Trump and his Big Lie pose a clear and present danger to our democracy

Clear and present danger

- Jesse Jackson

The Jan. 6th committee hearings have shown how Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. But Trump’s efforts are far from the most serious threat to our democracy.

Across the country, Republicans have spread Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, and used it as a weapon to justify a range of restrictive legislation that makes registration and voting more difficult, and gives partisan officials greater scope to overturn the results of elections where they don’t like the result. Worse, these efforts have been bolstered by a series of Supreme Court decisions – written by activist right-wing judges – dating back long before Trump--that undermine free and fair elections in the United States.

First, the Supreme Court acted to open the sluice gates to big money in politics. It invented the doctrine that money is speech and ruled that individuals could give unlimited sums to their own campaigns. Now, as inequality has grown perverse, we see a proliferation of wealthy candidates seeking to buy an election the way they would purchase a yacht. Then the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people and outlawed any limits on what they contribute to campaigns. That opened the door to what now amounts to more than a billion in “dark money,” money contributed to independent PACs with no disclosure, so drug and oil companies can boost their own candidates for office.