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Home > Sanders Supporters: Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History
for a Path You Might Take
________________________________________
Sanders Supporters: Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History for a
Path You Might Take
By David Morris [1] / AlterNet [2]
July 4, 2016
On June 14, North Dakotans voted to overrule their government's decision to
allow corporate ownership of farms. That they had the power to do so was a
result of a political revolution that occurred almost exactly a century
before, a revolution that may hold lessons for those like Bernie Sanders'
supporters who seek to establish a bottom-up political movement in the face
of hostile political parties today.
Here's the story. In the early 1900s North Dakota was effectively an
economic colony of Minneapolis/Saint Paul. A Saint Paul-based railroad
tycoon controlled its freight prices. Minnesota companies owned many of the
grain elevators that sat next to the rail lines and often cheated farmers by
giving their wheat a lower grade than deserved. Since the flour mills were
in Minneapolis, shipping costs reduced the price wheat farmers received.
Minneapolis banks held farmers' mortgages and their operating loans to
farmers carried a higher interest than they charged at home.
Farmers, who represented a majority of the population, tried to free
themselves from bondage by making the political system more responsive. In
1913 they gained an important victory when the legislature gave them the
right, by petition, to initiate a law or constitutional amendment as well as
to overturn a law passed by the legislature.
But this was a limited victory, for while the people could enable, they
could not compel.
In 1914, for example, after a 30-year effort, voters authorized the
legislature to build a state-owned grain elevator and mill. But in January
1915 a state legislative committee concluded [3] it "would be a waste of the
people's money as well as a humiliating disappointment to the people of the
state." The legislature refused funding.
A few weeks later, two former candidates on the Socialist Party ticket,
Arthur C. Townley and Albert Bowen, launched a new political organization,
the Non Partisan League. The name conveyed their strategy: To rely more on
program-based politics than party-based politics. According to the NPL its
program intended to end the "utterly unendurable" situation in which "the
people of this state have always been dependent on their existence on
industries, banks, markets, storage and transportation facilities either
existing altogether outside of the state or controlled by great private
interests outside the state."
The NPL's platform contained concrete and specific measures: state ownership
of elevators, flour mills, packing houses and cold storage plants; state
inspection of grain grading and dockage; state hail insurance; rural credit
banks operating at cost; exemption of farm improvements from taxation.
In his recent book, Insurgent Democracy [4], Michael Lansing explains,
"Small-property holders anxious to use government to create a more equitable
form of capitalism cannot be easily categorized in contemporary political
term." The NPL "reminded Americans that corporate capitalism was not the
only way forward." Supporters of the NPL wanted state sponsored market
fairness but not state control. They wanted public options, not public
monopolies.
In the language of our 2016 political campaigns, it would not be much of a
stretch to characterize the NPL as a movement for an American-style
decentralized, anti-corporate, democratic socialism.
The NPL was as one contemporary observer, Thorstein Veblen described [5] it,
"large, loose, animated and untidy, but sure of itself in its settled
disallowance of the Vested Interests."
The movement was membership-based. Members were kept informed through a
regular newsletter. This was part of a massive popular education effort.
Membership fees allowed the NPL to hire organizers and lecturers who
traveled throughout the state. Townley, the founder and leader of the NPL,
proved an entertaining and charismatic speaker. Sometimes thousands would
gather to hear him speak. Speeches themselves were community affairs.
The goal was to convince farmers that collectively they could significantly
influence the decisions that would affect their personal and business lives.
To gain power the NPL relied on a political tool born of the Progressive
movement: the political primary. To make government more responsive and
transparent, Progressives urged states to bypass political conventions,
political bosses and backroom deals and adopt direct primaries. By 1916, 25
of the 48 U.S. states had adopted the primary as the vehicle for nominating
political candidates.
The primary system gave people the power to elect candidates of their
political party, but the key to the remarkable political revolution that
swept through North Dakota was its adoption, in 1908, of an "open primary"
law that allowed anyone to vote in a party's primary even if unaffiliated
with that party.
On March 29, 1916 the NPL took advantage of that law by convening its first
convention. Attendees endorsed candidates who swore allegiance to its
platform. These candidates ran in the June Republican primary, a primary
targeted by the NPL because then (as now) the Republican Party dominated
North Dakota.
