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Protestors in Florida speak out against private prisons, which prefer to house Black people because they cost less than white people, according to Kellogg.
Ending racial injustice begins with curbing law enforcement industry's political power
Jan 04 2021
Kellogg is a volunteer in Lincoln, Neb., for Wolf-PAC, which is seeking to build grassroots support for a constitutional amendment that would permit more regulation of money in politics.
<p>"I can't breathe." The panic in my brother's faint voice struck me like a hammer blow. These words have become dreadfully familiar. We were at my uncle's house for an overnight stay and my brother's asthma had flared up. But for Black folk nationwide, these words are far more ominous. </p><p>My little cousins and I knew what to do. We set up a nebulizer and gave him medicine — and he could breathe easily again in less than five minutes. Compare that to the way police officers commonly treat unarmed Black men in this country. Imagine the repercussions if we hadn't helped my brother. Then, compare that to the impunity with which officers deal out murder and abuse to Black folk.</p><p>Now that everyone has a video camera in hand, the racism of policing and our justice system is starkly obvious. But how did we get here? What made our system so biased, and what is the history behind this?</p><p>President Richard Nixon began his drug war in<a href="https://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> 1971</a>. His effort <a href="https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/bitstream/handle/10066/8244/2012CarltonE_thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">had racist roots</a> and was based on<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/smoke.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> bogus evidence</a> as well as<a href="http://www.csdp.org/research/shafernixon.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> willful ignorance</a>. Thus, part of Nixon's legacy is that Black people are arrested for drug possession at a<a href="https://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-war-mass-incarceration-and-race-englishspanish" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> far higher rate than whites</a>, even though white and Black people do drugs at<a href="https://sunrisehouse.com/addiction-demographics/different-races/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> close to equal rates</a>.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Because several of Nixon's successors expanded this policy — Ronald Reagan supported <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senator-ervin-no-knock-warrants-and-fight-stop-cops-smashing-homes-way" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">no-knock warrants</a> like the one that <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-war-on-drugs-gave-rise-to-no-knock-warrants-breonna-taylors-death-could-end-them" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">got Breonna Taylor killed</a> — an entire industry has a profit motive to ensure people of color are arrested more often. The private prison industry, which sprang up during the Reagan administration, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/13/289000532/why-for-profit-prisons-house-more-inmates-of-color" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">prefers housing Black people</a> because they cost less than white people, who are more often older and less healthy. Besides, their contracts with the states often dictate that a high percentage of their prison beds <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/private-prison-quotas_n_3953483?guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93b3JkLXZpZXcub2ZmaWNlYXBwcy5saXZlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=_qUq6y2Nkqet04rkzLYR0g&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm94bmV3cy5jb20vb3Bpbmlvbi90aGUtY29s&_guc_consent_skip=1597898732" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">must be filled</a>, or else the company gets paid for the empty beds.</p><p>The "corrections corporation" CoreCivic Inc. made so much revenue from its prisons last year that a mechanical counter tabulating a dollar every second would take almost 63 years to finish: <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/cxw/financials" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$1.98 billion</a>. But in order to keep the gravy train going, the industry participates in campaigns and<a href="https://represent.us/action/private-prisons/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> influences lawmakers</a> by investing some of its profit in candidates. It would take about three weeks for that same machine to tabulate all the money the industry put into the 2020 election: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2020&ind=G7000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$2.7 million</a>, which was 40 percent more than two years before. </p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Both <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/07/23/private-prison-lobbyists-raising-cash-hillary-clinton/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hillary Clinton</a> and <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/private-prisons-donate-large-sums-to-trump-campaign" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>, and members of Congress ranging from Senate GOP Leader <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=G7000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mitch McConnell</a> to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, have all taken money from this industry at some point in their careers.</p><p>The industry has even influenced judges. This was evidenced by the 2009<a href="https://jlc.org/luzerne-kids-cash-scandal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> kids for cash scandal</a> in Pennsylvania, in which two judges were paid kickbacks by the owners of for-profit juvenile detention centers in return for sentencing hundreds of kids to time in those facilities. The industry does whatever it can politically to keep the inmates coming in and the cash flowing, including<a href="http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/gaming_the_system.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> pushing for harsher laws</a> and longer sentencing periods.</p><p>The undue influence of money in our election system makes it close to impossible for we the people to stop this injustice. So, how do we fix it? We fix it by getting rid of that influence. Amending the U.S. Constitution is the best way to do this. We need language in there to prevent dollars from drowning out the voices of average Americans. Personally, I'm not sure what the exact language should be. We would decide that together at a convention to propose the amendment.</p><p>This is why I volunteer with Wolf-PAC. Our plan is to propose real reform of our campaign finance system through a convention of the states. Five states out of the 34 we need have already passed legislation calling for a second constitutional convention, which is allowed under Article V of the Constitution, and our activism contributed to these successes.</p><div></div><p>Amending the Constitution is the only way to bypass our broken Congress and the Supreme Court. Besides, we must make this change permanent. So join us. We need all of the help we can get.</p>
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Walter Bibikow/Getty Images
A question for Joe Biden: If lobbying is the problem in Washington, as you claim, then why does your team include lobbyists?
