My fellow Americans,
This Independence Day, I call not for revolution but for reform.
As flawed as our political system has long been and will long continue to be, I still believe in it because I believe in us, in we the American people.1
I’m a liberal, a progressive, and a Democrat because I believe in our ability as a people to come together through politics and government to make a positive impact in our country and world.
To do so, we must believe that we can.
We must believe in ourselves again.
We must enact laws that serve the American people.
We must elect leaders who represent the American people.
We must reform our government so that it is of, by, and for all Americans, rather than only of, by, and for wealthy donors and special interest groups.
That said, here are a few good-government, anti-corruption reforms Democrats ought to support today and run on tomorrow.
1. Remove Money from Politics
We need campaign finance reform.
In its 2010 Citizens United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated campaign finance restrictions on big money donors by allowing them to pour unlimited sums of money into super PACs so long as they are technically not backing a particular candidate.2 This decision has proven disastrous for our country and its politics.
Since this ruling, there’s been effectively no limit on how much money billionaire donors and corporations can spend on political campaigns. This is why Elon Musk was able to spend millions of dollars on a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, for which he also reportedly offered to pay individual voters to side his way.3
In this way, dark money poses a threat to democracy since it enables those with virtually endless amounts of money to sway elections in their favor, thereby privileging them over other voters.4 In a democratic system of government, every person’s vote ought to count equally.
“One person, one vote” ought to be the law of the land.
Yet, average Americans are effectively denied this basic democratic principle today.
Now, let me ask you this: Are you tired of seeing tons of negative campaign ads every election cycle? Do you think that money could be put to better use? Well, I am, too, and I do, too. This is possible if only we have the resolve to make it happen by imposing and enforcing stricter campaign finance regulations.
Until we can do so via legislation, the Democratic Party and its candidates can and ought to reject super PAC money.
Doing so would put Democrats back on the side of working people.
2. Restore Americans’ Voting Rights
We need to protect Americans’ voting rights.
In early 2025, the GOP introduced the SAVE Act into Congress; experts warn that this bill has the potential to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters by imposing unnecessary red tape onto the voting process and thus making it harder for Americans to vote. Many Americans— including me— are concerned about such a bill.
To understand and withstand this current effort to undermine voting rights, we must ground it in historical context since it does not represent a unique challenge to our rights.5
In 1965, Congress passed and LBJ signed into law the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. That was only sixty years ago.
This means that we’ve only had universal suffrage in this country for sixty years.6
The point is not to dwell on the past but to celebrate how far we’ve come from it.
To celebrate the great progress we’ve made, we ought to safeguard it. We ought to build on it. We ought to prioritize the protection of our democratic rights.
America has become more democratic and just over generations because we’ve made it more democratic and just.
The moral arc of American history has bent toward justice because the American people have bent it that way.
We’ve done so by fighting for our rights when they are threatened. We continue to do so now as is required of us.
We can do this by opposing gerrymandering and the targeted closing of polling places in predominantly black and brown areas. We can oppose the imposition of barriers onto Americans casting their ballots. We can, instead, make it easier for people to vote.
3. End Stock Trading by Congress
We need members of Congress who serve the people.
We must demand that our elected representatives use their power to bring America’s vast wealth to Americans, rather than using it to line their own pockets.
The ugly reality is that some Democratic members of Congress— most infamously Nancy Pelosi— seem to be guilty of partaking in certain forms of legalized corruption. Among these is the practice of buying stocks that they have non-public knowledge of and influence over. This is wrong.
It is wrong for our elected representatives to profit from their positions.
They ought to be public servants who make Americans richer, rather than making themselves richer on the taxpayers’ dime.7
This type of legalized corruption is in no way aligned with progressive or democratic values. Democrats ought to champion efforts to end it. Democrats ought to expect more of our leaders.8
4. End the Imperial Presidency
We need to restore Congress to its rightful place as a co-equal branch of government.
As we have all been witnessing, the current administration has taken several steps to expand presidential power, an approach to governing that is at odds with the U.S. Constitution’s intentional separation of powers among the three branches of government.9 It is also at odds with our Constitution’s checks and balances.
While the current administration’s exercise of executive power is concerning, it is a difference in degree rather than in kind from some other presidencies. In other words, President Trump is not uniquely responsible for presidential power growing to exceed what the Constitution had intended.
