Start of the coming decade is make-or-break time for democracy reform

Next year will be a make-or-break year for American democracy. If pro-democracy Americans take the House, Senate and White House, the United States could be primed to pass momentous reforms — with scope and impact that could rival the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s. Reform in 2021 could undo much of the damage done over the last decade.

And what a decade it's been. The nation has witnessed rampant gerrymandering, the erosion of federal voting rights protections, deep dysfunction in Congress, ever-present corporate power...