Skip to main content

Close

Dear Common Dreams Reader,
We will get straight to the point: Today we ask you to help Common Dreams during our mid-year fundraising drive. To maintain our independence, we will never run ads or take corporate funds. To maintain your privacy, we will never rent or sell your email address or your meta-data. Over twenty years ago, we created our media model -- non-profit, funded by thousands of small contributors -- guaranteeing us the independence to speak truth to power. We rely on readers, like you, to provide the "people power" that fuels our work - with donations averaging about $31. If you agree that non-profit, reader-supported independent media is needed now more than ever, please donate today. We can't do it without you. Thank you. -- Craig Brown, Co-founder

$15 $27 $50 $250 Other

Support independent journalism. Common Dreams brings you the news that matters.Donate Now

Zephyr Teachout

Zephyr Teachout ran for governor of New York State in 2014. She teaches constitutional and property law at Fordham University Law School. Her latest book, Corruption in America, is a history of the corrosive influence of money in politics.

Articles by this author

	Views Thursday, August 31, 2017 Google Is Coming After Critics in Academia and Journalism. It’s Time To Stop Them About 10 years ago, Tim Wu, the Columbia Law professor who coined the term network neutrality, made this prescient comment : “To love Google, you have to be a little bit of a monarchist, you have to have faith in the way people traditionally felt about the king.” Wu was right. And now, Google has... Read more
	Views Friday, May 12, 2017 Trump and the Art of the Lie As a presidential candidate last year, Donald Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” He didn’t shoot anyone, but proved that he could say whatever he wanted and still become president, without apology or explanation. This week, when... Read more
	Views Thursday, January 19, 2017 Donald Trump Will Violate the Constitution on Day One T hus far, the debate over Donald Trump’s refusal to sell his assets has focused on whether he might use his position to make himself even wealthier, in ways that most people would regard as corrupt. But earlier generations of Americans—including the founders of our country—would have seen his... Read more
	Views Thursday, January 21, 2016 6 Years of Citizens United Six years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC . It is not a happy anniversary. I remember waiting for the ruling and opening it up on my computer: when I finally read it, I didn't want to believe that the Court had gone as far as it had and been so careless... Read more
	Views Wednesday, December 09, 2015 10 Reasons I Support Bernie Sanders for President I first saw Bernie Sanders speak in early November 1993, when I went to a brown bag lunch he held for voters in Montpelier, Vermont, a few days before NAFTA was passed. At that lunch, he explained how NAFTA would undermine workers rights, and American democracy. He turned out to be years ahead of... Read more
	Views Tuesday, November 17, 2015 Will President Obama Leave a Failed Legacy on Secret Money in Politics? President Barack Obama has said he ran for office because he believed "so strongly that the voices of ordinary Americans were being drowned out by the clamor of a privileged few in Washington." Obama's popularity among the Democratic base in '08 and '12 was due in large part to his seemingly... Read more
	Views Monday, March 02, 2015 The Path to Freedom From Corruption Goes Through My State — And Your State The system is rigged and broken. A small number of people have far too much political power in America. There is a clear way out, and it starts in the states. In the past, quick anti-corruption reform has started in the states. Until the late 19th century, ballots were mostly public, leading to... Read more