If Donald Trump continues to implode, Hillary Clinton will win simply by being the presidential candidate who isn’t Trump.
But the prospect of a President Trump is so terrifying that Hillary shouldn’t take any chances. The latest match-up polls show her about 6 points ahead – a comfortable but not sure-fire margin.
What else can she offer other than that she’s also experienced and would be the first woman to hold the job?
So far, she’s put forth a bunch of respectable policy ideas. But they’re small relative to the economic problems most Americans face and to Americans’ overwhelming sense the nation is off track.
She needs a big idea that gives her candidacy a purpose and rationale – and, if she’s elected president, a mandate to get something hugely important done.
What could that big idea be? I can think of several big economic proposals. The problem is they couldn’t get through Congress – even if, as now seems possible, Democrats retake the Senate.
Nor, for that matter, could Hillary’s smaller ideas get through.
Which suggests a really big idea – an idea that’s the prerequisite for every other one, an idea that directly addresses what’s disturbing so many Americans today – an idea that, if she truly commits herself to it, would even reassure voters about Hillary Clinton herself.
The big idea I’m talking about is democracy.
Everyone knows our democracy is drowning under big money. Confidence in politics has plummeted, and big money as the major culprit.
In 1964, just 29 percent of voters believed government was “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves,” according to the American National Election Studies survey. In the most recent survey, almost 80 percent of Americans think so.
And because the free market depends on laws and rules, big money’s political influence has rigged the economic system in favor of those at the top.
Which has fueled this year’s anti-establishment rebellions – propelling Bernie Sanders’s “political revolution” that won him 22 states, and contributing to Donald (“I don’t need anybody’s money”) Trump’s authoritarian appeal.
A study published in the fall of 2014 by Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Professor Benjamin Page of Northwestern shows that big money has almost entirely disenfranchised Americans. Gilens and Page took a close look at 1,799 policy issues, determining the relative influence on them of economic elites, business groups, and average citizens.
Their conclusion: “The preferences of average Americans appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” Instead, lawmakers respond to the policy demands of wealthy individuals and big business.
The super wealthy account for a growing share of both parties’ funds. In the presidential election year 1980, the richest 0.01 percent gave 10 percent of total campaign contributions. In 2012, the richest 0.01 percent accounted for an astounding 40 percent.
Adding to the cynicism is the revolving door. In the 1970s only about 3 percent of retiring members of Congress went on to become lobbyists. In recent years half of all retiring senators and 42 percent of retiring representatives have done so.
This isn’t because recent retirees have fewer qualms about making money off their government contacts. It’s because so much money has inundated Washington that the financial rewards of lobbying have become huge.
Meanwhile, the revolving door between Wall Street, on the one side, and the White House and Treasury, on the other, is swiveling faster than ever.
Clinton should focus her campaign on reversing all of this. For a start, she should commit to nominating Supreme Court justices who will strike down “Citizen’s United,” the 2010 Supreme Court case that opened the big-money floodgates far wider.
She should also fight for public financing of general elections for president and for congress – with government matching small-donor contributions made to any candidate who agrees to abide by overall spending limits on large-donor contributions.
She should demand full disclosure of all sources of campaign funding, regardless of whether those funds are passed through non-profit organizations or through corporate entities or both.
And she should slow the revolving door – committing to a strict two-year interval between high-level government service and lobbying or corporate jobs, and a similarly interval between serving as a top executive or director of a major Wall Street bank and serving at a top level position in the executive branch.
Will Hillary Clinton make restoring democracy her big idea? When she announced her candidacy she said “the deck is stacked in favor of those at the top” and that she wants to be the “champion” of “everyday Americans.”
The best way to ensure everyday Americans get a fair deal is to make our democracy work again.
About the Author
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock" and “The Work of Nations." His latest, "Beyond Outrage," is now out in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
Books by Robert Reich
Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few -- by Robert B. Reich
America was once celebrated for and defined by its large and prosperous middle class. Now, this middle class is shrinking, a new oligarchy is rising, and the country faces its greatest wealth disparity in eighty years. Why is the economic system that made America strong suddenly failing us, and how can it be fixed?
Click here for more info or to order this book on Amazon.
Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it -- by Robert B. Reich
In this timely book, Robert B. Reich argues that nothing good happens in Washington unless citizens are energized and organized to make sure Washington acts in the public good. The first step is to see the big picture. Beyond Outrage connects the dots, showing why the increasing share of income and wealth going to the top has hobbled jobs and growth for everyone else, undermining our democracy; caused Americans to become increasingly cynical about public life; and turned many Americans against one another. He also explains why the proposals of the “regressive right” are dead wrong and provides a clear roadmap of what must be done instead. Here’s a plan for action for everyone who cares about the future of America.
Click here for more info or to order this book on Amazon.
