At age 68, I was arrested this week for he first time in my life. My misdemeanor offense, and that of my more than 400 fellow arrestees, was blocking the front of the U.S. Capitol. We did it because big money is blocking us, and all ordinary Americans, from being heard – or at least heeded – by Congress.
Don’t believe it?
Look up the rigorous academic study (Gilens and Page) in 2014 that found the influence of ordinary Americans on policy decisions made by Congress to be “near zero.”
Polls show that most Americans understand that billionaires and corporations have far too much political clout, and that their power is growing. But too few of us are raising hell about it or talking about it at all, so Congress all but ignores the issue, and few news organizations are holding Congress’s feet to the fire. The main reason is the erroneous belief – which I shared until a few years ago – that there is little we can do about it.
In fact, restoring equal citizenship for all with small-dollar citizen-funded elections, repealing or blocking voter suppression laws, and overturning the poorly reasoned and disastrous Citizens United ruling would be easy if all of us who support such reforms would demand that Congress do its job and enact them.
So join us, and do it now!
Sit-ins at the Capitol will continue for a week as part of Democracy Spring/Democracy Awakening, which are non-partisan and non-violent. If you can’t come to Washington, please call or write or email your members of Congress and enlist your friends, family and elected officials at every level to support these common-sense, moderate and essential reforms. Speak up and act, not once but every chance you get, over and over, until we get our democracy back. We owe it to our children and grandchildren and to the countless Americans who have fought and died at home and abroad for a government that truly is of, by and for the people.
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Joe Magruder is a retired reporter and editor and a Vietnam veteran. He has worked against big-money politics since 2013 as a member the New Hampshire Rebellion. He lives in Concord, N.H.
