Channel Title: The People vs The Politicians Channel Description: This is a journalists’ site reporting on the most important overlooked story of American politics - the story of citizen movements winning back our democracy with political reforms, state by state. It’s no secret that Americans are fed up with Washington. Public mistrust of politicians is rampant. Finally, voters at the grass roots have decided It's Up to Us - We the People. - to fix our broken democracy. That's our story - grass roots heroes battling Power Brokers, stopping politicians from rigging elections, exposing dark money,, empowering small donors, defending voters' rights, making our democracy fairer and more inclusive.To learn more - much more - visit our website, reclaimtheamericandream.org. For events and outreach, contact hedrick@reclaimtheamericandream.org OUR TEAM: Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning former NYTimes Washington Bureau Chief Cliff Hackel, Emmy-winning video editor. Digital content- Keith Light, EmilY Crawford, Ashley Luke <video> What's the Outlook for American Democracy? Description: The fate of our Democracy is on the ballot this fall. Get the inside story on how a coalition of Democrats, independents and Liz Cheney Republicans can combine forces to stop the Trump faction from winning big offices in swing states and gaining control of future elections. The media treats the 2022 campaign like the rerun of a traditional mid-term election where the in-party takes a shellacking and loses control of Congress. But smart voters know the stakes are much higher than that this year. That's because Trump extremists have their own special agenda. Trump slates, exploiting the facade of the Republican Party, are pursuing their own stealth strategy to capture power in key states so they can lock in Trump's victory in 2024. But Republican defections from Trump in 2020 and again in an Alaska election last month show how Liz Cheney Republicans - in tandem with most independents and Democrats - can stymy the Trump gambit .Get the story from this savvy analysis from a veteran NYTimes reporter.. </video> <video> Voters Lose Big-Time in Gerrymander Wars Description: Like civilian casualties in Ukraine, we voters are the collateral damage - the big losers from gerrymander wars. The media focuses on which party gains or loses in each state, but, that misses the big story - both parties are robbing voters of power and choice by eliminating competitive districts. Republicans are ramping up their monopoly districts in states like Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and New Hampshire. Democrats are counter-attacking in New York, Illinois, New Mexico and Oregon. In fact, partisan gerrymandering has gotten so wild and rampant since the 2020 census that the next Congress will be even more sharply polarized than the current Congress. Why? Because gerrymandering takes away the moderating franchise of independents and minority party voters and makes party primaries the decisive race. Party diehards and extremists dominate primaries and they elect extremism to Congress. </video> <video> Protecting Our Democracy - Step One Description: Maybe you missed a hugely important story at the end of 2021 because the media downplayed it. But Congress took a big step toward legally blocking future abuses of presidential power, typified by the Trump White House. For four years-plus, Donald Trump flouted the norms of our Republic. He invited the Kremlin to interfere in our 2016 election, enriched himself by doing businesses with foreign governments, fired US government watchdogs without cause, pardoned his jailed political cronies, even toyed with pardoning himself, grabbed funds for his border wall against the will of Congress, and then defied Congressional oversight. Now, the House of Representatives with five Republicans defying Trump and joining 220 Democrats, to pass The Protecting Our Democracy Act - robust reforms that require a presidential candidate to reveal his tax returns, report any contact with foreign powers to the FBI, bar a president from engaging in commercial transactions with foreign countries, pardoning himself and other abuses of power.. With the bill now before the U.S. Senate, what will Republicans do? Including the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump a year ago? That depends in part on whether you, the voters, tell your senators - we want you to pass this bill and restore the guardrails of our democracy. </video> <video> Republicans Challenge Who Gets to Vote in 2022 Description: The 2020 election was a blinding success - 101 million Americans found it easier to vote by mail (65 million) or to vote early in person (36 Million), almost twice as many as voted on Election Day. Turnout broke records and participation was the highest since 1900. Now Republican lawmakers want to roll bck the tide of history by canceling the reforms that fueled the record vote of 2020. In 18 states, Republican-run legislatures have enacted strict laws that would make absentee mail voting harder, stiffen voter photo ID rules, reduce the number of drop-off boxes for