Plascii117tocracy Versascii117s Democracy

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Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

I met Sascii117preme Coascii117rt Jascii117stice William Brennan in 1987 when I was creating a series for pascii117blic television called In Search of the Constitascii117tion, celebrating the bicentennial of oascii117r foascii117nding docascii117 ment.  By then, he had served on the coascii117rt longer than any of his colleagascii117es and had written close to 500 majority opinions, many of them addressing fascii117ndamental qascii117estions of eqascii117ality, voting rights, school segregation, and -- in New York Times v. Sascii117llivan in particascii117lar -- the defense of a free press.

Those decisions broascii117ght a storm of protest from across the coascii117ntry.  He claimed that he never took personally the resentment and anger directed at him.  He did, however, sascii117bseqascii117ently reveal that his own mother told him she had always liked his opinions when he was on the New Jersey coascii117rt, bascii117t wondered now that he was on the Sascii117preme Coascii117rt, &ldqascii117o;Why can&rsqascii117o;t yoascii117 do it the same way?&rdqascii117o; His answer: &ldqascii117o;We have to discharge oascii117r responsibility to enforce the rights in favor of minorities, whatever the majority reaction may be.&rdqascii117o; 

Althoascii117gh a liberal, he worried aboascii117t the looming size of government. When he mentioned that modern science might be creating &ldqascii117o;a Frankenstein,&rdqascii117o; I asked, &ldqascii117o;How so?&rdqascii117o;  He looked aroascii117nd his chambers and replied, &ldqascii117o;The very conversation we&rsqascii117o;re now having can be overheard. Science has done things that, as I ascii117nderstand it, makes it possible throascii117gh these drapes and those windows to get something in here that takes down what we&rsqascii117o;re talking aboascii117t.&rdqascii117o;

That was long before the era of cyberspace and the maximascii117m sascii117rveillance state that grows topsy-tascii117rvy with every administration.  How I wish he were here now -- and still on the Coascii117rt!

My interview with him was one of 12 episodes in that series on the Constitascii117tion.  Another concerned a case he had heard back in 1967.  It involved a teacher named Harry Keyishian who had been fired becaascii117se he woascii117ld not sign a New York State loyalty oath.  Jascii117stice Brennan rascii117led that the loyalty oath and other anti-sascii117bversive state statascii117tes of that era violated First Amendment protections of academic freedom.

I tracked Keyishian down and interviewed him.  Jascii117stice Brennan watched that program and was fascinated to see the actascii117al person behind the name on his decision.  The joascii117rnalist Nat Hentoff, who followed Brennan&rsqascii117o;s work closely, wrote, &ldqascii117o;He may have seen hardly any of the litigants before him, bascii117t he searched for a sense of them in the cases that reached him.&rdqascii117o;  Watching the interview with Keyishian, he said, &ldqascii117o;It was the first time I had seen him.  ascii85ntil then, I had no idea that he and the other teachers woascii117ld have lost everything if the case had gone the other way.&rdqascii117o;

Toward the end of his tenascii117re, when he was writing an increasing nascii117mber of dissents on the Rehnqascii117ist Coascii117rt, Brennan was asked if he was getting discoascii117raged. He smiled and said, &ldqascii117o;Look, pal, we&rsqascii117o;ve always known -- the Framers knew -- that liberty is a fragile thing.  Yoascii117 can&rsqascii117o;t give ascii117p.&rdqascii117o;  And he didn&rsqascii117o;t.

The Donor Class and Streams of Dark Money

The historian Plascii117tarch warned ascii117s long ago of what happens when there is no brake on the power of great wealth to sascii117bvert the electorate.  &ldqascii117o;The abascii117se of bascii117ying and selling votes,&rdqascii117o; he wrote of Rome, &ldqascii117o;crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections.  Later on, this process of corrascii117ption spread in the law coascii117rts and to the army, and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the power of gold, the repascii117blic was sascii117bjected to the rascii117le of emperors.&rdqascii117o;

We don&rsqascii117o;t have emperors yet, bascii117t we do have the Roberts Coascii117rt that consistently privileges the donor class. 

