• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. coronavirus>

Political love in the time of Covid

Perry Waag
April 07, 2020
American currency

"After the public health emergency subsides, the need for political reform philanthropy will be even greater — but the job of raising the money will be harder," writes Perry Waag.

ricardoreitmeyer/Getty Images

Waag is a former volunteer coordinator for the multifaceted democracy reform group Unite America and is treasurer of a group promoting a switch to ranked-choice voting in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla.

Before this global coronavirus pandemic and its resulting American economic suffocation, political philanthropy to fix and reform both our elections and our governmental institutions was already severely lacking but very much needed.

The entire democracy reform movement, with more than 130 organizations, raises approximately $150 million in contributions every year. The two major parties raise a combined $4 billion from their donors every year — in other words, more than 25 times as much. That's a lot of Davids not even coming close to two very big Goliaths.

In other words, before the arrival of Covid-19 changed almost everything about daily life in our country, almost everyone — wealthy individuals, big businesses and small-dollar donors — was continuing to double down on the two tired old parties, in spite of so many of their gripes and complaints about the failings of political life under the duopoly.


After the public health emergency subsides, the need for political reform philanthropy will be even greater — but the job of raising the money will be harder.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The challenge before those of us working to fix the system from the outside will be the same as it was before: To make a direct connection between our solutions and the day-to-day problems in the lives of our fellow citizens.

We have an opportunity now to get the attention of our potential backers, especially while so many of them are at home and maybe have unexpected time to spend. But obviously, given the devastating economic consequences that continue to unfold, philanthropy of all kinds will be much harder to come by as everyone focuses more on their own necessities before making donations to their favorite charities.

If we are ever to move our shared goals — from independent redistricting commissions and open primaries to ranked-choice voting and allowing more voting from home — from the political nerdspace into the mainstream consciousness of the nation, we must be able to draw a bright line connecting those solutions to the struggles of everyday American life.

We need to show would-be donors that they wouldn't need to give as much to other causes, like curing cancer or slowing climate change, if we fixed our politics first.

Just as with candidates, money will get us noticed, but it won't hold the public's attention for long if our message does not resonate. Thankfully, our message does resonate — we just need the funds to make more Americans aware of the solutions for making their government work better for them.

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in political science to see that, if we had better elected leaders across the board, maybe things like the thousands of deaths and national social isolation brought on by the spreading coronavirus would never have happened. Our government would have responded sooner, and better, and many lives would have been saved.

The flaws and cracks in this 220-year experiment that we call our republic have been glaring for some time, especially to those of us who eat, sleep and breathe it. But now those flaws and cracks are proving deadly.

Political philanthropy is no longer just a "want." Coronavirus has made it a "need."

From Your Site Articles
  • Playing the long game for a civically engaged democracy - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Opinion: In Political Philanthropy, We Should All Fear the Dark - The ... ›
  • Philanthropy Is Politics -- Don't Let Anyone Tell You Different ›
  • "Impossible to Justify." A Political Scientist Takes on American ... ›
coronavirus

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Joan Blades
John Gable
12h

What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

Daniel O. Jamison
12h

Part IV: Reforming constitutional convention campaigns

J.H. Snider
30 January

Winning GOP strategy in 2024 – back to business with immigration reform

Neil Hare
30 January

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Our Staff
27 January
Videos

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff

Video: Veterans for Political Innovation - Who we are

Our Staff

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Our Staff

Video: Kevin McCarthy is Speaker, but he's got a tough job ahead

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Our Staff
27 January

Podcast: How the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack impacted politics

Our Staff
26 January

Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Our Staff
25 January
Recommended
Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Big Picture
What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

What can replace religion for peace of mind and shared moral values?

Big Picture
Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Congress
Part IV: Reforming constitutional convention campaigns

Part IV: Reforming constitutional convention campaigns

State
Winning GOP strategy in 2024 – back to business with immigration reform

Winning GOP strategy in 2024 – back to business with immigration reform

Big Picture
Podcast: Separating news from noise

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Podcasts