mail voters and cut down early voting days. Rep[ublican dominated legislatures in states like Arizona, Florida Georgia, and Texas have been the hotbeds of what Biden Democrats call "Jim Crow on steroids" and nonpartisan election experts and newspaper editorials are calling a new wave of vote suppression. In states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Democratic governors stand ready to block restrictive GOP measures. And in 20 states, including half a dozen red states, legislatures have been passing laws to make voter registration easier and voting more accessible. The partisan divergence could not be sharper. </video> <video> Trumpers Hit a Wall in Swing States Description: With Congress now politically split, the major takeaway from the 2022 mid-term election is that Trumpism hit a stone wall. Voters in swing states from New Hampshire, Georgia and Pennsylvania to Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and probably Alaska vetoed Trump's right-wing election deniers making a major bid to win high state offices. The string of stunning setbacks for Trump's handpicked candidates not only threw the Trump camp back on its heels but also foiled Trump's naked attempt to stack the deck for his own political comeback in 2024 by putting his own minions in charge of elections.. From exit polls, it's clear that a majority of voters heeded the 11th-hour warnings from President Biden and former President Barack Obama that Trumpism poses a threat to American democracy. After casting their ballots, nearly 44 percent of 94,000 typical voters declared that their No 1 issue was worry over the fate of democracy, and ten percent said they made their vote decision in the final ten days. Election returns also showed that Republican defections played a significant role in the defeat of Trump candidates. As Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell put it, moderate and independent voters were scared off by the negativism, chaos, and extremist attacks from the trump candidates.. </video> <video> Code Red for American Democracy Description: Heading toward elections in 2022, it's Code Red for American democracy with Republican strategists in key states moving to take partisan control of the vote count, threatening what has historically been an impartial nonpartisan process. The media highlights the clash between Trump's unproven charges of a stolen election in 2020 and Democratic protests that Republican legislatures in 17 states are suppressing the next vote with new restrictions on mail voting, early voting, and voter registration. But the greatest threat to our democracy and the popular vote comes from a stealth maneuver by GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin to inject partisan politics into certifying the vote, overriding established procedures and crippling or firing independent-minded election officials. Hopes seem slim for bipartisan action by Congress to prevent another ugly showdown over the Electoral vote in 2024. But privately some Republican senators agree with Democrats that Congress must act to avoid a repeat of last January 6th that took American democracy to the brink of a breakdown. , </video> <video> Tax Games Corporations Play Description: As you watch the debate on corporate taxes, keep your eye on economic reality. Every year US multinationals duck about $100 billion in taxes by shifting jobs and operations overseas, and that raises the tax bill for the rest of us here at home. Business leaders complain that their tax burden is too heavy, but business taxes have been coming down for six decades. Back in the 1950s, corporations used to pay 32% of total US tax revenues. Today it's down to 7% Almost no major American corporation pays the official tax rate of 21%. The average real tax rate for Fortune 500 companies is 11.3% - just half the official rate, according to one study. Last year, 55 large U.S. corporations like Nike FedEx, Duke Energy, Nucor, and four dozen others paid ZERO TAXES on $45 billion in reported profits. Joe Biden wants to blow the whistle and force U.S. multinationals to pay their fair share of taxes by imposing a 15% corporate minimum tax, regardless of where American companies make their profits, at home or overseas. No more zero taxes, says Biden: "It's fair. It's honest. and it gives us what we need" to build a better future for working Americans. </video> <video> The Leak that Laid Bare the Deceit of War Description: It's the megaton news blockbuster that exposed the Pentagon and laid bare the deceit of war. It was the titan of all leaks, the historic breakthrough when the American press showed it would not be silenced by the White House or the national security state. Exactly 50 years ago, The New York Times broke the story of "The Pentagon Papers.". Nixon tried to stop it. The Supreme Court said No, No Censorship. It was the biggest expose ever, 7,000 pages, every page labeled TOP SECRET, It was the official secret history of Vietnam War, written by Pentagon insiders, and leaked by one of its authors, a conscience-stricken former Marine Lieutenant named Dan Ellsberg who had lost faith in the