In June 1916 the NPL effectively took over the Republican Party. In November
1916 NPL-endorsed candidates won every statewide office except one and
gained a majority in the state Assembly, although not in the Senate. By that
time the NPL boasted 40,000 members, an astonishing number given the state
population of only 620,000.
In the succeeding legislative session the NPL was able to implement parts of
its platform: a grain grading system, a nine-hour workday for women,
regulation of railroad shipping rates and increased state aid to rural
schools. But the Senate narrowly defeated the key to implementing NPL's
broad vision: a constitutional amendment to allow for state-owned
businesses.
In 1918, the NPL gained a majority in the state Senate. That year North
Dakotans voted on 10 constitutional amendments. They approved every one.
One, endorsed by a resounding margin of 59-41 gave state, county and local
governments permission "to engage in industry, enterprises or businesses."
Another allowed the state to guarantee $2 million in bonds and established
voting requirements for future bonding. Another created state hail
insurance.
Other amendments expanded the possibility of direct democracy by reducing
the number of signatures required to put an initiative on the ballot, and by
allowing constitutional amendments to be passed by a simple majority of the
voters.
In June 1919, voters approved 6 of 7 legislatively referred statutes,
including the establishment of a state bank, that latter by a vote of 56-44.
The one ballot initiative North Dakotans rejected-giving the governor the
authority to appoint every county school superintendent-was itself
revealing. North Dakotans wanted a state that could stand up to big
out-of-state corporations but they preferred local control to state control.
The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was the centerpiece of the NPL's effort to
take back control of their economy. It was intended to strengthen, not
undercut local banks. It established no branches, nor did it accept
independent deposits or accounts. The Bank "strongly recommended" that
borrowers seek mortgages by working through local institutions. Banks across
the state used the BND as a clearinghouse for various financial
transactions.
Farmers immediately benefited as their interest rates on loans dropped to
about 6 percent from the prevailing 8.7 percent.
In November 1920 voters strengthened the BND by narrowly approving an
initiative requiring all state, county, township, municipal and school
district funds be deposited there.
In March 1920 the NPL legislature referred to the people a constitutional
amendment allowing them to petition for the recall of any elected officials.
That unprecedented extension of direct democracy proved its undoing, for in
late 1918, at the peak of the NPL's power, political opposition had
coalesced into a new organization, the Independent Voters Association. As
the NPL battled internal divisions and a growing unease that it had begun to
pursue measures beyond its mandate, the IVA gained support.
The IVA used the political tools the NPL had created. In 1921 its members
successfully petitioned for recall elections for the three state officers
who constituted the membership of the Industrial Commission that oversaw
state enterprises: the governor, attorney general and commissioner of
agriculture. The IVA slate won by a whisker.
The IVA immediately set about to undo the NPL program by putting nine
provisions on the ballot, including one to abolish the state Bank. Another
intended to shrink the capacity of state government by reducing the amount
of state bonded debt. Another would have undermined the open primary by
requiring separate party ballots for primaries.
Every ballot measure lost, albeit by very narrow margins.
In November 1922, the IVA achieved what the NPL had four years before:
Control of all three branches of state government.
The NPL's abrupt disintegration resulted from a number of factors. In 1921,
the price of wheat dropped about 60 percent. The resulting economic pain
would have reduced the support for any sitting government. The Russian
Revolution ushered in a nationwide Red Scare. The opposition labeled the
NPL's leaders communists and Bolsheviks and launched a new magazine called
Red Flame. Townley himself was jailed under a Minnesota sedition law for
opposing U.S. involvement in WWI. Meanwhile, internal divisions continued to
beset the NPL.
The Legacy of the NPL
As the Nation magazine observed [6] in 1923, "although the visible machinery
largely melted away, a sentiment and a point of view had been established in
the minds of hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers."
Looking back in 1955, Robert L. Morian, author of the classic Political
Prairie Fire [7], commented that the NPL helped to develop "some of the most
independently minded electorates in the country."
Those independently minded electorates and their anti-corporate,
pro-cooperative and independent business sentiment continued to inform and
often guide policymakers in the decades to come.
The North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association began operation in a modern
facility in 1922. Today it consists of seven milling units, an elevator and
flour mill and a packing warehouse to prepare bagged products for shipment.
