A broad and powerful movement is erupting in the nation’s capital. On Monday, hundreds of patriotic Americans participating in Democracy Spring got arrested as part of a week and a half of actions to save our democracy.
Between mass civil disobedience actions, a mass Rally for Democracy and educational teach-ins, democracy is awakening in Washington, D.C., right now, and you’re going to want to be a part of it.
Solidify your plans to attend Democracy Awakening, a mass mobilization from April 16 to 18 in our nation’s capital, and be sure to join us for the family-friendly rally and march at the U.S. Capitol on Sunday, April 17.
A few words on why this is so important.
In the six years since Citizens United was handed down, the fledgling movement to get Big Money out of politics has made great strides.
Sixteen states and more than 700 cities and towns have passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Millions have called on executive agencies to at least promote disclosure of campaign contributors. We’ve won important victories in cities and states for election funding systems that rely on small donor and public matching money – not contributions from the super-rich and giant corporations.
And, we’ve even managed to win majority support in a Senate vote for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s horrendous Citizens United decision.
But all we have done is still not enough. We have to go bigger and bolder. That’s where the Democracy Awakening mobilization comes in.
Every politician knows where the American people stand on money-in-politics issues. They know that stunning majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents oppose Citizens United and are outraged by Big Money dominance of elections. They know that we think the system is rigged. They know We the People are demanding far-reaching reform.
But too many of the politicians and pundits believe that support for real reform is shallow. They know what the American people think, but they don’t believe we care enough.
A Few Statistics:
83 percent of Americans agree and nearly 60 percent “strongly” agree that “the rules of the economy matter and the top 1 percent have used their influence to shape the rules of the economy to their advantage.” Americans believe that policies enacted since the Great Recession have benefited Wall Street, big corporations and the wealthy, but not poor and middle class people.
Three quarters of Americans favor a steep rise in the minimum wage, including a majority of Republicans.
By margins of about 2-1, Americans oppose corporate trade deals like the TransPacific Partnership. Americans believe such deals destroy more jobs than they create by a 3-1 margin.
Most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor breaking up the big banks. Over nine in ten voters agree that it is important to regulate financial services and products to make sure they are fair for consumers, and four-fifths say Wall Street financial companies should be held accountable with tougher rules and enforcement for the practices that caused the financial crisis. By nearly a 3-1 margin, voters want to see more, not less, oversight and regulation of financial companies.
Four out of five voters, including three quarters of Republicans, want to expand Social Security benefits. Note: not just maintain, but expand, Social Security benefits.
Americans want to close corporate and other tax loopholes and make the rich pay more in taxes. Two-thirds of Americans believe that corporations pay too little in taxes. By a three-to-one margin, Americans want to close tax loopholes that allow speculators and people who make money from short-term trades to pay less taxes on profits than full time workers pay on their income or wages.
Across the country, three quarters of voters want to maintain or strengthen environmental standards. They support the administration’s Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a 2-1 margin. Three quarters of Americans, including a majority of Americans, favor stricter limits on smog.
Americans want tough consumer protections, too. Nine-in-ten Americans want food containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled; only 6 percent oppose mandatory labeling. More than nine in ten want meat labeled with its country of origin.
83 percent of Americans, including three quarters of Republicans, favor empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices. In fact, Republican voters say that cutting drug prices is a bigger priority for them than repealing Obamacare.
In general, astounding majorities, of Americans want to restrain corporate power. Eighty-six percent believe corporations have too much political power. Eight-seven percent of voters agree that we need increased enforcement of laws and regulations, including 89 percent of Democrats, 85 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of Independents.
The problem isn’t that Americans don’t agree. The problem is that the corporate class doesn’t agree with this agenda, that class dominates our politics, and that class thinks it can get away with doing nothing, or with empty gestures.
With the Democracy Awakening mobilization, we’re going to shatter this illusion.
We’re going to turn people out on the streets in numbers never seen before to get Big Money out of politics, and we’re going to disrupt business as usual.
And, in joining together the demand to protect voting rights with the call to get Big Money out of politics, we’re going to build a broad and powerful democracy movement the likes of which our country hasn’t seen in the last half century.
Democracy Awakening is the start of something big and important, not the end. We need you there. We need your friends there. We need your colleagues there.
Join us and together, let’s make history.
3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
- Log in to post comments
