Elizabeth Drew: "Can We Have a Democratic Election?"

A still from King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came to Town, a video released by Winning Our Future, the Super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich for president, which attacks Romney for firing people from their jobs while he was head of the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Elizabeth Drew:

Beneath the turbulent political spectacle that has captured so much of the nation’s attention lies a more important question than who will get the Republican nomination, or even who will win in November: Will we have a democratic election this year? Will the presidential election reflect the will of the people? Will it be seen as doing so—and if not, what happens? The combination of broadscale, coordinated efforts underway to manipulate the election and the previously banned unlimited amounts of unaccountable money from private or corporate interests involved in those efforts threatens the democratic process for picking a president. The assumptions underlying that process—that there is a right to vote, that the system for nominating and electing a president is essentially fair—are at serious risk. MORE...