It is the largest flour mill in the U.S. and the only state-owned milling
facility.
In 1932, North Dakotans voted 57 to 43 to ban corporations from owning or
leasing farmland. In 1963, the legislature enacted a law that required
pharmacies be owned by a state-registered pharmacist. The effect was to ban
chains, except those operating at the time the law was passed. In 1980,
North Dakotans voted to establish a State Housing Finance Agency to provide
mortgages to low-income households.
In recent years several of these laws protecting independent farmers and
businesses have come under attack by big corporations. After several
attempts by Big Pharmacy failed to convince the legislature to repeal the
Pharmacy Ownership Law, Walmart spent [8] $9.3 million to finance a ballot
initiative. In November 2014, the initiative lost by a vote of 59-41.
In 2015, big corporations did convince the legislature to overturn the 1932
anti-corporate farming law.
This June, North Dakotans voted to reinstate the old law by a resounding
margin of 76-24.
Today the economic structure of North Dakota reflects its focus on
independent and cooperative businesses. The Pharmacy Ownership law, for
example, has markedly benefited North Dakota. A report [9] by the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) found that on every key measure of pharmacy
care, including quality and the price of drugs, North Dakota's independent
pharmacies outperform those of neighboring states and the U.S. as a whole.
Unsurprisingly North Dakota also has more pharmacies per capita than other
states. Its rural residents are more likely to have a nearby pharmacist.
North Dakota's banking system reflects a similar community-based structure.
An analysis [10] by ILSR found that, on a per capita basis, the state boasts
almost six times as many locally owned financial institutions as the rest of
the nation (89 small and mid-sized community banks and 38 credit unions).
These control 83 percent of the deposits of the state. North Dakota's
community banks have given 400 percent more small business loans than the
national average. Student loan rates are among the lowest in the country.
As Stacy Mitchell, director of ILSR's Community-Scaled Economy Initiative
observes [11], "While the publicly owned BND might well be characterized as
a socialist institution, it has had the effect of enabling North Dakota's
local banks to be very successful capitalists." In recent years, local banks
in North Dakota have earned a return on capital nearly twice that of the
nation's largest 20 banks.
In the last two decades, the BND has generated almost $1 billion in "profit"
and returned almost half of that to the state's general fund.
Recall that in 1919, voters had approved the Bank of North Dakota by the
very slim margin of 51-49. A switch of 2,000 votes would have killed the
bank in its infancy. Today no party would dare propose its destruction.
North Dakota's impressive 21st-century telecommunications infrastructure is
also a testament to its historic focus on local and independent ownership.
The state ranks 47th in population density. That means it has one of the
highest costs per household for installing state-of-the-art, high-speed
fiber networks. Nevertheless it boasts the highest percentage of people with
access [12] to such networks in the country. Why? One reason is its
abundance of rural cooperatives and small telecom companies, 41 providers in
all, including 17 cooperatives.
North Dakota is also home to the Dakota Carrier Network [13]. Owned by 15
independent rural telecommunications companies, the DCN crisscrosses the
state with more 1,400 miles of fiber backbone. In the last five years,
independently owned companies have invested more than $100 million per year
to bring fiber to the home. They now serve more than 164,000 customers in
250 communities.
What Should Bernie's Brethren Do?
Certainly the road to political power faces many more obstacles now than the
NPL faced a century ago. North Dakota was a largely agricultural state. The
key to NPL's organizing effort was access to a car and gas money, not an
easy get in those days, but much easier than the amount of money now needed
to mount a political campaign.
Most new movements will be unable to take advantage of the open primary.
After the NPL gained power in more than half a dozen states, the existing
parties fought back. Nevertheless, 11 states still have pure open primaries;
about a dozen more have hybrid systems.
Recently the courts have not been sympathetic to the open primary. Not long
ago the Supreme Court invented a new "right of association" and bestowed
that right on political parties. In 2000, for example, by a 7-2 vote, the
Court overturned a California form of open primary approved by the voters by
a 60-40 vote. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia objected [14]
that the California law "forces political parties to associate with-to have
their nominees, and hence their positions, determined by-those who, at best,
have refused to affiliate with the party, and, at worst, have expressly
affiliated with a rival."
