Did We Just Fix Democracy?
How a broken system confronted how broken it was
As we approach the end of 2022, I’ve asked a few people whose words and wisdom I deeply respect to share what’s been on their minds. Here is the electoral reform advocate and former New York City Council candidate David Gold with his thoughts on the meaning of the midterms.
Did a more assertive electorate find itself this year — one capable of making the structural changes our system needs?
Democracy was on the ballot, we’ve been told, and it was. 2022 was the year when most Republican candidates for local, state, and federal office openly supported a plot to subvert a presidential election and the will of the American people — and the American people pushed back. Candidates who claimed Trump was the rightful winner in 2020 lost more than three-quarters of their races in competitive states and districts and underperformed around the nation.
Voters’ push-back came despite scant encouragement from our major political parties. No surprise there as to the Republican Party, whose leaders have spent seven years (at least) abetting authoritarianism. But what was with the Dems? With their party in the White House and inflation at a four-decade high, they were straining against a powerful midterm tide. Brazen Republican treachery offered them a…
