In a discussion at the National Book Festival this weekend about her recent book, The Bully Pulpit, presidential scholar and author Doris Kearns Goodwin used the opportunity to highlight the danger of big money in our democracy and the importance of resisting the despair it can create:

“Without citizens taking on an active role in our country, we despair over what’s happening in Washington…We despair over money-in-politics, which I do think is the poison in the system. If I were younger, that’s what I’d be doing – leading a constitutional amendment to get money out of the system. It’s all up to us – we can’t wait for somebody else to do it.”

Her comments come just days before the September 8 Senate vote on the Democracy for All Amendment (SJ Res 19), a proposal that enjoys broad public support and aims to reclaim our democracy from the outsized influence of big money.