Democrats’ New Midterm Approach: It’s the Corruption, Stupid

Today the Democrats unveiled a new plank in their Better Deal agenda, an anti-corruption platform that both depicts the broken nature of the political system and puts reform at the forefront of any campaign to give regular people a voice in our democracy. It brings together the anti-Trump and populist-economics messages in a way that makes them inextricable. “Creating jobs, raising wages, contributing to people’s quality of life, is an important and powerful message,” said Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD), who chairs the party’s Democracy Reform Task Force and has been highlighting anti-corruption policies since entering office in 2007. “But people are right to say, how can we get an economic agenda that’s good for the country enacted if we don’t fix the institutions?” ... Sarbanes has for years championed the Government By the People Act, which would give all Americans 25 “democracy dollars” for campaign contributions and use federal matching funds to amplify the overall impact. “We should be creating a system that allows the public to be power players, so the $50 and $100 donor is most important in the campaign.”