Last week, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House Problem Solvers Caucus met and released a framework to keep the government from shutting down at the end of this week.
Their work reveals leaders rising to the occasion to make our democracy work. But across town, there was a very different kind of meeting that illustrates why our democracy is so broken.
According to an article in Politico, a “donors club,” called Democracy Alliance, met “privately” in a “closed-door event” on Zoom with a “few dozen people,” most of them political operatives supporting an “aggressive effort to undercut” No Labels, an organization established in 2009 to deliver bipartisan solutions to our country’s problems. Since last year, No Labels has been diligently working to get on voting ballots in 2024 and create an opening for an independent Unity presidential ticket featuring candidates from both political parties.
No Labels is working to provide a voice for the majority of Americans who don’t want to see a rematch of the 2020 presidential election. In August, I joined No Labels as director of ballot integrity because I believe in the fundamental constitutional right of ballot access, and I saw operatives in my own Democratic party standing in the way.
As a proud lifelong Democrat, I see No Labels trying to do the exact same thing I did as governor of Missouri, when I worked with a Republican legislature, hosting a potluckinauguration at which folks from across the aisle broke bread together and passed critical legislation on which we found common ground, from student mental health care to public safety. No Labels is working to give voice to the commonsense majority.