After the California decision the voters of Washington, by a similar 60-40
vote, adopted an open primary system similar to California's but with a key
difference: The candidate would have to declare a "party preference" that
would appear next to his or her name on the ballot. In 2008, the Supreme
Court, again by a 7-2 vote, this time upheld [15] that law, a ruling that
might allow for a variant of the NPL strategy.
Before we develop a strategy for winning office, we need to take a page from
the NPL playbook and develop a platform, one consisting of specific,
concrete policies, not a laundry list of all desirable policies.
Bernie Sanders and his followers are currently working to write a platform
for the Democratic Party convention. That is important and useful, but that
platform by its nature will have a national focus and speak to the exercise
of power by the federal government. We also need platforms that focus on
states and cities and counties and school districts and offer concrete
measures they have the authority to enact.
Those platforms will provide the basis for endorsing candidates, regardless
of their political affiliation or whether they run in a closed or open
primary state. In those states that permit, we may be able to enact various
planks of the platform through initiative and referendum. At this point, 27
states have initiative and 24 have referendum. Nineteen allow constitutional
amendments by initiative.
The Nonpartisan League's tenure in power was brief, but its policies, the
public institutions it built and perhaps most importantly, the public
sentiment it nurtured and brought to maturity, endure to this day. It is a
true example of a political revolution from the bottom up.
David Morris is co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and
directs its initiative on The Public Good. He is the author of "New City
States [16]" and four other non-fiction books. Follow him on Twitter:
@PublicMorris [17].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [18]
[19]
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/sanders-supporters-check-out-amazing-p
iece-american-history-path-you-might-take
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-morris-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9kpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&
dq=would+be+a+waste+of+the+people%25E2%2580%2599s+money+as+well+as+a+humilia
ting+disappointment+to+the+people+of+the+state&source=bl&ots=v55xEkn
vR7&sig=cNfrjvTDa38v2-0ssZ7ObZ7pEmA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf
ncav9MrNAhVnwYMKHbGWAKMQ6AEIHjAA%23v=onepage&q=would%2520be%2520a%2520wa
ste%2520of%2520the%2520people%25E2%2580%2599s%2520money%2520as%2520well%2520
as%2520a%2520humiliating%2520disappointment%2520to%2520the%2520people%2520of
%2520the%2520state&f=false
[4] http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=insurgent+democracy
[5] http://www.elegant-technology.com/resource/Vested_Interests.pdf
[6]
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9kpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&am
p;dq=although+the+visible+machinery+largely+melted+away,+a+sentiment+and+a+p
oint+of+view+had+been+established+in+the+minds+of+hundreds+of+thousands+of+f
armers+and+ranchers&source=bl&ots=v55xEknzR8&sig=RnE2_VuT44lsesV
O35Ym7J3Mr84&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigjM7u9crNAhWJ4IMKHW9cBdYQ6AE
IHDAA%23v=onepage&q=although%2520the%2520visible%2520machinery%2520large
ly%2520melted%2520away%252C%2520a%2520sentiment%2520and%2520a%2520point%2520
of%2520view%2520had%2520been%2520established%2520in%2520the%2520minds%2520of
%2520hundreds%2520of%2520thousands%2520of%2520farmers%2520and%2520ranchers&a
mp;f=false
[7] http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=Political+Prairie+Fire
[8]
http://drugtopics.modernmedicine.com/drug-topics/news/walmart-spent-93-milli
on-challenge-nd-pharmacy-law?page=full
[9] https://ilsr.org/report-pharmacy-ownership-law/
[10] https://ilsr.org/charts-bank-north-dakota/
[11] https://ilsr.org/map-shows-how-well-the-bank-of-north-dakota-works/
[12]
https://muninetworks.org/content/want-ftth-move-north-dakota-reports-usda
[13] http://dakotacarrier.com/about-us/history/
[14] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/530/567/case.html
[15]
https://www.sos.wa.gov/documentvault/USSupremeCourtOpinionDecidedMarch182008
-2215.pdf
[16] http://www.ilsr.org/new-citystates/
[17] https://twitter.com/publicmorris
[18] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Sanders Supporters:
Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History for a Path You Might Take
[19] http://www.alternet.org/
[20] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Sanders Supporters: Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History
for a Path You Might Take
Sanders Supporters: Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History for a
Path You Might Take
By David Morris [1] / AlterNet [2]
July 4, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
AddThis Share optionsShare to Email
On June 14, North Dakotans voted to overrule their government's decision to
allow corporate ownership of farms. That they had the power to do so was a
result of a political revolution that occurred almost exactly a century
before, a revolution that may hold lessons for those like Bernie Sanders'
supporters who seek to establish a bottom-up political movement in the face
of hostile political parties today.