Biden's ban on lobbyists in his administration would be unwise and discriminatory
Dec 17 2020
Miller is board chairman of the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics, the advocacy profession's trade association, and principal of the lobbying firm Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies.
<p>When you join the lobbying profession, you know immediately you become Public Enemy No. 1. Frankly, you can't blame the public for feeling this way. </p>
<p>As a profession we let Washington define who we are and how we operate. We don't have a bully pulpit the way candidates, members of Congress and presidents do. We do not have a public forum where the people can hear us. </p>
<p>When attacks come, we bury our heads in the sand and don't stand up for ourselves and what we do. We simply hide and wait for the onslaught to pass. It's easy for elected officials to blame lobbyists for the dysfunction in Washington, the alternative being for them to look in the mirror and point the finger at themselves for their direct failures on behalf of those who elected them. When in doubt, create a boogeyman the public hates or distrusts more than you.</p>
<p>When you become a lobbyist, you know that every election year you will become the scapegoat for all the failures of both Congress and the incumbent president's administration. You know that in one breath members of Congress and the president will blame you for a policy stalemate — and then in the next breath call you and ask you for a campaign contribution. These same elected leaders will tell their constituents how they need to halt the influence that lobbyists have in Washington. But when they leave their campaign rallies, they will call us asking for help on their campaign.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>The reality is that it's good politics to trash a profession the public does not know much about. It's good business to spread lies, and only then to turn to us and use us to get you elected. Frankly, shame on people in our business for allowing it.</p>
<p>Joe Biden campaigned on improving ethics in the capital, but now that he's been elected that seems like it was just a tagline to get votes. He is imposing restrictions on lobbyists serving in his administration and on government boards, yet his transition team is filled with big-name lobbyists. His team has said that not all lobbyists will be banned. Some will be given waivers to serve. </p>
<p>My questions for the president-elect are: Why some and not all? If our profession is the problem in Washington, as you claim, then why does your team include lobbyists? Why the need for waivers? Why not simply ban all of us, not just some of us? </p>
<p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>The answer is simple. You have been in elected politics for more than 40 years and you know the true value of what we do — and the information and expertise we will offer you and your new administration. So, while it may get you a good public reception to claim you are banning lobbyists, then quietly you will enlist us. It is the Washington way. </p>
<p>But while Biden's policy discriminates against a class of people because of what they do, it makes exceptions for people close to you or who have been big donors to you over the years. The American people deserve better than this. Frankly, our profession deserves to be treated better than this. </p>
<p>The next president campaigned on the promise to create a diverse administration. Some will say he is doing just that. I take a different view. The policies he is putting in place not only discriminate against a whole class of professionals, but they also tell lobbyists of color they are not welcome to serve in the new administration. At a time when we should be celebrating public service and are asking corporate America to be more inclusive, Biden is doing the exact opposite. His bans limit lobbyists of color from creating opportunities to be selected to top positions in government and their chosen fields. That is exactly what the president-elect has criticized corporate America for doing.</p>
<p>As his new administration begins, I would urge Biden to reconsider his lobbyist ban for the reasons here. Barack Obama did much the same after he was elected president a dozen years ago and it turned into a black eye for his administration, which relaxed its rules six years later in the aftermath of an unfavorable federal appeals court ruling.</p>
<p>Since 2009 we have seen a growing trend of people taking themselves off the lists of registered federal lobbyists so they could serve in the Obama and Trump administrations. We suspect that will continue under a Biden administration unless he changes course. </p>
<p>Such shadow lobbying is a real problem — and one our profession is fighting against. The new president should work with us on creating policies that create more transparency, not less. But an outright ban is going to continue the rise of shadow lobbyists at a time when the American people are tired of corruption in government. </p>
<p>Please, Mr. President-elect: Work with us and not against us. I would urge you to be honest in your policies. If you ban lobbyists, you need to ban all lobbyists, not just some. You need to return the campaign donations you have taken during your campaign to every lobbyist or political action committee. You need to stop taking money from lobbyists or corporate America for your inauguration. And you need a universal diversity and inclusion policy that is inclusive of all, not just some.</p>
<p>As a profession, we want to work with you on transparency. We want to work with you on ethics reform. This is only possible if your administration is open and honest about your policies and does not create carve-outs for big donors or close friends. You cannot hold the rest of us accountable if you are not going to follow your own lead.</p>
<div></div><p>Leadership starts at the top with one policy for all, not just some well-connected Washington insiders.</p>
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President-elect Joe Biden, who with Jill Biden marked Veterans Day on Wednesday, has come under criticism for not making democracy reform a priority.
Anxious democracy reformers pressing Biden to make more of their causes
Nov 12 2020
Joe Biden has plenty of campaign promises to keep, beyond the obvious and enormous top priorities of corralling the coronavirus and stabilizing the economy. And that's made democracy reform groups, which have never counted him as an impassioned ally, newly skeptical their priorities will get addressed in his new administration.
