Thread by @lessig

Just published my first piece with @nybooks (honored!): "Why the US Is a Failed Democratic State" Here's a thread outlining the piece. nybooks.com/daily/2021/12/…

The essay was inspired by the State Department's "Summit on Democracy" — which commits to "openly and transparently" "confront" "acknowledged" "imperfections." Let's: #SummitForDemocracy

The US was constituted as a "Republic," by which was meant a "representative democracy," by which was intended (and in 1800 they had to fight for it expressly) a MAJORITARIAN representative democracy.

Yet we have allowed the institutions of our democracy to betray that commitment to majoritarianism, by becoming, in effect, MINORITARIAN.

State legislatures are the root of this minoritarianism: As Miriam Seifter describes, because of gerrymandering, these institutions are regularly controlled by the party that won fewer votes. They are, as she puts it, "the least majoritarian branch." columbialawreview.org/content/counte…

After the 2018 election, "close to 60 million Americans 'live under minority rule in their US state legislatures,'" according to the USC Schwarzenegger Institute: issuu.com/robquigley/doc…

Those minoritarian state legislatures then spread their minoritarian poison in two distinct ways: first, through laws to suppress the vote of their political opponents; second, through the gerrymandering of the US House.

The first: through techniques that make it harder for the other side to vote: See the amazing work of the Brennan Center: brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

The second: through extreme partisan gerrymandering that will deliver the House in 2023 to the GOP even if more people vote for Democrats. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

These two techniques could have been resisted by the courts. But not only has SCOTUS not resisted minoritarianism. Its most recent interventions have only ratified the most egregious aspects of minoritarianism: the corrupting role of money in politic$.

In 2020, the top 10 SuperPACs accounted for 54% of spending. That means in a nation of millions, a few hundred families now direct a huge swath of all political spending. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

This $ matters not b/c of how it persuades voters. It matters b/c of how it makes politicians DEPENDENT. Read the article to see how No Labels shamelessly bragged about the power they have — because of the dependency their big-dollar contributions create.

Minoritarianism is not just for the legislative branch. Because of the way states allocate electors, the Electoral College too is minoritarian. (EqualCitizens.US has been fighting this, so far unsuccessfully: equalcitizens.us/equal-votes/)

And because of the theft of a Supreme Court seat (by changing the norms about election-year appointments) so too is SCOTUS minoritarian.

Yet, without doubt, the most extremely minoritarian institution within our so-called representative democracy is the United States Senate.

Of course, that was to some degree intended: The Framers knew they were giving small states more power in the Senate than big states. But "small" and "big" were very different then: In 1790, the biggest state was 13x the smallest; today, it's 68x.

But the MUCH MORE important difference is the total betrayal of majority rule through the MODERN filibuster.

The MODERN filibuster has nothing to do with the filibuster of our past. That filibuster prolonged debate; the modern filibuster blocks it; that filibuster required senators to speak; the modern filibuster doesn't. vimeo.com/582231882

And most critically, the NORMS about when a filibuster can be invoked have radically changed. It is no longer an exception to the general rule of majority control. It is the rule.

So here are the consequences: If it takes 60 votes to get a bill to be even just debated, that means 41 can block any bill (except budget...).

Take the 21 smallest most conservative states: That's 42 votes.

How much of America do those 21 states represent?
21%.

Thus, our so-called majoritarian democracy allows extremely conservative senators representing just over 1/5th of America to block any non-budget-recon bill.

Is that a majoritarian representative democracy?

For 25 years, there have been activists pressing Congress to fix this. In 1997, Arnold Hiatt tried to get Clinton to — like FDR had in 1940 — "convince a reluctant nation to wage a war to save democracy." A war against not fascists, but fat cats. "Nope"

And in the time since Hiatt tried, everything has only gotten worse: Citizens United, SuperPACs, open suppression of the vote, big-data gerrymandering, more unstable Electoral College, changing of filibuster norms — and, of course, January 6.

Minoritarianism is THE THREAT to American democracy.

We need a Churchill to convince America of this.

So far, we've had only Chamberlains.

Read the essay for more. Support indy journals.
Thanks, @nybooks

nybooks.com/daily/2021/12/…