Here's the story. In the early 1900s North Dakota was effectively an
economic colony of Minneapolis/Saint Paul. A Saint Paul-based railroad
tycoon controlled its freight prices. Minnesota companies owned many of the
grain elevators that sat next to the rail lines and often cheated farmers by
giving their wheat a lower grade than deserved. Since the flour mills were
in Minneapolis, shipping costs reduced the price wheat farmers received.
Minneapolis banks held farmers' mortgages and their operating loans to
farmers carried a higher interest than they charged at home.
Farmers, who represented a majority of the population, tried to free
themselves from bondage by making the political system more responsive. In
1913 they gained an important victory when the legislature gave them the
right, by petition, to initiate a law or constitutional amendment as well as
to overturn a law passed by the legislature.
But this was a limited victory, for while the people could enable, they
could not compel.
In 1914, for example, after a 30-year effort, voters authorized the
legislature to build a state-owned grain elevator and mill. But in January
1915 a state legislative committee concluded [3] it "would be a waste of the
people's money as well as a humiliating disappointment to the people of the
state." The legislature refused funding.
A few weeks later, two former candidates on the Socialist Party ticket,
Arthur C. Townley and Albert Bowen, launched a new political organization,
the Non Partisan League. The name conveyed their strategy: To rely more on
program-based politics than party-based politics. According to the NPL its
program intended to end the "utterly unendurable" situation in which "the
people of this state have always been dependent on their existence on
industries, banks, markets, storage and transportation facilities either
existing altogether outside of the state or controlled by great private
interests outside the state."
The NPL's platform contained concrete and specific measures: state ownership
of elevators, flour mills, packing houses and cold storage plants; state
inspection of grain grading and dockage; state hail insurance; rural credit
banks operating at cost; exemption of farm improvements from taxation.
In his recent book, Insurgent Democracy [4], Michael Lansing explains,
"Small-property holders anxious to use government to create a more equitable
form of capitalism cannot be easily categorized in contemporary political
term." The NPL "reminded Americans that corporate capitalism was not the
only way forward." Supporters of the NPL wanted state sponsored market
fairness but not state control. They wanted public options, not public
monopolies.
In the language of our 2016 political campaigns, it would not be much of a
stretch to characterize the NPL as a movement for an American-style
decentralized, anti-corporate, democratic socialism.
The NPL was as one contemporary observer, Thorstein Veblen described [5] it,
"large, loose, animated and untidy, but sure of itself in its settled
disallowance of the Vested Interests."
The movement was membership-based. Members were kept informed through a
regular newsletter. This was part of a massive popular education effort.
Membership fees allowed the NPL to hire organizers and lecturers who
traveled throughout the state. Townley, the founder and leader of the NPL,
proved an entertaining and charismatic speaker. Sometimes thousands would
gather to hear him speak. Speeches themselves were community affairs.
The goal was to convince farmers that collectively they could significantly
influence the decisions that would affect their personal and business lives.
To gain power the NPL relied on a political tool born of the Progressive
movement: the political primary. To make government more responsive and
transparent, Progressives urged states to bypass political conventions,
political bosses and backroom deals and adopt direct primaries. By 1916, 25
of the 48 U.S. states had adopted the primary as the vehicle for nominating
political candidates.
The primary system gave people the power to elect candidates of their
political party, but the key to the remarkable political revolution that
swept through North Dakota was its adoption, in 1908, of an "open primary"
law that allowed anyone to vote in a party's primary even if unaffiliated
with that party.
On March 29, 1916 the NPL took advantage of that law by convening its first
convention. Attendees endorsed candidates who swore allegiance to its
platform. These candidates ran in the June Republican primary, a primary
targeted by the NPL because then (as now) the Republican Party dominated
North Dakota.
