Why I’m Getting Back into the Fight for Reform

By Matt Keller; Vice President, Democracy 21

Next week the House of Representatives will consider H.R. 1, the most sweeping anti-corruption measure since the Watergate reforms of the mid-1970s. This represents a once-in-a-generation chance of changing the way Washington works for the better.

Twenty years ago, as legislative director of Common Cause, I was at the center of a fight for comprehensive campaign finance reform that resulted in the passage of the McCain-Feingold bill. I remember thinking that I was part of a change that happens only once in a generation. Being able to work closely with Sen. John McCain — for whom reform was a matter of honor — was one of the highlights of my life.

Content with the knowledge that we had helped break the stranglehold of big money in politics, I left Washington in the early 2000s to join the legal team at the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome, Italy.

From the UN — enamored with the idea that technology could give all children access to education — I joined One Laptop per Child, an innovative non-profit start-up out of the MIT Media Lab, founded by the futurist Nicholas Negroponte. This work caught the attention of the XPRIZE Foundation, resulting in the Global Learning XPRIZE — a $15 million education technology competition sponsored by Elon Musk — which I led for six years.

During my time working in developing countries, I was increasingly struck not only by corruption abroad but also by corruption at home. Corruption abroad often comes in the form of power-hungry despots pocketing millions at the expense of the citizenry. At home, however, it’s a more insidious kind of corruption that, while perfectly legal, vastly distorts the decision-making process, debases national debate, and denigrates democracy itself.

Last month, Oxfam released a study finding that the combined wealth of the world’s 26 wealthiest people is equal to the total wealth of the bottom 3.8 billion of the world’s population. While growing economic inequality has all sorts of negative ramifications, here at home, we are living in a new gilded age whereby the wealthiest individuals and corporations have a stunningly disproportionate amount of influence over both policy and policymaker.

Beginning with Citizens United, the disastrous 2010 Supreme Court decision which overturned key elements of McCain-Feingold, we saw a rise of dark money, and exponential increases in the amounts being donated by the wealthiest of donors.

It’s also no surprise that inequality, which was already profound, has grown rapidly, and that the failure to address even the most obvious of policy matters has rendered us virtually impotent in the fight against climate change and a multitude of other pressing concerns.

This is why last month I decided to jump back into the fight and join the staff of Democracy 21, the advocacy group led by my long-time colleague, legendary reformer Fred Wertheimer.

We are at a time in our country where people understand that unless we act, we will see many of the same problems faced by citizens of those countries where corruption is rampant. We are at a crossroads, and the movement for reform is real. The last two years have shown us that the incredible energy of young people and newcomers engaged in politics is changing the makeup of our elected bodies in ways that hold great promise for reform. At the state and local levels, victories regarding gerrymandering and campaign finance reform point to the potential for something bigger to come.

It seems that every 20 years or so, a new set of reforms is needed. I recall sitting with Senator McCain in the office of an editorial board in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2001. We were there for a town hall event aimed at generating support for the comprehensive McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. In this meeting, the editor of the paper asked McCain, “Why bother? We know that 20 years from now we’ll just be back at it.”

McCain responded that every generation must take its turn at reform. That every generation must commit itself to safeguard the republic that previous generations had built, and that the nature of reform demands constant vigilance and periodic overhaul. That, he said, is how the country endures.

I’ll never forget that. And while I will miss my work on learning and technology and my travels around the world, I know that the time for increased and active vigilance is here again, and that the time for comprehensive reform is now. I’m happy to be back in the fight.