Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson , authors of “Winner-Take-All Politics; How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class” deplore the Senate rule which requires 60 of the 100 members to vote for cloture in order to be able to vote on legislation other than taxes. They assert that “supermajority requirements allows a radicalized minority to obstruct without being held accountable – a poisonous cocktail fatal to governance.”
In the final chapter entitled “Conclusion: Beating Winner-Take-All”, they write:
“…the outlines of sensible reform are not hard to find. The true challenge, as we have argued throughout this book, is the politics…
“Stronger representation for employees in the work place is as much about broadening the distribution of political power as broadening the distribution of economic rewards. Making government more responsive to the middle class would not be just a political achievement it would reshape the economy.
“Until we see clearly how the economy is constructed by government inaction as well as action, many of the most effective reforms will evade our sight. Maintaining regulation-free zones in which traders and investors design and unleash weapons of mass financial destruction (credit-default swaps, exotic subprime loans, mortgage-backed securities) is as much a political choice as passing tax cuts that enrich those who have already amassed the most. A vibrant, dynamic capitalism requires the guidance that only a vibrant, dynamic democracy can provide…
“The long-term budget challenge is principally a result of runaway health-care costs, couple with a tax system whose ability to fairly raise sufficient revenue to run broadly supported government activities – never strong to begin with – has been steadily crippled…
“Reform will rest on the creation of organized, sustained pressure on legislators to make American politics more responsive and open to citizen engagement… We have seen that the organizations that traditionally bolstered middle-class democracy have declined…An expanded role for unions would make a big difference…
They concluded: “For all the contradictions of the Progressive movement, reformers of a century ago shared the conviction held by the Founders that democracy was the rules of the many, not the all-powerful one or the fortunate few. It will have to be so again.”
