Democracy's Rebirth

The View from Chicago

Dick Simpson

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9780252053290
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Dick Simpson draws upon his fifty-year career as a legislator, campaign strategist, and government advisor to examine the challenges confronting Americans in their struggle to build the United States as a multiracial, multiethnic democracy. Using Chicago as an example, Simpson examines how the political, racial, economic, and social inequalities dividing the nation play out in our neighborhoods and cities. His investigation of our current crisis and its causes delves into issues like money in politics, low voter participation, the politics of resentment, political corruption, and a host of structural problems. But Democracy's Rebirth goes beyond analysis. Simpson lays out a sober, practical manifesto meant to inspire people everywhere to educate themselves and do the hard work of creating the kind of strong institutions that will allow true democracy to flourish.

With a foreword by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot.

1 Challenges to Democracy

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, we face major challenges to our democracy. We are struggling to build a modern, multiracial, multiethnic democracy based on political and social equality. This is something never before accomplished. As part of this process, we are finding it especially difficult to create an economy that empowers everyone and distributes economic rewards fairly without extreme gaps between rich and poor.¹ The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession that followed have only made the income and wealth gap greater.

In the pages to follow, I outline some specific challenges to our democracy. With so much attention on the chaos presented by President Donald Trump and the tumultuous 2020 election, it is important to stress that these broader challenges predate his election and administration. And they have continued after his administration ended. Donald Trump was a symbol and example of our problems, but they transcend him and his administration.

As the photo opening this chapter illustrates, other challenges such as institutional racism highlighted in Black Lives Matter protests, counterprotests by right-wing groups, the pandemic, January 6, 2021, insurrection, and the economic recession are all manifestations of problems we still face.

These challenges exist not only at the national level but in cities like Chicago. Since 84 percent of the world’s population now live in cities, undemocratic regimes, racial discrimination, and economic gaps between rich and poor in our cities and suburbs are not trivial.² So I use Chicago as a case study of how these social, political, and economic challenges play out at the local level. Chicago is in many ways the epitome of American politics and society. It is an extreme case, exposing these challenges more starkly. As such, Chicago allows us to examine our problems in more detail than just general discussions of our national circumstances involving 328 million Americans or global trends involving seven and a half billion people with diverse histories and cultures.

The challenges to democracy that I highlight are local, national, and global. They are both theoretical and very practical. It is not enough to find an acceptable philosophical or theoretical solution to democracy’s challenges and crises; actual solutions must be implemented in the real world in cities like Chicago. Any genuine solutions will require public support and action at the local level. In turn, public support will have to be built by a movement for change created from the bottom up if we are to achieve radical national transformation.

This raises the question of how to weave together disparate local and national, theoretical and practical threads into a unified tapestry. Most chapters in this book begin with a description of the specific challenges, such as racial and income inequality as they play out in Chicago. I then describe the problems at the national level in the United States. This leads to an investigation of the political consequences of these conditions and the crisis they have created. Finally, I discuss how these problems might be overcome along with the fundamental changes required in order for democracy to be reborn.

The challenges facing our democracy are interrelated. It is important to assess honestly how we have fallen short of our nation’s goals in order to undertake the steps necessary to overcome our most egregious flaws.

Thus, I present separate chapters on income and racial inequality, systemic racism, the insidious role of money in politics, the low level of participation by voters, the extreme polarization that has led to a politics of resentment, political corruption that undermines government, and a myriad of structural problems subverting our democracy. I also focus on crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and current economic recession, which make repairing our democracy more difficult but that at the same time provide the momentum needed to mobilize the public to undertake necessary reforms.

In the final chapters, I present the steps necessary to create a more participatory and deliberative democracy. A higher level of civic virtue and pubic spiritedness will be needed to make possible democracy’s rebirth.³ So will sustained public support for radical changes in our lives, our communities, and our country. As in the past, we, the people, will determine whether or not democracy is reborn in our time.

