The Democracy Rebellion: A Reporter’s Notebook with Hedrick Smith

The Democracy Rebellion is the missing story of American politics:  not Washington, but grassroots America; not stale gridlock, but fresh reforms; not negative ads and billionaire donors, but positive change and citizen activists pressing for action.

Their demands include gerrymander reform, voting rights for former felons, exposing dark money, and winning surprising victories to give voters more voice and make elections fairer in states as disparate as Florida and California, North Carolina and South Dakota, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Missouri, Utah, and more.

2018 was the best year for political reform since the 1960s, and reforms are having real impact. Connecticut’s public funding of campaigns has transformed state politics—who can afford to run, more women and minorities in office, less lobbyist influence on the legislature.  California’s crackdown exposing how dark-money funding-networks operate, provides a model for other states. Florida’s path-breaking gerrymander reform, voted in by a huge supermajority, shocked the power elite and caught lawmakers secretly violating the law. “The message,” says Florida grassroots leader Ellen Freidin, “is our political system can be fixed. Get out there and fix it.”

Hedrick Smith, a Pulitzer Prize–winning former New York Times reporter, editor, and Emmy Award–winning producer/correspondent, has established himself as one of America’s premier journalists.  In this latest documentary, he takes viewers into half a dozen states with citizen activist leaders like Cindy Black mobilizing an army of volunteers in Washington State to overturn “Citizens United”; with TakeItBack.org, a prairie revolt demanding clean elections in South Dakota; and with North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement and Rev. William Barber fighting for voter rights.

Hedrick Smith will be available for Q&A after the screening.