In June 1916 the NPL effectively took over the Republican Party. In November
1916 NPL-endorsed candidates won every statewide office except one and
gained a majority in the state Assembly, although not in the Senate. By that
time the NPL boasted 40,000 members, an astonishing number given the state
population of only 620,000.
In the succeeding legislative session the NPL was able to implement parts of
its platform: a grain grading system, a nine-hour workday for women,
regulation of railroad shipping rates and increased state aid to rural
schools. But the Senate narrowly defeated the key to implementing NPL's
broad vision: a constitutional amendment to allow for state-owned
businesses.
In 1918, the NPL gained a majority in the state Senate. That year North
Dakotans voted on 10 constitutional amendments. They approved every one.
One, endorsed by a resounding margin of 59-41 gave state, county and local
governments permission "to engage in industry, enterprises or businesses."
Another allowed the state to guarantee $2 million in bonds and established
voting requirements for future bonding. Another created state hail
insurance.
Other amendments expanded the possibility of direct democracy by reducing
the number of signatures required to put an initiative on the ballot, and by
allowing constitutional amendments to be passed by a simple majority of the
voters.
In June 1919, voters approved 6 of 7 legislatively referred statutes,
including the establishment of a state bank, that latter by a vote of 56-44.
The one ballot initiative North Dakotans rejected-giving the governor the
authority to appoint every county school superintendent-was itself
revealing. North Dakotans wanted a state that could stand up to big
out-of-state corporations but they preferred local control to state control.
The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was the centerpiece of the NPL's effort to
take back control of their economy. It was intended to strengthen, not
undercut local banks. It established no branches, nor did it accept
independent deposits or accounts. The Bank "strongly recommended" that
borrowers seek mortgages by working through local institutions. Banks across
the state used the BND as a clearinghouse for various financial
transactions.
Farmers immediately benefited as their interest rates on loans dropped to
about 6 percent from the prevailing 8.7 percent.
In November 1920 voters strengthened the BND by narrowly approving an
initiative requiring all state, county, township, municipal and school
district funds be deposited there.
In March 1920 the NPL legislature referred to the people a constitutional
amendment allowing them to petition for the recall of any elected officials.
That unprecedented extension of direct democracy proved its undoing, for in
late 1918, at the peak of the NPL's power, political opposition had
coalesced into a new organization, the Independent Voters Association. As
the NPL battled internal divisions and a growing unease that it had begun to
pursue measures beyond its mandate, the IVA gained support.
The IVA used the political tools the NPL had created. In 1921 its members
successfully petitioned for recall elections for the three state officers
who constituted the membership of the Industrial Commission that oversaw
state enterprises: the governor, attorney general and commissioner of
agriculture. The IVA slate won by a whisker.
The IVA immediately set about to undo the NPL program by putting nine
provisions on the ballot, including one to abolish the state Bank. Another
intended to shrink the capacity of state government by reducing the amount
of state bonded debt. Another would have undermined the open primary by
requiring separate party ballots for primaries.
Every ballot measure lost, albeit by very narrow margins.
In November 1922, the IVA achieved what the NPL had four years before:
Control of all three branches of state government.
The NPL's abrupt disintegration resulted from a number of factors. In 1921,
the price of wheat dropped about 60 percent. The resulting economic pain
would have reduced the support for any sitting government. The Russian
Revolution ushered in a nationwide Red Scare. The opposition labeled the
NPL's leaders communists and Bolsheviks and launched a new magazine called
Red Flame. Townley himself was jailed under a Minnesota sedition law for
opposing U.S. involvement in WWI. Meanwhile, internal divisions continued to
beset the NPL.
The Legacy of the NPL
As the Nation magazine observed [6] in 1923, "although the visible machinery
largely melted away, a sentiment and a point of view had been established in
the minds of hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers."
Looking back in 1955, Robert L. Morian, author of the classic Political
Prairie Fire [7], commented that the NPL helped to develop "some of the most
independently minded electorates in the country."
Those independently minded electorates and their anti-corporate,
pro-cooperative and independent business sentiment continued to inform and
often guide policymakers in the decades to come.
The North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association began operation in a modern
facility in 1922. Today it consists of seven milling units, an elevator and
flour mill and a packing warehouse to prepare bagged products for shipment.