Manifesto

I bring to this book not only fifty years of study, but my unique perspective as a former political candidate, elected official, campaign strategist, and government adviser. I know how the sausage is made because I have been a sausage maker. I have seen government and politics from inside. This firsthand experience allows me to understand the practical aspects of these social and political problems and the challenges in implementing solutions in the real world. These include the difficulty of mobilizing public support and passing the necessary new laws, procedures, and regulations with the officials now in power as well as preserving and reforming institutions that currently exist. Because of these difficulties, we must educate a new generation of citizens and leaders since reinvention of our politics and government will take years of effort. Nonetheless, the process of change must begin with where we are.

The observations and conclusions in this book are not simply my own. A rather remarkable consensus has emerged among scholars—especially, among political scientists—about the problems we face. Unfortunately, there is less consensus about what must be done to confront those problems. My effort here is to combine the findings of many theoretical and empirical studies, merge these with my own practical political experience, and frame them into a single coherent vision of what is to be done at this critical juncture in our history.

So this book is both a theoretical discourse and a practical manifesto. It is, of course, possible that the effort to assist in democracy’s rebirth will fail. Some form of autocracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, imperialism, or totalitarianism may win in the end. But the fight for justice and democracy is well worth making.

If we are to succeed, democracy requires a citizenry willing to participate and hold their government accountable. To sacrifice for the greater good. Democracy can be reborn only if we can rouse democratic citizens to make the sacrifices required. To inspire those efforts, we must offer a clear and achievable vision. Moreover, new institutions of a more deliberative and participatory democracy must be created for a government of, by, and for the people to flourish. This is our task and calling in our time. And it begins with a vision of the type of democracy we want in the twenty-first century. We must act to preserve the good aspects of what we have and correct the flaws that exist in our communities and country.

Our goal is not utopian. Not heaven on earth. We know if a better form of democracy is to be born, real challenges must be overcome in Chicago and across America. We must create both a more participatory and a more deliberative democracy led by strong democratic leaders. For that to occur, our society and economy will have to be reformed and improved because the political system rests on social and economic systems. While the final form of politics is not economically determined, a literate middle class and modern technology are prerequisites of the democracy we aspire to build.

As I stress throughout this book, the most fundamental requirement is that we have a democratic people. Because of that, our educational system will have to retool to educate citizens for democracy.⁴ And the proposed changes in the economy, society, and our educational systems will have to occur not only at the national, but at the local level.

During the Trump presidential era, our national failings exposed societal problems that have been present over a long period of time. The reaction to the excesses of the Trump era, the pandemic, and continuing injustices provide energy for fundamental changes. Hopefully, we now understand that we cannot ignore the challenges to democracy in the hope that they will cure themselves. That approach only destines us for failure and misery. This unique moment in our history is foundational. Transformative changes are possible despite immediate challenges of racial tensions, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. We dare not squander this opportunity. Just as the Great Depression gave birth to the New Deal and World War II gave birth to a time of affluence, our current crises can give birth to a better society and a better democracy.

Reinventing our democracy and overcoming the unique challenges of our time require us to act. But to be successful, a new social movement must arise. We, the people, must shake off our apathy and rise up. However, to act wisely, we must understand the situation we are in and the resources that we possess. To overcome our challenges, we must renew the “spirit of democracy” and forge new institutions and norms. We must understand, act, and act again until our democracy is reestablished on a sounder footing.

U.S. vice president Charles Dawes and his wife vote in Chicago in 1928. (DN-0086817, Chicago Sun Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

2 The Rise and Fall of Democracy

We can envision a world of justice and democracy, even as we fear a possible future of injustice and tyranny. However, in attempting to obtain a better world for ourselves and our descendants, we are faced with the same problems as previous civilizations: the choice between the extremes of oligarchy or chaos, dictatorship or collapse. In our country, we have not fully achieved the representative democracy, equality, and justice promised in our founding creed because of problems in our economy, society, politics, and government. Because of this, the 2016 and 2020 elections have been extremely divisive. We are still beset by fear that justice and democracy will not be achieved in our lifetimes.

