The United States Is a Progressive Nation With a Democracy Problem

Voter suppression contributes to the myth that America is made up of centrists.

https://www.thenation.com/article/progressive-nation-voter-suppression/

Toward the end of Stacey Abrams’s powerful response to the State of the Union address, she turned to the reason she’s not currently the governor of Georgia: “Let’s be clear. Voter suppression is real. From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places, to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy.” Between Abrams’s speech and the introduction of the voting-rights bill H.R. 1, the first piece of legislation proposed by the new Pelosi-led House, Democrats are systematically focusing on strengthening our democracy. They better, because America is in a strange political space: Progressive ideas are wildly popular, but nearly impossible to enact. To fix this, we need to reshape our electoral systems to allow everyone’s vote to count equally and finally kill the zombie myth of the center-right nation.

On issue after issue, American voters are firmly left-of-center, and in some cases ready to embrace our most progressive ideas. They want more gun control. They want increased abortion access. They want criminal-justice reform. Fifty-six percent of all Americans want nationalized single-payer health care, and nearly everyone wants the government to do more to bring down costs. Fifty-nine percent of registered voters support higher taxes on the wealthy. Fifty-four percent of Republicans and 70 percent of all Americans want to “soak the rich.” Even fifty-seven percent of people who identify as conservative Republicans support the main components of a Green New Deal. Seventy-two percent believe climate change is a threat. Everybody hates gerrymandering.

Given that so many Americans support these positions, what would it take to actually make progress on any of them? As Senator Cory Booker joins Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand as credible candidates formally running for president and with Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden likely close behind, we are beginning to see Democrats not just organizing around policies but advocating ways to make sure these policies can become law. H.R. 1, The For the People Act, would expand access to the polls, prevent voter purges, and ensure paper backups for electronic voting. That’s an important start, but if we really want to enact a progressive vision that an overwhelming majority of Americans support, we’re going to have to attack larger misconceptions and structural issues as well.