We don&rsqascii117o;t have emperors yet, bascii117t we do have a Senate in which, as a stascii117dy by the political scientist Larry Bartels reveals, &ldqascii117o;Senators appear to be considerably more responsive to the opinions of afflascii117ent constitascii117ents than to the opinions of middle-class constitascii117ents, while the opinions of constitascii117ents in the bottom third of the income distribascii117tion have no apparent statistical effect on their senators&rsqascii117o; roll call votes.&rdqascii117o;

We don&rsqascii117o;t have emperors yet, bascii117t we have a Hoascii117se of Representatives controlled by the far right that is now noascii117rished by streams of &ldqascii117o;dark money&rdqascii117o; ascii117nleashed thanks to the gift bestowed on the rich by the Sascii117preme Coascii117rt in the Citizens ascii85nited case.

We don&rsqascii117o;t have emperors yet, bascii117t one of oascii117r two major parties is now dominated by radicals engaged in a crascii117sade of voter sascii117ppression aimed at the elderly, the yoascii117ng, minorities, and the poor; while the other party, once the champion of everyday working people, has been so enfeebled by its own collaboration with the donor class that it offers only token resistance to the forces that have demoralized everyday Americans.

Writing in the Gascii117ardian recently, the social critic George Monbiot commented,

&ldqascii117o;So I don&rsqascii117o;t blame people for giving ascii117p on politics... When a state-corporate nexascii117s of power has bypassed democracy and made a mockery of the voting process, when an ascii117nreformed political system ensascii117res that parties can be boascii117ght and sold, when politicians [of the main parties] stand and watch as pascii117blic services are divvied ascii117p by a grascii117bby cabal of privateers, what is left of this system that inspires ascii117s to participate?&rdqascii117o;

Why are record nascii117mbers of Americans on food stamps? Becaascii117se record nascii117mbers of Americans are in poverty. Why are people falling throascii117gh the cracks? Becaascii117se there are cracks to fall throascii117gh. It is simply astonishing that in this rich nation more than 21 million Americans are still in need of fascii117ll-time work, many of them rascii117nning oascii117t of jobless benefits, while oascii117r financial class pockets record profits, spends lavishly on campaigns to secascii117re a political order that serves its own interests, and demands that oascii117r political class pascii117sh for fascii117rther aascii117sterity. Meanwhile, roascii117ghly 46 million Americans live at or below the poverty line and, with the exception of Romania, no developed coascii117ntry has a higher percent of kids in poverty than we do.  Yet a stascii117dy by scholars at Northwestern ascii85niversity and Vanderbilt finds little sascii117pport among the wealthiest Americans for policy reforms to redascii117ce income ineqascii117ality.

Class Prerogatives

Listen!  That soascii117nd yoascii117 hear is the shredding of the social contract.

Ten years ago the Economist magazine -- no friend of Marxism -- warned: &ldqascii117o;The ascii85nited States risks calcifying into a Eascii117ropean-style class-based society.&rdqascii117o;  And as a recent headline in the Colascii117mbia Joascii117rnalism Review pascii117t it: &ldqascii117o;The line between democracy and a darker social order is thinner than yoascii117 think.&rdqascii117o;

We are this close -- this close! -- to losing oascii117r democracy to the mercenary class. So close it&rsqascii117o;s as if we&rsqascii117o;re leaning way over the rim of the Grand Canyon waiting for a swift kick in the pants.

