The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World Essentials)

by Heather McGhee

And this opens the door to a complete undermining of American democracy. As one of the architects of today’s right-wing infrastructure, Paul Weyrich, said in a 1980 speech, “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people; they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace

Nearly half the state’s citizens over age twenty-five had no more than an elementary school education in 1960.

had less sway over legislators’ agendas. Reform lifted the wealth requirement from running for office, too. “Public financing definitely made the legislature more diverse.