How to Save Democracy: In Production

Scenes from the production of my in-progress documentary

David Daley

A few weeks ago I started production on my documentary film, How to Save Democracy. The first person we interviewed was David Daley, author of the best seller Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count. David talked about the Republican voter suppression project that began in 2008 called REDMAP, which stands for Redistricting Majority Project.

Beau Breslin

The next person interviewed was Beau Breslin, a constitutional scholar, professor of political science at Skidmore College, and author of the book, A Constitution for the Living, about the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, who felt the U.S. Constitution should be rewritten every generation.

David Dayen

Next up after that was David Dayen, the executive editor of the American Prospect magazine and author of the book, Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power. David's book talks about our current age of corporate consolidation and monopolization, and the damage it has done both to ordinary citizens and to democracy

Michael Levitin

The most recent interview subject was Michael Levitin, author of the recent book Generation Occupy: Reawakening American Democracy. Michael's most recent book is about Occupy Wall Street, of which Michael was a participant. We talked about what led up to the Occupy movement, what occurred during it, and what has taken place in its aftermath. As we talked about, Occupy Wall Street has both changed the face of America and the Democratic Party in a good way.

More interviews are coming soon as I continue on the path of making this film!

One interview I'm really excited about is with Jesse Eisinger, the Pulitzer Prize winning senior editor at the acclaimed investigative news site, ProPublica. Jesse won his Pulitzer Price for reporting on Wall Street's corporate malfeasance; he's also the author of the book, The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives. Jesse also served as a consultant on the third season of the HBO series Succession.

How to Save Democracy is both the title of my film and the project that all American citizens are currently involved and invested in. Let’s not only save democracy, but restore American democracy to its promise, of a society that works for all.