Virginia Kase Solomon — president of Common Cause, one of the country's oldest and most respected pro-democracy organizations — joins the Chuck Toddcast to deliver a clear-eyed assessment of just how broken American self-government has become, and what it might actually take to fix it. Kase Solomon argues that Trump's corruption has gone so far beyond anything in modern history that it makes Watergate look quaint by comparison — she points to Trump stealing roughly $1.8 billion from American taxpayers as a single staggering example — but warns that the most dangerous development isn't the corruption itself, it's that young voters are growing up normalized to it, with no living memory of an administration where this kind of behavior carried consequences. She makes a striking comparison to Hungary, where it took genuinely staggering levels of corruption before Orbán could be toppled, and where the opposition only succeeded once it tied that corruption directly to degrading quality of life for ordinary people — a lesson she says American Democrats badly need to learn. They note that there are real bipartisan calls to address money in politics, that a congressional stock trading ban enjoys overwhelming public support, that Amy Klobuchar's Disclose Act keeps getting reintroduced and ignored, and that forced disclosure of large-dollar donors alone would significantly reduce political giving — but the country is on a runaway train, with big tech money flowing to whoever holds power and Trump openly running the country like a corporation.

The conversation broadens into Kase Solomon's structural diagnosis of why American democracy isn't working. She argues that the way the founders designed the country no longer functions in the modern era — but that the founders also gave us the tools to fix what's broken if we choose to use them. Congress is too small to genuinely represent the public, the Senate is horribly malapportioned, the Supreme Court has offered no real solution to the gerrymandering crisis, and we've completely lost the "statesmen" in Congress who once voted their conscience because there's no longer any incentive to compromise or work across the aisle. She is deeply concerned about the regulatory vacuum around AI — deepfakes have terrifying implications for elections and civil litigation is currently the only meaningful path to push back — and she warns that the election of judges has corrupted the rule of law in ways America needs a movement to address. Despite all of this, she  is genuinely hopeful: Common Cause is litigating against the corruption, organizing a million conversations between activists and ordinary Americans, and operating from the conviction that the public isn't stupid and still loves this country. Her closing argument is the most American one possible: the United States has always emerged from its darkest periods better than it went in — but only because people refused to accept the broken system as permanent, and that work has to start now.

 

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Virginia Kase Solomon (Common Cause) joins the Chuck ToddCast

01:30 Common Cause works to hold the government accountable to the people

02:30 Corporate lobbies have disproportionate power compared to people

03:15 Many people threw their hands up after Citizen’s United

04:30 States are working to change campaign finance rules

06:15 States can ban companies in their state from making political donations

08:00 Rules changes but money always seems to find a way around them

10:00 Parties stopped becoming the epicenter of political donations

11:30 There are bipartisan calls to do something about money in politics

13:00 More GOP support for reform at the state level than national level

13:45 We’re on a runaway train for money in politics

14:30 Big tech money goes to whoever is in power

15:00 The country is being run like a corporation

15:45 Jamie Raskin has started an anti-corruption task force

16:15 A congressional stock trading ban has massive public support

17:15 Trump is obviously corrupt, but people fear him too much to act

18:30 Forced disclosure of large dollar donors would reduce donations

19:30 Amy Klobuchar has put forward the Disclose Act in almost every congress

22:00 The Trump administration’s corruption is beyond egregious

22:45 Trump stealing $1.8 billion from taxpayers, makes Watergate look quaint

24:15 Young voters have grown up being normalized to this corruption

24:45 There will be a backlash to the corruption at some point

25:45 America’s long term global standing has been severely damaged

26:30 Common Cause is involved in litigation trying to prevent the corruption

28:30 Striving to have a million conversations between organizers & normal people

29:45 People are struggling and feeling fatigued

31:30 It took staggering levels of corruption in Hungary before Orban was toppled

32:30 Opposition in Hungary tied corruption to degrading quality of life

34:30 A fairness criteria was implemented in the California redistricting

35:30 CA and VA put redistricting before the voters, but still a race to the bottom

36:00 The Supreme Court hasn’t offered any solution to gerrymandering problem

37:00 Congress is too small to effectively represent the public

37:45 The senate is horribly malapportioned

39:30 The way the founders designed the country doesn’t work anymore

40:00 The founders gave us the tools to fix the democracy

42:15 There’s no incentive to work in a bipartisan manner or compromise

43:45 We’ve lost the “statesmen” in congress who vote their conscience

44:30 Politics has become a zero sum game

45:45 Politics has always been dirty, but we’ve hit an all-time low

47:00 Government seems completely unequipped to regulate AI

49:45 Deepfakes impact on elections are very concerning

51:00 Civil litigation is the only current path to push back on AI

52:30 Status of “sunshine laws” in the country? Could they be rolled back?

54:45 Need a movement against the election of the judiciary

57:45 The reason for optimism… is that people aren’t stupid and love the country

58:30 Our country has always emerged better after dark times

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