You’re not crazy, it is getting worse.

Political campaigns have always involved a fair amount of mudslinging. But in the 2012 election, the amount of slinging and the quantities of mud have skyrocketed. According to MapLight analysis, twenty-one Super PACs have raised over $433 million to spend influencing the election. Think of it as 433 million more giant barrels of mud drowning our election in corporate political speech.

This is not what a healthy democracy looks like.

So What Exactly Is a Super PAC, anyway?

Super PACs are a new kind of political action committee enabled by the infamous January 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court and a subsequent federal court case in July 2010.

Formally known as “independent expenditure-only committees,” Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, certain nonprofits, or individuals, and can then spend unlimited sums to support or oppose political candidates so long as they don’t ‘coordinate’ with the candidate’s campaign. Unlike traditional Political Action Committees, which would donate capped amounts of money to candidates, Super PAC money is simply not funneled to a candidate, enabling the Super PACs to spend unlimited dollars to buy influence over our election.

Record spending enabled through Super PACs most significantly benefits those with the most to spend and the most to gain: the corporate interests willing to spend tens of millions to get candidates in office that allow their greed to go unregulated. According to Campaign Legal Center, only a small top percentage of donors to Super PACs contribute a majority of their total funds. This corporate political speech is overpowering the voices of everybody else in this democracy.

Super PACs are Drowning Out Democracy, so What Can We Do About It?

Thousands of people are organizing to challenge the crisis in which Super PACs have placed our democracy. The solutions proposed range from campaign finance reform bills in Congress to constitutional amendments to local ordinances that prioritize community rights and decision-making. While all exciting, these victories could take years. Defending democracy means sticking with it for the long haul.

In the meantime, let’s get a big, collective “HELL NO!!!” on the record. After all, we are in the final days of the election season, and these are the moments where Super PACs are spending the most (literally tens of thousands of dollars per second) to influence your vote. So, since Super PACs are making democracy hard for us, let’s take a moment and making life hard for them, even if just for one day:

STICK IT TO SUPER PACS!

On October 25th, over a dozen organizations are partnering with Global Exchange to launch www.StickItToSuperPACs.org, a day-long action where you can tell the top-spending Super PACs exactly what you think about them. Visit the site today to Get Stickin’ and join the flood of emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, and Tweets to Super PACs that gives you, the voter, a chance to tell corporate dollars to get out of the way of democracy. Imagine your computer mouse transformed into a proverbial wrench, and then toss it into the gears of Super PACs that are drowning out everything except big-money corporate speech.

It’s not going to solve all our problems, but believe me, when I hit “send” on my letter to the top 5 Super PAC inboxes, I was happy I got to #StickItToSuperPACs today.  Sometimes it’s the little ways we take action to demand elections, not auctions, that will create momentum to usher in long term change down the line, so join me and get stickin’!

TAKE ACTION:

• Stick It To Super PACs: Visit our web page to call, email, post, and/or tweet your dissent straight to the Top 5 Super PACs.

Elect Democracy, a Global Exchange campaign, is a nonpartisan effort to expose and challenge the impact of corporate money in politics. The campaign focuses on the impact of political campaign contributions and lobbying from Wall Street and its impacts for civil society.

Follow @GlobalExchange @ElectDemocracy and @HillaryLehr for updates.

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Workshop participants in Charlotte, NC discuss how Wall Street is burning democracy, and how to put out the fire!

“Don’t Burn Democracy!” BBQs are designed to support existing or new local organizing with mini-grants for food, space, and copies of materials.

Groups are working on a broad range of issues from local greening initiatives to anti-war panels. But they do have one thing in common: a desire to resist Wall Street’s greed and unite to define and reclaim true democracy. This is the kind of organizing that lasts beyond a mere election cycle, and that is the kind of long term, local organizing we need!

