 One of the burning questions about saving our democracy is how to jump start voter turnout, no matter whether in state, municipal or federal elections.
Again, I like talking politics to near-strangers I meet. Here are some of their answers to the question above. Nothing might seem terribly new, but that’s because we’ve yet to find the political will to even experiment with change. 1. Pay individuals, starting at age 18, to register to vote. Pay them something every time they vote. In a capitalist democracy, nothing motivates like money. The federal government has just given three trillion dollars to its citizens to get the economy off life support. Good use of taxpayer dollars, I think. So is paying citizens something to insure our democracy. The payment might be in cash, or perhaps a tax deduction or credit on your income tax. 2. Impose a tax “penalty” for failing to vote—use the stick as well as the carrot. We are not “a free country.” We are a country of incredible freedoms, and they cost a lot to maintain. 3. Raise House term limits from two years (which is mostly spent on frantic fund raising instead of making laws) to four years. Keep the Senate term at six. 4. Eliminate the electoral college. This puts a nail in the coffin of gerrymandering. The popular vote should determine winners. 5. Have federal guidelines (such as time off from work to vote) to expand voting opportunities and minimize voter suppression. 6. Instead of going to a polling station, encourage mail-in ballots, allotting a full month for voters to comply, and have strong oversight of the counting process. Consider making mail-in voting mandatory. 7. Drastically limit the amount of political donations that individuals, corporations, and PAC's can make. 8. Maintain and expand media coverage of every election cycle. Shine a bright light in dark corners without being intimidated or censored. 9. Make civics class mandatory in high school. Any of the above requires a major shake up in the status quo, arousing the ire of, well, the status quo, which has the most to lose. It takes courage to fight another civil war, especially using brains and good-will instead of ideologies. Does medicine, science, the arts, or fashion ever remain the same, let alone for 250 years? The Constitution’s best chance of survival and effectiveness is not to stay the same, either.
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 One white knee on a black neck may prove to be one knee too many. The police-caused death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week may be the galvanizing point for real change this November. I hope so. Racism is on the ballot. Like COVID-19, racism too is a virus, an invisible pathogen passed down from generation to generation. It can hibernate from time to time, but in four centuries, it has never been dormant for long. Please help kill this virus by voting. Please study the history of the candidates. Please turn out the noise and listen to your mind and heart. My novel, Once Upon a Lie, publlshed a few years ago, was my small contribution to insights into American racism of the Eighties and Nineties. I learned so much in writing it: The kernel of the virus is always the same. If you don’t have discussions with those who don’t agree with you what that kernel is—don’t give up. Keep talking, keep protesting without violence. Having the courage to substitute dialog for polarization may save our democracy."
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Michael R. FrenchMichael French is a graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern University. He is a businessman and author who divides his time between Santa Barbara, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Archives
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