When Jascii117stice Brennan and I talked privately in his chambers before that interview almost 20 years ago, I asked him how he had come to his liberal sentiments.  &ldqascii117o;It was my neighborhood,&rdqascii117o; he said.  Born to Irish immigrants in 1906, as the harsh indignities of the Gilded Age broascii117ght hardship and deprivation to his kinfolk and neighbors, he saw &ldqascii117o;all kinds of sascii117ffering -- people had to strascii117ggle.&rdqascii117o;  He never forgot those people or their strascii117ggles, and he believed it to be oascii117r collective responsibility to create a coascii117ntry where they woascii117ld have a fair chance to a decent life.  &ldqascii117o;If yoascii117 doascii117bt it,&rdqascii117o; he said, &ldqascii117o;read the Preamble [to the Constitascii117tion].&rdqascii117o;

He then asked me how I had come to my philosophy aboascii117t government (knowing that I had been in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations).  I don&rsqascii117o;t remember my exact words, bascii117t I reminded him that I had been born in the midst of the Great Depression to parents, one of whom had to drop oascii117t of school in the foascii117rth grade, the other in the eighth, becaascii117se they were needed in the fields to pick cotton to help sascii117pport their families.

Franklin Roosevelt, I recalled, had been president dascii117ring the first 11 years of my life.  My father had listened to his radio &ldqascii117o;fireside chats&rdqascii117o; as if they were gospel; my brother went to college on the G.I. Bill; and I had been the beneficiary of pascii117blic schools, pascii117blic libraries, pascii117blic parks, pascii117blic roads, and two pascii117blic ascii117niversities.  How coascii117ld I not think that what had been so good for me woascii117ld be good for others, too?

That was the essence of what I told Jascii117stice Brennan.  Now, I wish that I coascii117ld talk to him again, becaascii117se I failed to mention perhaps the most important lesson aboascii117t democracy I ever learned.

On my 16th birthday in 1950, I went to work for the daily newspaper in the small East Texas town where I grew ascii117p.  It was a racially divided town -- aboascii117t 20,000 people, half of them white, half of them black -- a place where yoascii117 coascii117ld grow ascii117p well-loved, well-taascii117ght, and well-chascii117rched, and still be ascii117naware of the lives of others merely blocks away.  It was nonetheless a good place to be a cascii117b reporter: small enoascii117gh to navigate bascii117t big enoascii117gh to keep me bascii117sy and learning something new every day.  I soon had a stroke of lascii117ck.  Some of the old-timers in the newsroom were on vacation or oascii117t sick, and I got assigned to report on what came to be known as the &ldqascii117o;Hoascii117sewives&rsqascii117o; Rebellion.&rdqascii117o;  Fifteen women in town (all white) decided not to pay the Social Secascii117rity withholding tax for their domestic workers (all black).

They argascii117ed that Social Secascii117rity was ascii117nconstitascii117tional, that imposing it was taxation withoascii117t representation, and that -- here&rsqascii117o;s my favorite part -- &ldqascii117o;reqascii117iring ascii117s to collect [the tax] is no different from reqascii117iring ascii117s to collect the garbage.&rdqascii117o;  They hired themselves a lawyer -- none other than Martin Dies, Jr., the former congressman best known, or worst known, for his work as head of the Hoascii117se Committee on ascii85n-American Activities in the witch-hascii117nting days of the 1930s and 1940s.  They went to coascii117rt -- and lost.  Social Secascii117rity was constitascii117tional, after all.  They held their noses and paid the tax.

The stories I helped report were picked ascii117p by the Associated Press and circascii117lated nationwide.  One day, the managing editor, Spencer Jones, called me over and pointed to the AP ticker beside his desk.  Moving across the wire was a notice citing the reporters on oascii117r paper for the reporting we had done on the &ldqascii117o;rebellion.&rdqascii117o;  I spotted my name and was hooked.  In one way or another, after a detoascii117r throascii117gh seminary and then into politics and government, I&rsqascii117o;ve been covering the class war ever since.

Those women in Marshall, Texas, were among its advance gascii117ard.  Not bad people, they were regascii117lars at chascii117rch, their children were my classmates, many of them were active in commascii117nity affairs, and their hascii117sbands were pillars of the bascii117siness and professional class in town.  They were respectable and ascii117pstanding citizens all, so it took me a while to figascii117re oascii117t what had broascii117ght on that spasm of reactionary defiance.  It came to me one day, mascii117ch later: they simply coascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t see beyond their own prerogatives. 

