(Photo: AP/CQ Roll Call/Bill Clark) A protester holds a sign at a rally in front of the Supreme Court in 2012 to mark the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision. P rogressive activists tend to cast the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, handed down six years ago today, as a historically destructive decision ushering in an era of corruption and even oligarchy. In a statement typical of many condemning Citizens United on its sixth anniversary, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer called it “one of the worst and most damaging decisions in the Court’s history.” But for advocates of campaign-finance restrictions, the high court’s 2010 decision to reverse longtime curbs on independent corporate and union spending may turn out to be something of a political gift. The ruling has given voters fed up with the political system a concrete focus for their anger, and helped push the issue of money in politics from the margins to the...

Olivier Douliery/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images) President Barack Obama delivers his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. rules-logo-109.jpeg H aving dropped the ball on virtually every good government proposal that he pledged to enact when he first ran for office, President Barack Obama has now zeroed in on an unlikely new target for his democracy agenda: redistricting reform. As policy issues go, redistricting is usually about as exciting to voters as watching paint dry. Yet in sketching his vision for “a better politics” during his final State of the Union address this week, Obama placed redistricting reform at the top of the list. "I think we’ve got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters and not the other way around," declared Obama . In a significant departure from his prepared remarks, he added: "Let a bipartisan group do it." It was one of the few...