Pirate's Cove

Who wants to tell her and John Sarbanes, a Democrat, represents Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, who cowrote this? Also, there are a few other things she needs to be told

The Democratic majority’s first order of business: Restore democracy

Earlier this month, Americans went to the polls and sent a powerful message: The election not only was a resounding verdict against Republicans’ assault on Americans’ health care and wages, but it also was a vote to rescue our broken democracy.

In the face of a torrent of special-interest dark money, partisan gerrymandering and devious vote-suppression schemes, voters elected a House Democratic majority determined to bring real change to restore our democracy.

During the campaign, Democrats declared unequivocally that we would clean up corruption to make Washington work for the people. We pledged to reduce the role of money in politics, to restore ethics and integrity to government, and to strengthen voting laws.

Really? Because a) the House switch very often happens during a president’s first term, and b) they didn’t run on this at all

Anyway, here are her ideas

First, let’s end the dominance of money in politics. For far too long, big-money and corporate special interests have undermined the will of the people and subverted policymaking in Washington — enabling soaring health-care costs and prescription drug prices, undermining clean air and clean water for our children, and blocking long-overdue wage increases for hard-working Americans.

So let’s rein in the unaccountable “dark money” unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision by requiring all political organizations to disclose their donors and by shutting down the shell game of big-money donations to super PACs. We must also empower hard-working Americans in our democracy by building a 21st-century campaign-finance system — combining small-donor incentives and matching support — to increase and multiply the power of small donors. Wealthy special interests shouldn’t be able to buy more influence than the workers, consumers and families who should be our priority in Washington.

Interesting, considering the huge amounts of cash Democrats receive from Hollywood, news media and other lefty industries, plus single donors like George Soros and Tom Steyer. Also interesting, Pelosi is recommending legislation that basically has already been declared unconstitutional.

Next, let’s make sure that when public servants get to Washington, they serve the public. Restoring the public’s trust means closing the revolving door between government and private industries, and imposing strong new ethics laws to stop officials from using their public office for personal gain. To do so, we will expand conflict-of-interest laws, ban members of Congress from serving on for-profit boards, revamp the oversight authority of the Office of Government Ethics and prohibit public servants from receiving bonus payments from their former employers to enter government. We’ll curb the influence of high-powered Washington insiders by closing lobbyist registration loopholes that allow big-money power brokers and foreign actors to operate in the shadows. That way, well-connected special interests won’t be able to steer the policy agenda away from the priorities of the American public.

Not bad ideas, I can mostly agree with this, but, notice two big ones that are missing: restricting members of Congress and their staffs and families from engaging in trading and other economic activity based on insider knowledge of legislation. Also, implementing term limits for the House. How bad is it for “democracy” that some serve as elected officials for decade after decade after decade? Pelosi has been in the House since 1987, having zero connection with working people, never having to go home and live under the laws she votes for.

Finally, let’s make it easier, not harder, to vote. Since the Supreme Court took the teeth out of the Voting Rights Act, Republican political operatives have increasingly turned to blatant schemes to make it more difficult for the Americans left behind to participate in elections — a narrow agenda all too often targeted at communities of color.

We must renew the Voting Rights Act to protect every citizen’s access to the ballot box and restore the vital safeguard of pre-clearance requirements for areas with a history of voter suppression. We will promote national automatic voter registration, bolster our critical election infrastructure against foreign attackers, and put an end to partisan gerrymandering once and for all by establishing federal guidelines to outlaw the practice. No American should face hours-long lines, broken voting machines or rules rigged to keep their vote from being counted in our elections.

So, she wants to re-implement something SCOTUS has already whacked as unconstitutional?  Interestingly, the majority of voting precincts that have issues election after election are those run by Democrats.

As for gerrymandering, consider that Pelosi’s congressional district is considered one of the safest Democrat strongholds in the country. And the gerrymandering is one reason for that.