Here’s how some of the participants are using our “Don’t Burn Democracy” mini-grants:

“The Green Wei sponsors monthly sustainability chats and a co-host collaborator is Occupy Newark. Our meetings are all themed now, as this helps to incentivize our contacts to engage more around the social justice issues we are promoting awareness of. Free food is a great incentive for getting people out and helps build our community.” – Kimi W., New Jersey

“Groups and people I work with in St. Petersburg FL have been successful with multiple issues (Awake Pinellas. Occupy St. Petersburg, Sierra Club. Hands Across the Sands, etc.). However, there is need for organizing in the northern part of Pinellas County…  Materials, funds and networking via GE would help make [planned] events a reality. I am an unpaid volunteer and receive no financial support from organizations I volunteer with so every small amount goes a long way.”  – George R., Florida

TAKE ACTION:

Interested in hosting a Don’t Burn Democracy BBQ in your community?

Email hillary@globalexchange.org to request a packet of materials including Elect Democracy stickers, infosheets, sample agendas and discussion ideas, and more.

-Street Heat: marches and protests demanding accountability and justice.
-Cop Heat: more militarized ‘free speech zones’ than I’ve ever seen before, ever, all at once.
-Wall Street Heat: lobbyists and campaign money burning democracy as usual.

Street Heat
“What a field day for the heat… a thousand people in the street… singing songs and carrying signs.” -Buffalo Springfield

Well, forty years later, the song strikes a chord- what a hot field day indeed! About a thousand protesters attended Charlotte’s March on Wall Street South on Sunday and several hundred others braved weather from Hurricane Isaac in Tampa to be heard at the conventions for the two major parties.

Of all the myriad problematic issues that impact communities of people living in the U.S., a common cry for money out of politics was loud and clear. It seems more evident than ever that the plutocracy of rule by the 1% is unsustainble for our communities and our planet. Protestors are calling for an end to greed and business as usual and a change in how people relate to each other: respect, mutual support, and peace.

United by both our unique differences and our shared determination to be heard and to create a better world, we spent our time marching and learning from one another and shared strategies of what’s working around the country in our efforts to build resilience. Our demands aren’t selfish or unreasonable; they are practical for the survival and health of this country.

Miami Tampa Heat

Well, we made important demands from within our ‘free speech zones’ that is. The police presence was ‘over the top’ in the opinion of a passerby flight attendant who watched the march from downtown. I must say I agree.

Something about a rightfully-angered civil society provokes an increasingly militarized response, but this cordoning off of protest to small ‘free speech zones’ and martial-law style patrolled parades diminish the visibility – in fact it invisibilizes – the many passionate cries for justice that should be heard in any healthy democracy.

Though apparently trying to keep a lower-than-usual profile, lobbyist-hosted soirees sure do attract the rapt attention of delegates, but what about the rest of us?  With Charlotte and Tampa both spending over $50 million in taxpayer dollars on ‘security’, it became clear that suppressing citizens from peacefully voicing legitimate concerns about the political process is very much a focus of this ‘security’ spending. P.S. Arresting peaceful environmental activists and using exorbitantly high bail to keep people behind bars instead of organizing? Not so cool, Charlotte P.D. Not so cool.

Wall Street is (really) Burning Democracy
While far far away on the West Coast, artists were burning a wooden replica of Wall Street, I was in Tampa and Charlotte giving workshops on how Wall Street was Burning Democracy. From homeless activists in Tampa’s Romneyville to schoolteachers who came to protest in Charlotte, it’s very clear that every single one of us can see how our communities are suffering when Wall Street uses it’s undue influence through record spending on elections to make policies in Washington keep up Wall Street’s profits at the expense of the rest of the country.

Our workshops focused on breaking out into groups so that we all had space to discuss in-depth how Wall Street impacts our lives AND to share how people are standing up to reclaim and protect democracy and their communities. It was a great opportunity to gather activists from all over the country to share, support, and strategize. We also found great potential hosts for October’s “Don’t Burn Democracy” BBQ events! Don’t forget to apply by September 15. The fact of the matter is that things are getting worse… but our resilience is getting stronger. The national dialogue and framing has shifted to include language about the 99%, about corporate greed and it’s consequences, and about what needs to change. We are making a difference, it just isn’t going to happen as fast as a burger pops out a drive-through window. Change takes time… and it takes all of us.

