About

WARNING: The stomach-turning truth about how– starting in 2010– Republicans have killed our majority-rule democracy so that Democrats will never govern again, unless….

You are about to have your eyes opened to what is really happening in our country.

 
It’s the hard-truth, and not even the Democratic party leadership wants to share it with you.
 
So, it’s up to us to explain:

1. Why Republicans stay in power even though they have terrible policies.
2. How the Democrats keep repeating the same mistakes that led to their losses throughout the 2010 decade.
3. The ONLY path to change all of this so that the party with a majority of support across America– the Democrats– can finally begin to govern again in 2021. 

 
Hi, I’m Haven Scott McVarish, the Executive Director of the nonprofit Common Sense Democracy. In my 25 year career, I have been blessed to have been a community organizer, union executive director, author of a book on the international progressive movement, campaign manager for (mostly) winning candidates and an award-winning immigration attorney. I was also, briefly, a former Democratic party delegate and Democratic party chapter president. I’m married to a wonderful disability and workers-rights attorney and have three daughters.
 
It’s been a great life so far. And I owe all of it to ONE THING.
 
That ONE THING is the fact that I was born in a democracy.
 
In the 10,000 years of civilization on this planet, can you guess what percentage of humanity has had the fortunate to be born in a democracy? Sadly, it’s only 1%. That is an incredible statistic that we need to pause to dwell upon for a moment. 99% of our fellow humans were not born in a democratic society. The hard truth is that our country’s “democracy” should not be assumed to be permanent, or even safe, because it is a rare thing indeed.
 
You see, democracy is not about having elections– the U.S.A. will always have those. Democracy is, in part, about having the majority of the people decide who will govern them. Russia, Iran and Cuba have elections. But are they a democracy? No. Instead, a small group in those countries decides who will win– and who can even run.  The people in those countries may feel like they live in a democracy because there are elections, but their elections are neither free nor fair.  And so the opinions of the majority do not determine who will govern the people.
 
And that’s what has happened in our country. We have lost free and fair elections, and we no longer have a majority-rules government. In fact, our election system has been so damaged now that Democrats will NEVER govern again…. Unless, we do something very specific about it. (More on that later.)
 
This is why I have left my successful law firm that I built and am devoting myself full-time– with no pay– to launch this group before our next national election.
 
So what happened and what can we do about it?
 
It is vital that you understand how the GOP (the Grand Old Party aka Republicans) have ended majority-rules Democracy. In a nutshell, the Republicans have used four weapons:

(that last one is solely courtesy of Trump).

Those four weapons against Democracy ensures the Republicans that they will forever dominate state legislatures, forever dominate Congress and even win the presidency more than they should. (More on this at commonsensedem.org/plan)

Since the 2016 Trump disaster, we have been blessed that many excellent groups have formed to #resist.  

And while we share progressive positions with other groups on the issues for which they advocate, Common Sense Democracy differs in one fundamental belief: we believe that none of our progressive policies will EVER be enacted unless we undo the Republican’s near-mortal damage to the free and fair election system.

That’s right, the only issue that matters right now is whether the 2008 election was the last free and fair election our country will ever experience. Immigration reform, climate change, Medicare for all… none of these will ever pass as long as Republicans can keep the Democrats from gaining power. Smart, progressive policies– no matter how popular– will always be ignored or vetoed by the governing Republican party.

Yes, we will still have these engrossing spectacles called elections, and we will all work hard and it will feel like we must be able to win this time… right? But then on election night, we will lose again and not understand why. We will again see that the Democrats cannot gain control over the the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House — all at the same time– so they can actually GOVERN.

The Republicans have protected themselves from the popular will.

That is why they can kill Obamacare and try to replace it with something that only 14% of the country wants- -without fear of electoral repercussions. They can kill DACA knowing that it simply doesn’t matter to them politically. They can give tax breaks to the rich and to corporations, and they still remain untouchable.

So, why did this happen now– 240 years into our experiment with democracy?

After Obama’s amazing victory in 2008 Republicans understood that his coalition– and our country’s changing demographics– would make them the permanent minority party in our government. So they launched an ambitious– and terrible– campaign to regain power and to keep it– no matter the popular will.

They have been using their four weapons to defeat democracy from 2010-2016. These four weapons have been successful beyond the belief of the original architects of their programs (REDMAP, CROSSCHECK and Citizens United). In 2010 the Democrats controlled the White House, a super-majority in the Senate (60-40), a huge majority in the House and twice as many states were governed by Democrats as Republicans. Six years later, the Republicans now control the White House, Senate, the House and four times as many states as the Democrats. Yet during almost all of that time, the American public favored Democrats over Republicans in polling. Even Fox news had Democrats winning the generic congressional vote in June 2010 by 3% and exactly 6 years later by 5%– yet both in elections as well as in the 2012 & 2014 elections– Republicans ended up winning majorities at every level of government.

Now what?

The worse thing is, the Democratic party leadership is doing nothing to blow the whistle on this.

The Democrats have failed us. They failed us when we gave them complete power in 2008 and then they squandered six of Obama’s eight years by letting the Republicans have a veto over everything Obama wanted from 2010-2016. And anyone who doesn’t think they failed us in 2016 must be a Republican… or a Russian,

But before we go further into a well of despair, let me tell you we CAN turn this around.

It won’t be easy. It won’t be immediate. But there is a clear path ahead of us and one that will be a lot more effective than signing petitions, tweeting, protesting everything Trump does, complaining or despairing.

Listen to our podcast, read about our Plan on this website, participate in our Thursday night online Town Hall meetings, and then become a paid member that we train and mobilize to effectively restore our democracy.

We cannot allow ourselves to be the last generation to have known

free and fair elections in the United States.

Join the #resistance.

Join Common Sense Democracy.