THIS BOOK IS PUBLISHED ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF A COLLABORATION that began when the two of us began advancing a critique of the consolidation and dumbing down of what has come to be referred to as “old media.” Our concern was that a diminishing of journalism would ultimately lead to a diminishing of democracy. As the years passed, this collaboration began to extend from narrow beginnings to a broader consideration of the state of American democratic systems and structures that seemed, to our view, to be under assault at every turn. In a series of books, we examined media and democracy issues, arguing initially for a renewal of journalism as a first step toward a renewal of democracy. After a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions struck down traditional barriers to the buying of elections by billionaire campaign donors and multinational corporations, we began to link arguments for the renewal of journalism with arguments for a renewal of civic engagement and democratic participation. There was always a measure of nostalgia in our work, a desire to use new technologies and new thinking to renew old structures.
This book is different. It argues, without apology, that the democratic infrastructure and economic understandings of the United States that now exist are not just under stress or broken. They are insufficient to respond to the overwhelming changes that are coming. Political figures such as Bernie Sanders suggest that a “political revolution” is necessary and we would agree with that assessment. But that is not the point of this book, The point of this book is to suggest that the “revolution”—like the American revolution of 1776—will only be a part of a dramatically bigger and bolder rethink of economic and social arrangements. That those arrangements will change is inevitable. What is still at stake is the question of whether the changes will be in the interest of a handful of billionaires or the great mass of Americans—and, indeed, the great mass of human beings around the world. To reach the point where we could write confidently about the changes that are coming and about the responses that are right, we traveled extensively in the United States and internationally. We met with top CEOs of tech companies and with some of the savviest innovators in the world. Our thinking was informed by conversations with scholars and writers who have explored these issues, such as Frank Rieger and others associated with Germany’s Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC). Discussions with Nick Bostrom, the director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, were incredibly instructive, as were conversations at the forums and events organized by Johannes Winkelhage. Discussions with Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Joel Rogers, Harvey Kaye, and many other thinkers helped us to put the moment in perspective. We were informed, as well, by discussions with labor leaders and activists, including RoseAnn DeMoro, Michael Lighty, Charles Idelson, Jean Ross, RN, and Ken Zinn from National Nurses United, and Joseph Geevarghese of the Change to Win Labor Coalition and the Strategic Organizing Center. We also appreciate the insights provided by Congressmen Keith Ellison and Mark Pocan regarding employment issues, and those we got from the National Employment Law Project, Demos, and state-based research projects such as the Center on Wisconsin Strategies at the University of Wisconsin and Policy Matters Ohio.
Several dear friends gave us many hours of their time to read and comment on several chapters in the book. They include Victor Pickard, John Bellamy Foster, Richard Powers, Dan Schiller, Jeff Cohen, and Matt Rothschild. We received help on specific points in the text from the following friends, journalists, and scholars: Robert Pollin, Timothy Noah, Richard V. Reeves, James Galbraith, James Baughman, David Howell, John Schmitt, Daniel Bowman Simon, Bernie Sanders, Matt Stoller, Inger Stole, Des Freedman, Sigurd Allern, Robert Hackett, Richard Wheeler, Ben Scott, Sundiata Cha-Jua, Fred Magdoff, Robert Reich, and John Murphy. We received invaluable research assistance from Nathan Gerth, Amy Holland, Ali Moll, and Grace Hebert. And, of course, R. Jamil Jonna’s talents are on full display in Chapter 2 and in the Statistical Appendix. This book could not exist without the generosity, talent, and wisdom of all these people, though we alone are responsible for any flaws with what lies within.
Our editors at The Nation—Katrina vanden Heuvel, Roane Carey, and Richard Kim—were always engaged and encouraging, as were fellow writers such as Naomi Klein, Sarah Jaffe, and William Greider. Ed Schultz and Chris Hayes welcomed our efforts to broaden discussions of employment and workplace rights, as did Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez and radio hosts John “Sly” Sylvester at WEKZ and Joy Cardin on Wisconsin Public Radio. The same goes for Ruth Conniff at The Progressive, and of course for Dave Zweifel, Lynn Danielson, and Judie Kleinmaier at the Madison Capital Times. Generous research support from the University of Illinois was essential to making the book possible.
This project began with the encouragement of Carl Bromley at Nation Books and, when Carl moved on, it was nurtured by Daniel LoPreto. Alessandra Bastagli, when she took charge at Nation Books, helped us to frame the project and played a pivotal role in making it a success. We appreciate them all, as we do all the folks at Nation Books, PublicAffairs, and the Nation Institute. They made this book possible, as did colleagues and comrades such as Craig Aaron and Joe Torres at Free Press.
Our deepest thanks go to family and friends in Madison, Wisconsin, where we both reside. We cherish Inger Stole, Amy and Lucy McChesney, Mary and Whitman Bottari, and Mary Nichols. We write for them, and for the future.
Robert W. McChesney
John Nichols
Madison, Wisconsin
November 2015