A funny thing happened to people living in Venice, Marina del
Rey, Mar Vista and parts of West Los Angeles in 2000. Congressional
districts were redrawn, and suddenly, we had incumbent
Congresswoman Jane Harman.
Her district originally included the Palos Verdes Peninsula and
South Bay, and now the northern part of her district includes
Venice and the surrounding area west of the 405 Freeway to the
Pacific Ocean.
The problem was that the “Democrats” of Palos Verdes
in no way resemble those of Venice and West Los Angeles. What to
do? We thought, “Maybe we should be patient and see if the
congresswoman will be inclusive; maybe she’ll set up dialogue
by way of town-hall meetings, and an open-door policy at her local
offices.” The first couple of terms through 2004 did not see
this happen.
Since February, community members upwards of 50 people in all,
have tried to set up an appointment with her. We have been
especially concerned about the war in Iraq because she does not
support an exit strategy. We also wanted to talk to her about her
being one of the few Democrats who voted for the Bankruptcy Bill.
On four different occasions, meetings were scheduled only to be
canceled with only 24-hour notice.
Since we do not feel fairly represented, why not look into an
alternative? As it turns out, our “representative”
democracy has become akin to what happened in the Soviet Union. The
party machine puts all its money and weight into re-electing the
same person over and over again. Any new contenders simply have no
resources available to run against an incumbent. What our founding
fathers fought against, “no taxation without
representation,” has reared its ugly head.
We have one possible solution: The Clean Money Campaign. This
system is already fully instituted in Maine and Arizona, and at
various levels in a number of states. It sets up public financing
so that those running against a “clean-money” candidate
will have their private money matched by public money, thus
eliminating the disparity between incumbent and new contender.
Isn’t it about time we supported this bill? That way, we
could address the dilemma we have here in my congressional
district. If we are to save our democracy, we must act soon, or
there will be no democracy to save.
Laskin is a UCLA alumna.