war. The Pentagon Papers broke the dam. Its publication set precedent and fired up the media for Watergate and the greatest investigative stories of our era - black prisons, domestic wiretapping, Russian hacking in U.S. elections, the 25 richest American billionaires paying almost zero taxes. Fascinating story, get more on Zenger News here: https://bit.ly/2SfIsVK </video> <video> 2022: The GOP Gerrymander Dividend Description: Also, first glance, the 2020 census spells good news for Republicans in the 2022 elections and bad news for Democrats. But a closer look improves the odds for Democrats. Population shifts mean the loss of House seats for big Blue states like California, Illinois and New York, and gains for Red states like Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Montana. But look again. Red states are also losing seats - Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. So census reapportionment of House seats may turn out to be a wash politically. Republicans do have one big advantage - power trifectas controlling 23 states to just 15 for Democrats, preparing to redraw congressional district maps. But the GOP is not as dominant as a decade ago. Democratic governors are in position to block Republican lawmakers from extreme stacking of election districts in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Also, in half a dozen states, citizen movements have won reforms establishing independent citizen redistricting commissions or bipartisan mechanisms that prohibit politicians from either major party from rigging election maps to keep themselves in power. </video> <video> Haunting Visual Honors Our Covid Dead Description: The ravaging of America by Covid-19 is so immense that we have trouble fathoming the depth of our national trauma. Many have become numb to the ever-rising death toll. To make the enormity of our loss more tangible and to help us grasp the ghostly emptiness inflicted on millions of Americans, an ingenious artist has created an endless field of white flags on the National Mall, one for each of our roughly 700-thousand fatalities - a tapestry of death, whipping in the wind, beneath the Washington monument. This art speaks powerfully. The yawning expanse of Suzanne Firstenberg’s field of flags is stunning, awesome and painful to behold. Her vale of death stretches toward the horizon in all directions. The poignant, hand-written notes on many flags are a piercing reminder of personal tragedies, the harrowing holes left in the hearts of millions of Americans. And there is an awful lesson: It didn't have to be this way. Our loss could have been mitigated if the U.S. had moved as instantly, wisely and forcefully against Covid as other nations, like New Zealand. which had only 27 Covid deaths. Had we used their strategy with equal effect, our death toll would have been just 1,809 - a tiny fraction of our real loss, and fewer deaths than we currently suffer every day. </video> <video> Voters Slammed by Gerrymander Wars Description: We voters are the big losers from gerrymander wars. The media focuses on which party gains or loses in each state, but, that misses the big story - both parties are robbing voters of power and choice by eliminating competitive districts. Republicans are ramping up their monopoly districts in states like Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and New Hampshire. Democrats are counter-attacking in New York, Illinois, New Mexico and Oregon. In fact, partisan gerrymandering has gotten so wild and rampant since the 2020 census that the next Congress will be even more sharply polarized than the current Congress. Why? Because gerrymandering takes away the moderating franchise of independents and minority party voters and makes party primaries the decisive race. Party diehards and extremists dominate primaries and they elect extremism to Congress. </video> <video> The Perils of the "Change" Election of 2024 Description: With Joe Biden out,, 2024 has become a CHANGE ELECTION, with clashing ideas of change. Running as a Happy Warrior,, Kamala Harris proclaims a "New Way Forward, She offers modest policy changes like financial subsidies for housing and a care economy. But her main message is a new mood and mindset, working together as neighbors not enemies,. Her political trademark is a smile. Donald Trump sells the opposite brand of change. Wearing a scowl and moaning about nightmare in America, Trump vows vengeance and retribution. He wants to use military force to deport 12 million undocumented immigrants, escalate the trade war with China, turn the Justice Department against his political enemies. Trump's allies have drafted Project 2025, a plan to politicize the federal government and give Trump czar-like powers.. Question is which version wins the political middle in swing states like Pennsylvania and Arizona? Will a heavy mail vote and early voting this year repeat the 2022 mid-term elections, when Trump and MAGA were stopped cold by a "constitutional coalition" of Democrats, most independents, and a small but vital band of Liz Cheney Republicans who value the Constitution over loyalty to