Today I found myself re-reading something Marshall Ganz wrote years ago about the historical roots of organizing in this country. Given our concern about the recent court cases that have magnified the problem of money in politics, his opening quote is even more profound today. “Democracy is based on the promise that equality of voice can balance inequality of resources.” Prof. Sidney Verba, Harvard University, 1993. Next, he quotes de Tocqueville. In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others. In commenting on de Tocqueville's observations about our civic associations, Ganz says: In other words, he saw that we had learned that the choices a few people make about how to use their money could be balanced by choices many people make about how to use their time. He then goes on to summarize various movements in our history. What de Tocqueville observed was soon challenged by a
Nancy LeTourneau's big picture look at politics and life