Can National Grassroots Push Depose the 'Billion Dollar Democracy'?

A new report released Thursday puts an exclamation point on the outlandish and outweighed influence that wealthy individuals and corporations have in a post-Citizens United world by showing that a mere 32 wealthy donors--with an average gift of almost $10 million each--gave as much money to largely unregulated Super PACs in 2012 than all the country's individual small donors gave to the Obama and Romney campaigns combined.

And though the 2012 election is behind us, many activists--now equipped with the experience of what a modern democracy controlled by millionaires and billionaires looks like--are hoping that fundamental changes can be made to correct the corrosive impact of shadow money and undue influence.

As the new report by U.S. PIRG and Demos, "Billion-Dollar Democracy," shows, those 32 multi-million dollar gifts, in essence, outweighed the collective voice of 3.7 million individuals who gave individual and transparent campaign contributions to the candidate of their choice. Moreover, most did so under a veil of secrecy using shadow non-profit groups and shell corporations created specifically to launder political giving by masking the identities of financial sources.

"Americans who are wondering why it seems tougher to get ahead or even get a fair shake in today's economy should look to big money politics for answers," said Adam Lioz, report co-author and Counsel for Demos. "When a tiny group of wealthy donors fuels political campaigns, they get to set the agenda in Washington, and the rest of us are left to argue over that agenda."

And U.S. PIRG's Blair Bowie, the report's other co-author adds: "The first post-Citizens United presidential election confirmed our fears that the new unlimited-money regime allows well-heeled special interests and secret spenders to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens."

Thanks in large part to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v FEC, the 2012 election was the most expensive in the history of the world.

But now, the reality of this new world of campaign giving, coupled with nationwide attempts in 2012 making it hard for many poor and vulnerable people to vote, has prompted many to demand an end to such preferential treatment of the wealthiest in a democracy engulfed in cash and renewed calls for broader and more equitable poll access.

"At the same time we've seen record amounts of unaccountable corporate money spent on elections, we've also seen a deliberate attack on the rights of voters to participate in our democracy," said Aquene Freechild, senior organizer for Public Citizen, which is hosting nationwide events this weekend for its ongoing Democracy Is For People campaign.

According to the group, concerned citizens and voters will gather across the country in the coming week to demand an end to the combined threat of unlimited corporate spending and resurgent voter suppression tactics found in many states.

To voice their outrage and demand fundamental change, progressive groups--including Public Citizen, NAACP, U.S. PIRG, Common Cause, MoveOn, Organic Consumers Association, League of United Latin American Citizens, Hip Hop Caucus and others--have planned nationwide days of action called Money Out/Voters In taking place this coming weekend.

As Public Citizen's president Robert Weissman, along with advocate Mark Green, wrote regarding the events that will bring "public interest, labor, voting rights and faith groups" together under one banner and cause:

Generations of traditional campaign finance groups have worked against a democracy-for-sale. And heroic voting rights groups have long sought to fulfill Dr. King's plea at the Washington Monument in 1957: "Give us the ballot! Give us the ballot!" But rarely have these two communities worked together to stop the rigging of the political system. Until we ensure that popular majorities become public law, it will be hard to accomplish so much of what is urgent--a more progressive tax code, immigration reform, climate change legislation, a living wage, labor reform and gun violence reduction.

So on January 19, scores of groups and thousands of people around the country will organize around a three-part Democracy-for-All program: a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United; public funding of public elections, in Washington and state capitols; and guaranteed voting rights so potentially 50 million more Americans can vote [in the next election].

Such events seem prove what the authors of the 'Billion Dollar Democracy' concluded as well.

In an op-ed published alongside their new report, Lioz and Bowie write: "The outsized role of money in our elections is a dark cloud over our democracy--but there is a silver lining. Not since Watergate has there been so much energy behind finally building a democracy in which the strength of a citizen's voice does not depend upon the size of her wallet."