A New Birth of Freedom -- part 1

David Domke

Professor David Domke delivered a streamed lecture tonight entitled "American Democracy in Crisis," the first in a three part series entitled "A New Birth of Freedom."  Professor Domke is the past chairman of the School of Communications at the University of Washington, and has delivered a number of prior lectures, some of which have been noted in this blog.

As the titles of the series and of the lecture indicate, Dr. Domke is gravely concerned about the state of American democracy.  He listed what he described as three existential challenges facing our Nation:

• Racism -- a threat in various forms from the time of the first European settlements.


• Covid-19 -- a threat since February of this year.


• Decay of democracy -- a threat since, in Domke's opinion, 1994, when Newt Gingrich became House Speaker, and the Republicans took a majority in both houses of Congress. 

The decay in democracy takes many forms, but he considers the most pressing to be:

• Gerrymandering, which has resulted in only about 30 of the 435 Congressional districts being swing districts.


• Undemocratic effects of the electoral college system, which have resulted in over-representation of white voters and of small states.


• Voter suppression, which he discussed in detail in an earlier series.

The electoral college system has resulted in five elections where the candidate receiving a minority of the votes won the presidency.  The candidates so elected were John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.  Biden will almost certainly win the majority vote this year, and the Republicans will then have won a majority of the popular vote in only one of the past eight elections -- the second term election of George W. Bush.

Nevertheless, Trump may well win a second term.

Domke supports, ultimately, enactment of the Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a compact that will come into effect when adopted by states representing at least half of the electoral votes, pledging that the signatory states will bind their electors to vote for the candidate who receives a majority of the nation's voters -- a compact that would reduce the electoral college to a formality with no functional importance.

Otherwise, at some point, if our system allows a minority party to retain power, election after election, a majority of Americans will give up on the concept and workability of our democracy,.

With respect to voter suppression, Domke notes that the Democrats have reacted to changes in the electorate by expanding the diversity of its membership and have come to support policies benefiting those members.  The Republicans have reacted by creating an election system that makes it more difficult for the poor and the non-white to vote, by appointing opponents of voting rights legislation  (most notably Chief Justice John Roberts) to the Supreme Court, and by following a Senate majority leader who has absolutely "no interest in democracy."

Domke's interest is in expanding American democracy by extending the franchise to all citizens, insofar as possible.  He disclaims partisan concerns, except insofar as in recent years the Republican party has fought against every attempt to make voting easier and more democratic.  He reminds us that in 1964, Congress nearly passed a bill to liberalize voting requirements, with more support among Republicans than Democrats.

He concluded with a two-minute excerpt from Representative John Lewis's 2019 speech before the House of Representatives, supporting election reform   It was a powerful conclusion to the lecture.