Research

Rescue Democracy from the Special Interests

Big money has corrupted our democracy. Some might say democracy is not part of an economics agenda. But the same financial elites and corporations that buy and sell politicians use that political power to rig the economy so the top .01 percent gets massively richer while incomes decline for the rest of us. The Citizens United decision gave corporations the right to spend unlimited money in politics. We pledge to reverse it, through a constitutional amendment, if necessary.

We will stop the attack on voting rights which has escalated to just as a new majority of people of color, young people and working women has begun to exercise new power. We will fight for public financing of elections that bans corporate and big money – and for electoral reforms, like public matching of small donations, so people’s candidates to compete with the candidates of the plutocrats. Finally, we pledge to change national and local political party structures so that progressive candidates get a fair shake in the nominating process and in general elections. And we will build a new progressive majority that can take back our democracy and our economic system.

    • According to Pew, most Americans want to limit campaign spending, and believe new laws would be effective in reducing role of money in politics (May 2018).
    • A large majority of Americans (76%) – including identical shares of Republicans and Democrats – say money has a greater role on politics than in the past. Moreover, large majorities of both Democrats (84%) and Republicans (72%) favor limiting the amount of money individuals and organizations can spend on campaigns and issues [77% of all Americans]. (PEW, 2015)
    • A similar 74% say most elected officials “don’t care what people like me think”; just 23% say elected officials care what they think. (PEW, 2015)
    • Polls consistently show that over 70 percent of both Democrats and Republicans want Citizens United overturned, and more than a dozen states have already called for an amendment to address the decision in one way or another.” (2017)
    • “Opposition to a [Supreme Court] nominee who’ll throw out contribution limits and give big donors and corporations more influence in elections is both broad and deep. Overall, 78 percent are more likely to oppose the nominee (56 percent much more likely to oppose), including 92 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of Independents, and 59 percent of Republicans.” (Greenberg Research, 2017)
    • A Rasmussen Reports poll shows that just 32% of Democrats believe Hillary Clinton wont the Democratic nomination fairly, while 47% say that the Democrats’ electoral system was rigged against Sanders. (Nov 2017)
    • According to a 2017 bipartisan poll conducted by Democratic research Celinda Lake and Republican analyst Ashlee Rich Stephenson, 80 percent of Democrats, 68% of independents, and 65% of Republicans would back action by the Supreme Court to define a standard that ends extreme partisan gerrymandering.
    • 2017 poll by the non-partisan group Democracy North Carolina, found that 80% of North Carolina voters think “it’s not fair for politicians to draw their own districts (inlcuinding 85% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans, and 80% of independents). A majority of both Democrats and Republicans said they would be more likely to vote for candidates who support an impartial method of drawing voting districts