Our current system of campaign finance reform suppresses the political power of people of color and that lack of political power has had proven, lasting consequences.
The marquee bill, which features improvements to voting, campaign finance, and ethics laws, addresses the deep political, racial, and economic inequalities that plague our democracy.
A system of Fair Elections for New York State will not only allow for candidates from diverse communities to compete, but it will help build lasting political power for communities of color.
On Friday, February 15, Lew Daly, Senior Policy Analyst at Demos, testified in support of New York State’s Climate and Community Protection Act. Following is Daly’s statement on the bill:
New York State’s Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) is a bold and necessary climate action policy for the people of New York. It will establish the strongest mandate for economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the country, requiring a 50 percent reduction by 2030 and set a timeline for achieving a 100 percent renewable energy economy by 2050.
The New York State Senate and Assembly heard arguments for public financing of elections, the best policy tool we have to push back against the presence of big money in politics and to push forward on the march toward racial equity.
Climate change poses an existential challenge to the planet. But the effects of climate change have fallen disproportionately on communities of color and working families. And the reality is that climate change has been accelerated by a coalition of corporations, donors, and policymakers who have adopted a willful blindness toward these dangers to our communities and our planet.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a package of rules that include a “pay-as-you-go” or “PAYGO” provision, which mandates that new spending be offset by matching cuts or increases in revenue. Demos supports efforts to eliminate PAYGO requirements in federal law.
The Green New Deal is a vision for comprehensive national policy that addresses climate change at the scale and scope we need, creates living-wage jobs, and addresses racial and economic inequity by investing in communities.
December 10, 2018 is the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, in the aftermath of the fall of the Nazi regime, the United States joined many countries in the world and signed the Declaration. Several of the rights listed in the document were already within the U.S. Constitution, but some were not. We have done particularly poorly in living up to the Declaration’s call for a right to an adequate standard of living, including food, housing, and medical care.
Demos strongly urges the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw the proposed rule to radically enlarge the list of criteria that will be used to decide whether an immigrant is likely to become a “public charge.”
Facebook’s decision to hire a right-wing consulting firm to plant false stories about Color of Change and others who dared to call out Facebook was a nefarious smokescreen to save themselves from well-deserved criticism about the online platform and its business practices.
November 1st is Latina Equal Pay Day, marking the date when the typical Latina woman’s wages since January 1, 2017 finally catch up to what the typical white man was paid in calendar year 2017.
In disasters, vulnerable communities face an environmental apartheid, absorbing the disproportionate burden of the impact. In recovery, they face discrimination.
For decades, black unemployment has remained roughly twice the rate of unemployment for white workers, regardless of a job seeker’s level of education. Social exclusion shows us why.