It is the largest flour mill in the U.S. and the only state-owned milling
facility.
In 1932, North Dakotans voted 57 to 43 to ban corporations from owning or
leasing farmland. In 1963, the legislature enacted a law that required
pharmacies be owned by a state-registered pharmacist. The effect was to ban
chains, except those operating at the time the law was passed. In 1980,
North Dakotans voted to establish a State Housing Finance Agency to provide
mortgages to low-income households.
In recent years several of these laws protecting independent farmers and
businesses have come under attack by big corporations. After several
attempts by Big Pharmacy failed to convince the legislature to repeal the
Pharmacy Ownership Law, Walmart spent [8] $9.3 million to finance a ballot
initiative. In November 2014, the initiative lost by a vote of 59-41.
In 2015, big corporations did convince the legislature to overturn the 1932
anti-corporate farming law.
This June, North Dakotans voted to reinstate the old law by a resounding
margin of 76-24.
Today the economic structure of North Dakota reflects its focus on
independent and cooperative businesses. The Pharmacy Ownership law, for
example, has markedly benefited North Dakota. A report [9] by the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) found that on every key measure of pharmacy
care, including quality and the price of drugs, North Dakota's independent
pharmacies outperform those of neighboring states and the U.S. as a whole.
Unsurprisingly North Dakota also has more pharmacies per capita than other
states. Its rural residents are more likely to have a nearby pharmacist.
North Dakota's banking system reflects a similar community-based structure.
An analysis [10] by ILSR found that, on a per capita basis, the state boasts
almost six times as many locally owned financial institutions as the rest of
the nation (89 small and mid-sized community banks and 38 credit unions).
These control 83 percent of the deposits of the state. North Dakota's
community banks have given 400 percent more small business loans than the
national average. Student loan rates are among the lowest in the country.
As Stacy Mitchell, director of ILSR's Community-Scaled Economy Initiative
observes [11], "While the publicly owned BND might well be characterized as
a socialist institution, it has had the effect of enabling North Dakota's
local banks to be very successful capitalists." In recent years, local banks
in North Dakota have earned a return on capital nearly twice that of the
nation's largest 20 banks.
In the last two decades, the BND has generated almost $1 billion in "profit"
and returned almost half of that to the state's general fund.
Recall that in 1919, voters had approved the Bank of North Dakota by the
very slim margin of 51-49. A switch of 2,000 votes would have killed the
bank in its infancy. Today no party would dare propose its destruction.
North Dakota's impressive 21st-century telecommunications infrastructure is
also a testament to its historic focus on local and independent ownership.
The state ranks 47th in population density. That means it has one of the
highest costs per household for installing state-of-the-art, high-speed
fiber networks. Nevertheless it boasts the highest percentage of people with
access [12] to such networks in the country. Why? One reason is its
abundance of rural cooperatives and small telecom companies, 41 providers in
all, including 17 cooperatives.
North Dakota is also home to the Dakota Carrier Network [13]. Owned by 15
independent rural telecommunications companies, the DCN crisscrosses the
state with more 1,400 miles of fiber backbone. In the last five years,
independently owned companies have invested more than $100 million per year
to bring fiber to the home. They now serve more than 164,000 customers in
250 communities.
What Should Bernie's Brethren Do?
Certainly the road to political power faces many more obstacles now than the
NPL faced a century ago. North Dakota was a largely agricultural state. The
key to NPL's organizing effort was access to a car and gas money, not an
easy get in those days, but much easier than the amount of money now needed
to mount a political campaign.
Most new movements will be unable to take advantage of the open primary.
After the NPL gained power in more than half a dozen states, the existing
parties fought back. Nevertheless, 11 states still have pure open primaries;
about a dozen more have hybrid systems.
Recently the courts have not been sympathetic to the open primary. Not long
ago the Supreme Court invented a new "right of association" and bestowed
that right on political parties. In 2000, for example, by a 7-2 vote, the
Court overturned a California form of open primary approved by the voters by
a 60-40 vote. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia objected [14]
that the California law "forces political parties to associate with-to have
their nominees, and hence their positions, determined by-those who, at best,
have refused to affiliate with the party, and, at worst, have expressly
affiliated with a rival."