Their anxiety has come to the surface this week. A coalition of 170 progressive good governance and voting rights organizations asked the president-elect to elevate a collection of fix-the-system proposals into his first 100 days' agenda. Separately, one of the most influential such groups, RepresentUs, lambasted the Biden transition for "an omission of epic proportions" by giving short shrift to the issues it cares about.
Their impatience, just days after Biden's victory became clear, underscores the precarious position the cause of fixing democracy's dysfunction has in the public policy agenda.
<p>At the same time, however, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled she may revive the sweeping election process, government ethics and money-in politics legislation known as HR 1, and have the House pass it again in January even before Biden's inauguration. </p><p>Doing so "right off the bat," she told reporters before her Democratic majority was trimmed by about a dozen seats on Election Day, would "reduce the role of big, dark, special-interest money that prevents us from having policies that the American people need." </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>That could only happen, though, if the Democrats win both runoffs in Georgia in January and take the narrowest possible control of the Senate. Otherwise, HR 1 and <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/biden-political-reform" target="_self">all the other legislation</a> on the good governance wish list — including a restoration of the <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/voting-rights-act" target="_self">Voting Rights Act</a> and a package to curb executive power abuses — would continue to get ignored to death by GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.</p><p>Biden has backed taxpayer funding of congressional and presidential campaigns — a Holy Grail for many reform groups — since he was a new Delaware senator in the 1970s. And early in his campaign for the Democratic nomination he unveiled a full slate of proposals for expanding voting rights, curbing money's sway over campaigns, bolstering government ethics and recalibrating the balance of power. </p><p>But, unlike seven of his rivals in the sprawling early field, in the summer of 2019 he <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/candidates-end-citizens-united-pledge" target="_self">declined to sign a pledge</a> to put those issues on top of his legislative agenda if elected. And, after he wrapped up the nomination, it appeared to take a concerted lobbying effort to get a robust section on democracy reform added to the party platform — just in time for a convention <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/joe-biden-agenda" target="_self">when almost all mentions </a>of the topic were about the need to assure easy voting in the pandemic-upended election.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Part of that effort was <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/democracy-reform-groups-to-biden-dont-you-forget-about-us" target="_self">a public appeal to Biden</a> from a new coalition dubbing itself the <a href="https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/" target="_blank">Declaration for American Democracy</a>.</p><p>It was that group that went public Tuesday with a <a href="https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/9.28-Day-One-is-for-Democracy-1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">manifesto</a> calling on Biden to both push hard for HR 1, whether Congress stays divided or not, but also make 30 different moves by executive order to promote voting rights and assure his administration is more honest, transparent, responsive and respectful of checks and balances than in the past.</p><p>The most important moves on the coalition's list, it said, would be requiring federal social services agencies to help the people they serve register to vote; tightening the ethics pledge for political appointees; curbing the revolving door between the executive branch and lobbyist and corporate offices; refusing to have anything to do with fundraising by so-called <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/super-pac" target="_self">super PACS</a>; posting White House visitor logs; and making public all the work of the White House office of legal counsel.</p><p>For the organizations in the group, any of these changes would represent a dramatic shift from the past four years. President Trump, who won partly on a vow to "drain the swamp," has done nothing of the kind while upending virtually avery norm of democracy he could get his hands on.</p><p>Most recently, and potentially most consequentially, has been his decision to contest his defeat last week and in the meantime refuse to cooperate in the transition. But along the way he has challenged the precepts of open and ethical government by commingling his business interests with government work, choosing secrecy over transparency at nearly every turn and thwarting all congressional efforts to oversee or investigate his activities. </p><p>But there is no time to wait, said Josh Silver, who runs the influential reform group RepresentUs. And the signals from the Biden transition team that such issues have fallen to the second tier demonstrate "an omission of epic proportions."</p><p>It "follows a pattern of Democratic presidential candidates talking big about these issues on the campaign trail and promptly ignoring them when the chips are down. That's why our nation is in the perilous position we're in now," he said in an exceptionally harsh statement Monday. "It just requires leadership that prioritizes these reforms. Based on President-elect Biden's Day 1 agenda, it's not going to happen, and he is guaranteeing more dysfunction, more authoritarianism and more instability." </p><p>Biden will likely focus first on proposals that could attract bipartisan support — starting with providing economic relief during the resurgent pandemic and then moving on to improving the nation's crumbling infrastructure and using the climate change crisis as the basis for job creation.</p><p>The political dynamic on Capitol Hill means Biden may have to pull back from some policy proposals that are mainly goals of the left and have little or no traction among conservatives. Democracy reform, in the main, falls in that bucket</p>
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Legislative Town Hall Workshop
Aug 13 2020
Organizer: FairVote Washington
Have you ever wondered what lobbying looks like, or how to persuade a legislator to support your agenda? Town halls are one of the most effective ways to engage with your legislators. Join our legislative team for an interactive workshop to learn how to be effective as a citizen lobbyist at town halls and campaign events. During this workshop, you can expect to learn:
- How to craft a great town hall question
- How to read your audience and adjust your message to resonate with the person you're trying to persuade
- How to find upcoming events with your legislators
Location: Virtual