Since previous civilizations have fallen, we worry: Is America next? Are we a new Rome? Do we face a bleak future as pictured in dystopias like the Blade Runner movies? Or can a new republic arise as in the Star Wars movies? We live in turbulent and critical times. What we do matters. We will determine America’s future.

Machine Democracy in Chicago

American democracy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially in big cities like Chicago, New York, and St. Louis, did not fulfill the principles of our own founding either. Instead, these cities manifested a more rough-and-ready, party-dominated “machine politics.” This is a very limited form of democracy. Will things be any different in U.S. cities in the twenty-first century? For surely, the rise or fall of the broader American democracy will be determined in the cities where 80 percent of Americans now live.

First, definitions. A political machine, like the one that has dominated Chicago for most of the last 150 years, is a political party characterized by patronage jobs, favoritism, nepotism, precinct workers, and party loyalty. It seeks to control government by winning elections, but it inevitably has, as a byproduct, political corruption. Political machines are strongly hierarchical, usually centered on a political boss who controls the party and local government. Political machines historically have been involved in voter fraud as well. The dominant machine political party tends to control all units of government and suppress reforms.

In Chicago, the Democratic Party machine created a rubber-stamp city council under the thumb of party boss mayors like Richard J. Daley. The party also controlled subservient units of local government, among them Cook County, Chicago school board, and the Chicago Park District. They all gave out patronage jobs, made the laws, and delivered local government services, often as political favors.

Political machines developed mostly in the larger eastern and midwestern industrial cities during the nineteenth century as immigrants were being absorbed and assimilated. The political machine in Chicago grew up with the city after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The first dominant political boss was Michael McDonald, a gambler-saloonkeeper who noticed the common bonds between the criminals and politicians and introduced them to each other. McDonald’s occupation of saloonkeeper was not that unusual for the time. Saloons are closely associated with the history of machine politics in Chicago and in most other industrial U.S. cities. They provided politicians with the means to contact and organize voters, and in return the political machine protected saloons from raids by the police.

More than spawning corruption, the machine served the rapidly growing immigrant and ethnic communities of Chicago. The Chicago political machine acted as a social welfare service for the poor and immigrant populations. A precinct captain controlled blocks and neighborhoods within the fifty wards of Chicago. Immigrants depended on their precinct captain for services, jobs, and advice, particularly when they first moved to the country. On Election Day, precinct captains expected their services and favors to be repaid through votes.

Originally, there were multiple political machines in Chicago entrenched by patronage and corruption. The city council of Grey Wolves (1890–1931) was run by cliques of machine aldermen in a constant struggle with Progressive Era reformers. Then, in 1931, Mayor Anton Cermak created a single, unified Democratic machine, which was continued after his death by Mayor Ed Kelly and party boss Pat Nash. After a brief interlude under Mayor Martin Kennelly, Richard J. Daley came to power and perfected the Democratic Party machine in Chicago.

The political machines of Chicago have been both Republican and Democratic, suburban and inner city. However, the Richard J. Daley machine’s distinctive set of features refined the machine politics that had governed most of the larger cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Patronage jobs at city hall begat patronage precinct captains—the ones who contacted voters and persuaded them to trade their votes for favors and city services. Government contracts from city hall convinced businessmen to make campaign contributions necessary to fund campaign literature, walking-around money, and bribes. These contributions of precinct work, money, and votes won elections for the Daley machine during the twenty-two years of his reign. With Richard J. Daley controlling both city and county governments, he was able to distribute the spoils necessary to keep the machine running. But a little election fraud also helped elect the party candidates so the spoils could keep flowing.

Election fraud and stolen elections are a tradition not only in Chicago but in America more broadly, and not just in local elections. For instance, Republicans claimed that John F. Kennedy’s election over Richard Nixon in 1960 was stolen in Illinois by Richard J. Daley. We also have had the hanging chads in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, the interference by Russia, Chi...