A Time for Ideas

Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidency all need to reform.

Is anger enough?

This past weekend, The New York Times published polls showing that public opinion about Supreme Court rulings often splits along party lines. There was one exception: By an 80–20 margin, respondents were against the Court’s ruling loosening campaign finance rules. Deep concern about democracy and equality spans ideological divides.

Public discontent is palpable, yet in many ways, the political system is not responding. That simmering discontent lately has made itself felt in surprising party primary results. New issues loom, from artificial intelligence data centers to housing costs. While Elon Musk struts as the world’s first trillionaire, great debates over wealth, power, and inequality seem primed to erupt (or be smothered by the powerful).

The center, it sometimes seems, cannot hold. Or perhaps it doesn’t want to. In a moment like this, what should people who want real change — rather than performative outrage — actually do?

I think the missing piece in American politics right now is this: Nobody has articulated a coherent and plausible answer to the question, what next? We must resist abuse and ensure a free and fair election. But those who do not want authoritarianism to triumph must offer an alternative.

American history often seems to move in cycles. Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. posited a pendulum swing between left and right. Political scientist Stephen Skowronek identified a different sequence: transformational presidents who forged a new governing majority, followed by others who conserved their coalition, followed ultimately by leaders who presided over a crack-up.

There’s another cycle that has marked history, in which long periods of stasis culminate in corruption and disruption — followed by a burst of reform that constructs a new order. A cycle of decay and renewal. A rhythm of reform.

Creative periods of positive change can follow scandal and abuse — often, but not always. But that’s when it happens. How can we make the most of those moments?

I discuss all this in a new law review article I want to share. Don’t panic! It’s not boring. It even has jokes. You can read it here at the Cardozo Law Review.

As you’ve heard, we at the Brennan Center are working hard to sketch out reform solutions. We seek to address the problems of today, not of 10 years ago or of 1975. The project of reform must engage people from both parties, and from no party. The best ideas are neither left nor right. They reflect the urgent desire of the disaffected middle.

We began with proposals to address the epidemic of political corruption. Ethics laws that apply to the president, vice president, and Supreme Court. A real ban on stock trading by lawmakers. An end to undisclosed “dark money” in elections. Public financing of campaigns. A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and other destructive campaign finance rulings.

Other proposed reforms would change Congress — everything from a new committee to address AI to an upper age limit for lawmakers. Even a big expansion of the House of Representatives to 600 people, which would greatly bolster diversity and representation, a good idea pushed by conservatives at the American Enterprise Institute.

Reform must also address the institution responsible for so much damage: the Supreme Court. Term limits. Ethics laws with teeth. A new mechanism for Congress to respond to misguided rulings. We will discuss this and the latest Supreme Court term next week in Washington, DC, at a conference. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) will keynote. We encourage you to join us.

Coming up, we will publish new ideas on how to respond to the aggressive expansion of presidential power. How to strengthen representation and voting rights, especially in the wake of the Louisiana v. Callais decision and its undermining of racial equality. Constitutional amendments. And more. We will look at agencies that need to be overhauled, such as the bloated Department of Homeland Security and the vital Justice Department, now diminished and weaponized. And we will ask how government at the local and state levels can seek “abundance” without choking off public voices, at a time of great polarization.

All these reform agendas aim at a singular goal: a democratic rebirth. To live up to the promise of democracy that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of, and that the founders envisioned, our government must be free from corruption, truly representative of all people, and guided by justice over partisanship. Our multiracial country is changing, and we must change with it.

It’s some of the most exciting work I’ve had the privilege to be part of in my time at the Brennan Center.

Don’t let anyone tell you that ideas don’t matter — that all that counts is power, opposition, clicks, vibes. Citizens won’t mobilize without a better future worth fighting for. They require a revolution of rising expectations. In the Reagan era, conservatives would intone, “ideas have consequences.” They were right.

In 2016, a Republican establishment, out of ideas, withered in the face of the Trump challenge. Today, establishment Democratic politicians risk going to voters without a vision to mobilize action — other than opposing Trump.

We hear stirrings of debate over the next agenda, but not nearly enough. No politician or party has put itself forward as the ultimate agent of reform. In 1994, Newt Gingrich proposed the Contract with America that galvanized his supporters. In 1980, Ronald Reagan stood with Republican lawmakers and made a similar pledge. In 1992, Bill Clinton published Putting People First, a best-selling campaign platform. Each of these manifestos broke with orthodoxy. Trump, too, brought a distinct new policy mix to his campaigns. In my decades of experience in politics, I have seen that charisma is not enough. Voters want answers.

History does teach us that the momentum for big change can be squandered. Reform moments come fleetingly. They require fast action, before discredited forces of the status quo regroup and regain momentum. They also require a willingness to engage in actual politics.

Another thing to remember: Right now, many federal courts have stepped up to uphold the Constitution, even as other institutions, including major media companies and large law firms, have crumbled. The rule of law has proven vital once again. But reform will rarely be won in a courtroom. When the time comes, above all, we will need to ask courts to allow the democratic system to work.

No, elections are not won and run on the minute details of policy. But they can be won on the audacious, unifying ideas that policies mean to animate. And those who seek true change must be ready for those moments when change can come, and fast.

The great Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote, “History says, don’t hope / On this side of the grave. / But then, once in a lifetime / The longed for tidal wave / Of justice can rise up, / And hope and history rhyme.”

IMAGE CREDIT: izanbar/Getty