Qg
. Accessed March 10, 2013. FairVote has launched a national campaign to promote the right-to-vote amendment. Learn more about it at:
http://www.promoteourvote.com/
.

65
. Ibid.

66
. Ibid.

67
. John Nichols, “One Year After Florida Debacle: Jesse Jackson Jr. Presses for Fundamental Election Reforms,”
The Nation
, November 7, 2001. John Nichols wrote a number of articles on Jackson's push for a right-to-vote amendment and appeared at numerous academic and political forums with Jackson, Raskin, Cobble, and other proponents of the amendment. Many of these forums were sponsored by Jim Hightower's Chautauqua Project of 2001 and 2002 and later by Progressive Democrats of America. The latter remains a staunch proponent of full voting rights, making it a rare entity on the American political landscape. FairVote and the Brennan Center also deserve high marks for their ongoing advocacy, which extends beyond detailing assaults on democracy to proposing the reforms necessary to prevent future assaults.

68
. Ibid.

69
. Conversation with Congressman Mark Pocan, February 23, 2013.

70
. For more on the thinking of progressive jurists such as former U.S. Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens regarding the dubious constitutionality of gerrymandering legislative and congressional districts, see John Nichols, “Three Strategies to Block the Gerrymandering of the Electoral College,”
The Nation
, January 25, 2013.

71
. For more information on the struggle to open up U.S. presidential debates to more parties, more candidates, and more ideas, see
http://www.opendebates.org
. See also John Nichols, “Open the Presidential Debates!,”
The Nation
, September 17, 2012.

72
. For more on instant runoff voting and other democracy reforms, see
www.fairvote.org
.

73
. The Electoral College, a remnant from the compromises with slavery that were the shame of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, allows for the “election” of a president who has actually lost the popular vote. This antidemocratic result last occurred in 2000 when George W. Bush became the president despite having lost the contest by more than 560,000 votes. Unlike in most countries, the popular vote was not definitional in 2000. After the close of the 1968 election, President Nixon and top Democrats appeared to be united in their support of a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College. It was supported by a majority of senators, but a filibuster by southern segregationist Democrats and conservative Republicans blocked the change. Current proposals to eliminate the Electoral College have been advanced in recent years by Florida senator Bill Nelson and others, as well as a number of reform groups, such as FairVote and the Liberty Tree Foundation.

74
. George C. Edwards III,
Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America
, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).

75
. Free Speech for People, “Congressman McGovern Introduces the People's Rights Amendment,” November 15, 2013,
freespeechforpeople.org
,
http://freespeechforpeople.org/McGovern
.

76
. Ibid.

77
. Whitman, “Drum-Taps.”

78
. Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to Roger Weightman,” June 24–26, 1826, Library of Congress,
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/214.html
.

Abramoff, Jack,
191

ABC (American Broadcasting Company),
76
,
151

Abzug, Bella,
27

Accuracy in Academia,
78

Accuracy in Media,
78

Ackerman, Bruce,
127

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now),
213
,
216–217

Adams, John,
17

Adelson, Sheldon,
35
,
42
,
45–46
,
56
,
57
,
59–60
,
61–62
,
62–63
,
63
,
65
,
81
,
224

Adler, Daniel,
117

Adler, Ivan,
80

Advertising

        
addressable,
253

        
as news,
193

Advertising, political,
8–9
,
24
,
97–128

        
and commercial broadcasting,
109–110
,
155–156
,
252–253

        
content,
113

        
direct mail,
125

        
fact-checking,
157–160
,
207

        
history of,
100–104

        
Internet,
221–226
,
233–234
,
242–254

        
negative,
118–124
,
156
,
201
,
250–251

        
as news,
187

        
vs. product advertising,
105–107

        
revenue from,
129–130
,
131
,
132
,
133–134
,
135
,
152–153
,
155
,
158

        
as subset of product advertising,
108–117

        
third-party,
135
,
151–152
,
156–157

        
and two-party system,
109
,
110
,
112–113

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare),
51–52
,
93
,
204

African Americans,
32
,
33
,
69
,
122
,
241
,
249
,
258

Ailes, Roger,
103
,
121–122

Airtime, free,
24
,
133
,
147–150
,
153
,
267
,
271–272

Alito, Samuel A.,
78
,
90
,
91

All Children Matter,
48

All Things Considered
(NPR program),
206

Allison, Bill,
62
,
157

Amato, John,
233

American Action Network,
154

American Bar Association,
57
,
72
,
73

American Broadcasting Company.
See
ABC

American Civil Liberties Union,
82
,
87
,
247

American Crossroads GPS,
45
,
48–49
,
52
,
224
,
248

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
94

American Future Fund,
52–53
,
58

American Legislative Exchange Council,
47
,
78

American Society of Newspaper Editors,
172–173

American Tort Reform Association,
78

American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock,
93

Americans for Prosperity,
78
,
156
,
158

Anaconda Copper Mining (ACM) Company,
22

Anderson, Jack,
81–82

Andreessen, Marc,
224

Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania,
124
,
151

Ansolabehere, Stephen,
127–128

Apathy, citizen,
16
,
127–128
,
196

        
as desirable,
30

        
and professional journalism,
179

        
and two-party system,
109
,
203

Aristotle,
16

Artzt, Edwin,
230

Association of National Advertisers,
115

Atlantic Monthly
,
186

“Attack on American Free Enterprise System” (Powell),
73–76
,
77
,
78
,
79
,
81
,
82
,
83–84

Atwater, Lee,
113
,
121
,
125
,
248

Audacity of Hope, The
(Obama),
115

Audubon Society,
210

Axelrod, David,
97
,
100
,
236

Bachmann, Michele,
161–163

Bagdikian, Ben,
176

Bailey, John M.,
24

Bain Capital,
124
,
134

Baker, Marge
265

Baldwin, Tammy,
201

Banks, David,
224

Banks and the Poor
(PBS documentary),
144

Barnes, Clive,
223

Barrett, Tom,
49

Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn advertising agency,
101

Bayh, Birch,
29

Beatty, Warren,
147

Beck, Glenn,
211

Beckett, Lois,
250

Belafonte, Harry,
144

Bellotti, Francis X.,
83–84

Benjamin, Brent,
58

Bennett, W. Lance,
175
,
179

Berg, Michael,
152

Biden, Joe,
124
,
209

Bieber, Justin,
156

Bitterman, Jordan,
223

Black, Hugo,
72

Blacks.
See
African Americans

Blankenship, Don,
58