After the California decision the voters of Washington, by a similar 60-40
vote, adopted an open primary system similar to California's but with a key
difference: The candidate would have to declare a "party preference" that
would appear next to his or her name on the ballot. In 2008, the Supreme
Court, again by a 7-2 vote, this time upheld [15] that law, a ruling that
might allow for a variant of the NPL strategy.
Before we develop a strategy for winning office, we need to take a page from
the NPL playbook and develop a platform, one consisting of specific,
concrete policies, not a laundry list of all desirable policies.
Bernie Sanders and his followers are currently working to write a platform
for the Democratic Party convention. That is important and useful, but that
platform by its nature will have a national focus and speak to the exercise
of power by the federal government. We also need platforms that focus on
states and cities and counties and school districts and offer concrete
measures they have the authority to enact.
Those platforms will provide the basis for endorsing candidates, regardless
of their political affiliation or whether they run in a closed or open
primary state. In those states that permit, we may be able to enact various
planks of the platform through initiative and referendum. At this point, 27
states have initiative and 24 have referendum. Nineteen allow constitutional
amendments by initiative.
The Nonpartisan League's tenure in power was brief, but its policies, the
public institutions it built and perhaps most importantly, the public
sentiment it nurtured and brought to maturity, endure to this day. It is a
true example of a political revolution from the bottom up.
David Morris is co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and
directs its initiative on The Public Good. He is the author of "New City
States [16]" and four other non-fiction books. Follow him on Twitter:
@PublicMorris [17].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [18]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[19]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/sanders-supporters-check-out-amazing-p
iece-american-history-path-you-might-take
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-morris-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9kpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&
dq=would+be+a+waste+of+the+people%25E2%2580%2599s+money+as+well+as+a+humilia
ting+disappointment+to+the+people+of+the+state&source=bl&ots=v55xEkn
vR7&sig=cNfrjvTDa38v2-0ssZ7ObZ7pEmA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf
ncav9MrNAhVnwYMKHbGWAKMQ6AEIHjAA%23v=onepage&q=would%2520be%2520a%2520wa
ste%2520of%2520the%2520people%25E2%2580%2599s%2520money%2520as%2520well%2520
as%2520a%2520humiliating%2520disappointment%2520to%2520the%2520people%2520of
%2520the%2520state&f=false
[4] http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=insurgent+democracy
[5] http://www.elegant-technology.com/resource/Vested_Interests.pdf
[6]
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9kpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&am
p;dq=although+the+visible+machinery+largely+melted+away,+a+sentiment+and+a+p
oint+of+view+had+been+established+in+the+minds+of+hundreds+of+thousands+of+f
armers+and+ranchers&source=bl&ots=v55xEknzR8&sig=RnE2_VuT44lsesV
O35Ym7J3Mr84&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigjM7u9crNAhWJ4IMKHW9cBdYQ6AE
IHDAA%23v=onepage&q=although%2520the%2520visible%2520machinery%2520large
ly%2520melted%2520away%252C%2520a%2520sentiment%2520and%2520a%2520point%2520
of%2520view%2520had%2520been%2520established%2520in%2520the%2520minds%2520of
%2520hundreds%2520of%2520thousands%2520of%2520farmers%2520and%2520ranchers&a
mp;f=false
[7] http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=Political+Prairie+Fire
[8]
http://drugtopics.modernmedicine.com/drug-topics/news/walmart-spent-93-milli
on-challenge-nd-pharmacy-law?page=full
[9] https://ilsr.org/report-pharmacy-ownership-law/
[10] https://ilsr.org/charts-bank-north-dakota/
[11] https://ilsr.org/map-shows-how-well-the-bank-of-north-dakota-works/
[12]
https://muninetworks.org/content/want-ftth-move-north-dakota-reports-usda
[13] http://dakotacarrier.com/about-us/history/
[14] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/530/567/case.html
[15]
https://www.sos.wa.gov/documentvault/USSupremeCourtOpinionDecidedMarch182008
-2215.pdf
[16] http://www.ilsr.org/new-citystates/
[17] https://twitter.com/publicmorris
[18] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Sanders Supporters:
Check Out This Amazing Piece of American History for a Path You Might Take
[19] http://www.alternet.org/
[20] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