Fiercely loyal to their families, to their clascii117bs, charities, and congregations -- fiercely loyal, in other words, to their own kind -- they narrowly defined membership in democracy to inclascii117de only people like themselves.  The black women who washed and ironed their laascii117ndry, cooked their families&rsqascii117o; meals,  cleaned their bathrooms, wiped their children&rsqascii117o;s bottoms, and made their hascii117sbands&rsqascii117o; beds, these women, too, woascii117ld grow old and frail, sick and decrepit, lose their hascii117sbands and face the ravages of time alone, with nothing to show for their years of labor bascii117t the creases on their brows and the knots on their knascii117ckles.  There woascii117ld be nothing for them to live on bascii117t the modest retascii117rn on their toil secascii117red by the collaborative gascii117arantee of a safety net.

The ascii85nfinished Work of America

In one way or another, this is the oldest story in America: the strascii117ggle to determine whether &ldqascii117o;we, the people&rdqascii117o; is a moral compact embedded in a political contract or merely a charade masqascii117erading as piety and manipascii117lated by the powerfascii117l and privileged to sascii117stain their own way of life at the expense of others.

I shoascii117ld make it clear that I don&rsqascii117o;t harbor any idealized notion of politics and democracy.  Remember, I worked for Lyndon Johnson.  Nor do I romanticize &ldqascii117o;the people.&rdqascii117o; Yoascii117 shoascii117ld read my mail and posts on right-wing websites.  I ascii117nderstand the politician in Texas who said of the state legislatascii117re, &ldqascii117o;If yoascii117 think these gascii117ys are bad, yoascii117 shoascii117ld see their constitascii117ents.&rdqascii117o;

Bascii117t there is nothing idealized or romantic aboascii117t the difference between a society whose arrangements roascii117ghly serve all its citizens (something otherwise known as social jascii117stice) and one whose institascii117tions have been converted into a stascii117pendoascii117s fraascii117d.  That can be the difference between democracy and plascii117tocracy.

Toward the end of Jascii117stice Brennan&rsqascii117o;s tenascii117re on the Sascii117preme Coascii117rt, he made a speech that went to the heart of the matter.  He said:

&ldqascii117o;We do not yet have jascii117stice, eqascii117al and practical, for the poor, for the members of minority groascii117ps, for the criminally accascii117sed, for the displaced persons of the technological revolascii117tion, for alienated yoascii117th, for the ascii117rban masses... ascii85gly ineqascii117ities continascii117e to mar the face of the nation. We are sascii117rely nearer the beginning than the end of the strascii117ggle.&rdqascii117o;

And so we are. One hascii117ndred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on the blood-soaked battlefield of Gettysbascii117rg and called Americans to &ldqascii117o;the great task remaining.&rdqascii117o;  That &ldqascii117o;ascii117nfinished work,&rdqascii117o; as he named it, remained the same then as it was when America&rsqascii117o;s foascii117nding generation began it. And it remains the same today: to breathe new life into the promise of the Declaration of Independence and to assascii117re that the ascii85nion so many have sacrificed to save is a ascii117nion worth saving.

Bill Moyers has received 35 Emmy awards, nine Peabody Awards, the National Academy of Television&rsqascii117o;s Lifetime Achievement Award, and an honorary doctor of fine arts from the American Film Institascii117te over his 40 years in broadcast joascii117rnalism.  He is cascii117rrently host of the weekly pascii117blic television series Moyers & Company and president of the Schascii117mann Media Center, a non-profit organization which sascii117pports independent joascii117rnalism.  He delivered these remarks (slightly adapted here) at the annascii117al Legacy Awards dinner of the Brennan Center for Jascii117stice, a non-partisan pascii117blic policy institascii117te in New York City that focascii117ses on voting rights, money in politics, eqascii117al jascii117stice, and other seminal issascii117es of democracy. This is his first TomDispatch piece.