Trump? </video> <video> Navalny Protests - The Dissident vs the Dictator Description: People say history never repeats itself but it does echo familiar refrains. Take Aleksei Navalny's bold challenge to Russia's new czar, Vladimir Putin. It's a modern version of an epic saga that rings through Russian history under both Czars and Communists. It's the riveting drama of a single brave voice rebelling against repression, a solo high-wire reformer defying the massed might of a police state and hurling protests against strong-man rule to win greater justice and equity for his country. From the 1820s to the 1930s poets like Aleksandr Pushkin and Osip Mandelshtam wrote paeans to liberty or mocked Russia's dictator and paid for their courage with exile to Siberia. The great novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sent before a firing quad for anti-government activity and spared at the very last minute by the czar. As a correspondent in Moscow in the 1970s, I knew brave free-thinkers who were excommunicated by the Communist bosses to shut them up Navalny' new wrinkle is the internet. Unlike earlier Russian dissenters, Navalny bring tens of thousands of protesters into the streets all across Russia with Youtube posts charging Putin with corruption and with building himself a castle. He can arouse popular fury by going viral with the taunt that Putin will be forever known as "the poisoner of the underpants" because that's where Navalny says Putin's agents put poison to try to kill him. Even from prison, Navalny confronts the Kremlin. </video> <video> Biden Game: Spur Innovation, Create Jobs, Outsmart China Description: Innovation has long been the key to America's phenomenal success. Now, Joe Biden is betting that a new surge of U.S.innovation. spurred by government, will generate millions of 21st Century jobs and vault the U.S. ahead of China and other global rivals. It may surprise you that a government scientist at the National Institutes of Health made the crucial scientific discovery and created the lab recipe that enabled Pfizer and Moderna to manufacture corona vaccines in record speed. Another surprise: it wasn't Apple, Google or private enterprise, it was Uncle Sam and government agencies that spawned the mega tech discoveries that launched us into the Internet era, the GPS navigational system, and the touchscreen and talking voice on our smart phones. "The Entrepreneurial State" is what economist Marianna Mazzucato calls this trend of the U.S. government spurring inventions. And it's key to President Biden's new infrastructure package - using government investment to power a new generation of innovations in energy, communications and climate science to drive U.S. economic growth and global competitiveness. </video> <video> Want Media You Can Trust? Catch These Two Guys. Description: How do you find media you can trust? Find a reporter with the grit, guts and tenacity to stand up to Wall Street, the Pentagon, Jim Crow and POWER-Inc. and who dares to tell the inside stories that the power brokers and Corporate CEOs don’t want you to know.t. David Hoffman, a California filmmaker and a great storyteller, asked me about my life as an investigative reporter, exposing “The Wall Street Fix,” going ”Inside the Terror Network” for PBS FRONTLINE; covering Martin Luther King Jr and civil rights, the Vietnam war, and the Pentagon Papers for The New York Times; and reporting on economic inequality and rigged elections as an independent reporter. Hoffman turned out chat into a video (link: https://bit.ly/3hlvdwW) describing some good news grassroots heroes winning political reforms to make our elections freer, fairer and more inclusive. It worked great in 2020. Turnout hit an all-time high! Now comes the threat from Trump’s Big Lie, the violent attack on Congress on Jan 6 and from Republican pols in Georgia, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere to restrict the vote and gerrymander the 2022 election. That's a call to action for the rest of us to get engaged to defend our democracy - Fight the Lie, Stop the Rigging, Protect the Vote.. </video>

Contacts and Links

Description

This is a journalists’ site reporting on the most important overlooked story of American politics - the story of citizen movements winning back our democracy with political reforms, state by state. It’s no secret that Americans are fed up with Washington. Public mistrust of politicians is rampant. Finally, voters at the grass roots have decided It's Up to Us - We the People. - to fix our broken democracy.

That's our story - grass roots heroes battling Power Brokers, stopping politicians from rigging elections, exposing dark money,, empowering small donors, defending voters' rights, making our democracy fairer and more inclusive.To learn more - much more - visit our website, reclaimtheamericandream.org. For events and outreach, contact hedrick@reclaimtheamericandream.org

OUR TEAM:
Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning former NYTimes Washington Bureau Chief
Cliff Hackel, Emmy-winning video editor.
Digital content- Keith Light, EmilY Crawford, Ashley Luke

Videos from channel