What could be worse than Citizens United for our nation?‏

From Laura Avant, MoveOn Activist:

McCutcheon vs FEC, that’s what.  As Dave Felice of the CWA explains about Citizens United, “The floodgates opened wide and total spending for the 2012 election cycle exceeded all estimates and expectations at $7 billion, according to FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub. That kind of money can only be acquired from the wealthiest of donors: the special interests of big business and their lobbyists. Our elected officials subsequently became beholden to big money interests like never before.”

Soon, it is likely to get worse. Any time between Feb. 24 and the end of June, the Supreme Court will announce its decision in the McCutcheon vs. FEC case. This decision will determine whether the limit on political campaign contributions from individuals, now at $123,200 per election cycle and more than twice the annual median income in the country, will be increased to as much as $6 million (that’s right, six million dollars). If the Citizens United case is a precedent, then it is likely that the Court will rule in favor of McCutcheon, and our political finance system will be flooded by enormous amounts of special interest money coming from a very small number of exceedingly wealthy individuals.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. If you would like to join the hundreds of thousands of Americans of all political persuasions who are fed up with an increasingly polluted campaign finance system and are actively organizing for change, please do two things. First, learn about the issues. Good websites to start with are democracyisforpeople.org, moneyout-votersin.org and movetoamend.org.

While you are on the Money Out/Voters In site, go to the Find an Event section and sign up to participate in one of the Rapid Response events that will be held all across the country on the day that the McCutcheon ruling is made.  The Denver demonstration and march will start at 5:00 at Civic Center Park.”

Please follow the link and sign up for our event.  That way I can stay in touch with you by phone and let you know when the decision is announced so that you can join us that afternoon for a rally and funeral procession to mourn the death of our democracy and many of the rights and institutions that we have taken for granted until this huge influx of corporate money changed the political landscape.  Dave is right:  democracy is not a spectator sport.  Join us and let the nation know that we are not pleased with rule by the 1% for the 1% while the rest of us struggle and lose our political voice.