With today’s political climate being what it is, some may think the title of this article is a joke. Bipartisan reform? Is that even possible anymore?
Yet there is currently a growing movement in Congress that aims to do just that. In March of this year, Issue One Action issued the Declaration to Fix Politics Now, a document that has currently been signed by tens of thousands of Americans, and hundreds of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.
The Declaration sets out a list of challenges facing American Democracy today, including the need for politicians to raise great sums of money in order to run for office, and the subsequent creation of a system where small factions have attained great power in this country by fulfilling that need. Not only does the current system give more power to companies that have money to “sponsor” men and women running for office, it is estimated politicians spend about two-thirds of their time fundraising, time that many citizens believe should be spent on doing what we elected them for – representing us in Congress (and if you are laughing right now, maybe you should look into this group further).
In fact, figuring out who pays for elections is one of the biggest obstacles facing the movement right now. Yet the need to get money out of politics is a very real and very serious one that most people will not argue against.
According to the American Psychological Association, in a study released in November of last year, 63 percent of Americans reported significant stress stemming from concerns about the future of the nation, and 59 percent said that social divisiveness caused them stress. Additionally, more than half of the people surveyed felt that the nation was at the lowest point that they could remember. This study is old, and it would be interesting to see how much things have changed in the past year, if at all, but it is significant that these results were bipartisan. While there are still people who believe our nation can do no wrong, there are others in this country who feel strongly that American politics is beyond hope. And those in between wish for the extreme polarization of politics to stop. Can’t we all just get along?
Issue One is focused on five key aspects to fix politics now:
- Promote transparency and disclosure
- Increase participation in elections
- Reduce pay-to-play politics
- Strengthen enforcement of existing laws
- Improve government integrity and accountability
I would say these all seem like rather reasonable issues that need to be addressed.
There are several actions that have already been taken by the organization. Issue One has sponsored the Honest Ads Act and they have helped to create and support the Congressional Reformers Caucus, a bipartisan group focused on ethics and accountability. The caucus, together with Issue One has issued a framework for change that goes into the goals of the Declaration in more depth and offers specific solutions. H.R. 2034, also sponsored by the group, aims to fix problems with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). This is just a taste of the work that they are doing to fix our current political system.
Is it possible? Will this movement “return government to the American people” as it hopes to do? I for one would love to see a system where politicians were truly working for the people and not spending an inordinate amount of time fundraising and becoming beholden to the companies and individuals that sponsored them. I would love to see an America that wasn’t divided, one where we could talk politics over cocktails without it becoming a bar fight. I’m skeptical, however, for I fear the divide in this country has become too wide and too deep to be fixed. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
