Fixing Democracy
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. Author, The Idea that Is America.
Mr. or Madame President, the most urgent item on the national agenda is to restore our moral integrity at home and abroad. To that end, your first order should be to announce the closing of Guantanamo Bay as fast as possible, with provisions made for either the trial or the release of the remaining inmates.
Your second order should be to prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by all U.S. interrogators of any prisoners within their control, whether inside or outside the United States.
And your third order should be to count and publish the total number of dead in the Iraq war, American and Iraqi.
With these three steps you can once again affirm the American commitment to the equality and dignity of all human beings, regardless of race, creed, or national origin. That commitment has been and must remain the foundation of our democracy.
E.L. Doctorow
Author, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, and The March.I would suggest that the new President direct the Justice Department to institute criminal proceedings against his predecessor for substantive and unjustified violations of the Constitution of the United States. There is no shortage of such violations—e.g. of Article VI (the Constitution and all Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United State, [NB such as the Geneva Accords, the Treaty Against Torture, and the Nuremberg Principle that bans wars of Aggression] shall be the supreme law of the land) ....or of Article I [9]the Privilege of the Writ of Habeus Corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasions the public Safety may require it...or of Amendment IV (the rights of the people [NB not only citizens] to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and defects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation...) or of Amendment VI (In all criminal trials the accused shall enjoy the rights of a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted to the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process of for obtaining Witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel)...or of Amendment VIII (Excessive punishment shall not be inflicted nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted).
With the former president ably defending himself in court and the trial commanding major media attention for an extended period of time, the country will be recalled to itself.
The American public—including school children—will be educated as to the Constitutional principles that define our democracy, and will come to understand that we have a covenantal relationship to this sacred document of our civil religion. And inevitably, spoken or unspoken, we will recall the lesson learned from the Bible about how the ancient Hebrews suffered a catastrophic loss of identity and endless disaster when they broke their covenant.
No matter the outcome of the trial, win or lose, the former president would probably do more for his country as a defendant than he has done while in office.
Burt Neuborne
Legal Director, Brennan Center. Inez Mullholland Professor of Civil Liberties at NYU School of Law.I would urge the President to insist upon national legislation: (a) assuring same-day voter registration pursuant to uniform rules throughout the country; (b) shifting voting to the weekend to permit working people to vote more easily; and (c) requiring non-partisan drawing of Congressional District lines designed to maximize, not minimize, electoral competition.
I would not seek to indict President Bush and his cronies for lying to the country. While the President's lying was reprehensible, and quite possibly criminal, I do not believe that democracy is served by further criminalizing our politics. I fear that using the criminal law to fight political battles is ultimately self-destructive. Instead, I would favor Congressional hearings into the President's behavior with an eye towards making his misconduct broadly and inescapably known to the general public. In my opinion, that is the appropriate punishment in a democracy.
Sen. Bill Bradley
Radio host, American Voices. Author, The New American Story.
The first orders of business to fix our democracy: campaign finance reform, reform of the drawing of Congressional district lines and moving election day to Saturday and Sunday.
James Johnson
Chairman, Brennan Center for Justice. Partner Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
The most troubling aspect of our democracy is the difficulty the least powerful have accessing the polls. There is serious need to make sure people who can't take time off from work can get to the polls, and once they're there, they don't have to face long lines to cast a ballot.
We shouldn't have the biggest single voting day on a Tuesday. Rather, election "day" should be the weekend before and be expanded to two days, so that people have a chance to vote. Give Americans a whole weekend to vote. And encourage them to bring children so they can impress them with the importance of this process.
We can always fix machines and make them more accurate, but that doesn't do any good if people can't get to them to vote.
Dahlia Lithwick
A senior editor, Slate. Author, Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World.
Close Guantanamo.
It's not that warrantless surveillance and the state secrets doctrine, broad, inscrutable signing statements, and water boarding aren't problems , but I am assuming here that the President elect would have scrapped all this before putting his or her toothbrush down that morning. There may be some temptation to keep Gitmo open for a few weeks. Don't. Close it down. Move the remaining prisoners stateside and give them trials. Torch the camp. Issue a press release. And walk away. No one thing has been a more damaging daily—often hourly—reminder in the foreign media of this administration's contempt for American and international law.
Bradley Whitford
Actor.
I think the most important single thing would be to have publicly financed elections—it would affect everything.
I also think celebrities should be able to park in handicapped spaces.
