In democracy, the rules matter. Six months before the midterms, the US supreme court’s Callais decision dramatically changed the rules of US elections by gutting the Voting Rights Act and capsizing the 15th amendment.

As the Maga party races to restore Jim Crow politics with voter suppression and all-white congressional delegations in the south, Democrats must act shrewdly to advance party rules of our own that promote majority rule, interracial political solidarity and the power of the voters.

While most Democrats are organizing on the ground for victory in the congressional midterms, a group of about 50 leaders at the helm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is meeting soon to write the rulebook for the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries. They need our support too.

This is an important job. We can expect an incredibly crowded field of perhaps more than two dozen presidential candidates from all over the country. As the party of the people rather than the monarchs and oligarchs, we will engage in a sustained debate about how to repair and transcend the wreckage of Trumpism to refortify democracy and renew the progress of our party, our country and our world.

We need rules for these primaries that will lift up the voices of these many talented Democrats in order to improve our party’s prospects, while avoiding the dangers of a protracted, divisive and confusing battle. The key goals are that our nominee be able to win a real majority, including votes outside his or her core base, and that the process be a positive one rather than a race to the bottom with Republican-style negative politics. We know Trump’s party is the party of character destruction; we are the party that builds people up and favors unity over division.

The best tool to empower voters to make constructive choices among exciting new voices in such a crowded........

© The Guardian