In reality, the Imperial Presidency has been an issue for decades. See, for instance, this Congressional report on Reining in the Imperial Presidency that was published at the tail end of the George W. Bush presidency.10
Democrats ought to champion efforts to empower Congress.
One way to do that is to lessen partisan political polarization since it incentivizes members of Congress to be more loyal to the president, if he is of their party, than to their body of Congress— let alone to their constituents.
The result of this misplaced loyalty is that representatives in both parties tend to only check presidential power when they are the party out of power— which I’m pretty sure is the definition of opportunism.11
This tendency is bad for democracy. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon was forced to resign because members of the Republican Party, his party, signalled that they would be willing to impeach and convict him. With few exceptions— and shout out to Mitt Romney and the rest of the exceptions— the same cannot be said of most GOP Congressmen today.
Rather than condemn them for this, Democratic lawmakers ought to set an example for how to limit presidential powers and stand on principle in Congress.12 We all ought to help MAGA Republican members of Congress to be better versions of themselves, as we have been encouraging the same of our Democratic representatives in Congress.
***
As John McCain said in his concession speech to Barack Obama in 2008, “Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans and please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.”
We all ought to be Americans before we are Democrats, and the same goes for people of other parties, too.
In recent years, Americans’ trust in our institutions has remained low because our institutions aren’t serving us in the way that they ought to be— and can be.
Therefore, to increase Americans’ trust in our institutions, we must reform them so that they serve the American people better.
Obligatory Disclaimer: all views expressed here are my own personal views and do not represent the views of my employer nor those of the U.S. government.
Thank you for reading!
Footnotes
Audio with footnotes:
Democracy is, after all, “the worst form of government except all others that have been tried,” to reference Churchill.
PAC stands for Political Action Committee. A super PAC is a PAC that is, in theory, not allowed to coordinate with particular candidates, though, in practice, these PACs often flout these rules.
Despite these efforts, the Musk-backed candidate lost by a whopping 10 points.
By not imposing a limit on the so-called “free speech” rights of billionaire-funded super PACs, the Citizens United decision allowed these PACs to overwhelm the voices and speech of other Americans.
Indeed, the right to vote has in many ways always been contested in America. Women have only had the right to vote for a little over a century— after marching for it in the suffrage movement. Black men and women have only truly had the right to vote for a fraction of that time— after marching in the Civil Rights Movement. In both cases and others, voting rights were not granted to these groups without a struggle.
Prior to the Voting Rights Act, many African Americans did not have the basic right to vote for who would represent them. In this way, the United States of America has only been truly and fully democratic for sixty years.
Does anyone— aside from those with a vested interest in members of Congress being able to buy and sell stocks— disagree with this? If anyone does, is it out of principle or merely cynicism that we can’t persuade members of Congress to enact such legislation against this corrupt practice?
and if we are those leaders, we ought to expect more of ourselves. There is nothing wrong with holding our leaders to account, and yes, that includes Joe Biden. Don’t get me wrong, I care not to fight yesterday’s battles. Biden is no longer president, and when he was, he did several good things, and yet, he is not beyond reproach. No one is.
those being (1) the Legislative Branch, a.k.a. the U.S. Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate; (2) the Executive Branch, a.k.a. the U.S. President; and (3) the Judicial Branch, a.k.a. the U.S. Supreme Court.
which ended in January 2009. As I alluded to in my U.S. Bombs Iran Context Brief piece, George W. Bush is one example of how Donald Trump is quite precedented in many ways (but more on that in another post).
Instead of operating based on partisan interests, we ought to encourage our representatives to check the president’s power regardless of whether or not it’s our guy in the White House. We ought to encourage members of Congress to vote their consciensce and represent their constituents, even if it’s at the Party’s expense.
Many are challenging executive overreach now, which is great, but I wonder will they be willing to do this when Democrats take control of the White House again? I hope so! This question is worth considering since our prior lack of constraints on the presidency is partially responsible for the current president being able to seize as much power as he has.
Amen!
A few questions I'd love to read more about in a future post:
1. In light of Citizens United, what can the legislature actually do to limit money in politics?
2. Have candidates, like Bernie I'd think, who don't except Super PAC donations had success? Wouldn't reform-minded candidates who on principle don't accept PAC money, be at too great a disadvantage (unless they have hundreds of millions of their own to blow on a race)?
3. I would add to your list: End the two-party monopoly over our elections and stranglehold over our government.
Happy July 4th weekend!!
I love this Sarah!