Let’s Put Out the Fire!!
The odds may feel slim, but don’t get burnt out- we can still make a difference. Even though it was hot hot hot, it was pretty darn cool to see so many people who are active in making change all around the country. From resisting foreclosures to fighting for accessible education, (im)migrant rights, and peace, we have a lot of friends with lots of common dreams. More and more of us are fighting to make those dreams real.

We see a small slice of that outside the RNC and the DNC, check out Global Exchange’s photo album to see everyone’s inspiring messages and demands! And we saw a lot of media listening.

No matter where you are or what you are doing, more people are listening than ever. Get out there and be heard! If money in politics is your pet peeve (it’s mine!) than use our legislative scorecard (most recently covered in the Huffington Post!) to find out how much Wall Street money your Senator or Representative received… and like Virginia Lee in Salt Lake City, write an op-ed about it if you want things to be different. Thanks again for everything you do, and thanks to all of the members of Global Exchange who helped me get to Tampa and Charlotte to organize and contribute to our movements for justice!

So… what do you think Paul Ryan’s industry loyalty rate was in our Legislative Scorecard?

Maybe you guessed it: 100%!

Congressman Paul Ryan
Credit: Creative Commons/Gage

That means on the bailout, Wall Street reform, free trade agreements, credit card regulation, and health care, Paul Ryan’s votes matched Wall Street’s lobbying position 100% of the time. Wow.

According to data from MapLight and Center for Responsive Politics, Paul Ryan also accepted over $3.2 million in campaign contributions from the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate sector for his Congressional races, a number that is now likely to go up- way up.

Take Action:

Find out how your representatives voted (and how much Wall Street $$ they received) in Elect Democracy’s recent report and legislative scorecard.

According to Wall Street, it’s worth approximately $4.2 billion. That’s how much the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sector has invested in political influence via campaign contributions and lobbying over the past six years.

That’s $1,331 dollars spent every minute since 2006 to buy political influence.

Today, Global Exchange is releasing a ground-breaking new report: “Meet the F.I.R.E. sector: How Wall Street is Burning Democracy.”

This nonpartisan report contains not only extensive research tracking Wall Street’s investment in political power, but also analyzes exactly how Wall Street has secured ‘industry-loyal voting practices’ of Congress using whopping amounts of money.

Using our new legislative scorecard from the report, you can trace how legislators from your district voted on key issues such as the bank bailout, Wall Street reform, free trade agreements and more. Not only that, but you can also see for yourself how much money they received in campaign contributions from the F.I.R.E. sector, and their ‘industry loyalty voting rate.’

There are many complex factors that impact how legislators vote, but corporate sponsorships shouldn’t be one of them.

Legislative Scorecard Graphic Credit: Global Exchange www.globalexchange.org

It is up to us to reclaim and protect democracy.

Knowing is half the battle. So please, help us spread the word. Use the Facebook and Twitter buttons to forward this legislative scorecard to family and friends. Ask them to take a look and let the numbers speak for themselves.

Remember, we’re not telling you who to vote for. We’re asking you to follow the money. Our goals are not to influence the outcome of one election, but to spark dialogue about accountability & transparency, and stop Wall Street from burning our priceless democracy.

TAKE ACTION:

• Check out our “Meet the F.I.R.E. sector: How Wall Street is Burning Democracy” report and scorecard
• Would you like a free color copy of the report? Become a Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer (GEMS) and we’ll mail you a copy;
  
• Leave a comment below:How might you or your community use these tools?

Last week, we were honored to host a panel with speakers from Code Pink, Oil Change International, and Public Citizen at the legendary Busboys and Poets in Washington DC.

Panelists from left to right: Rae Abileah from CODEPINK, Karen Showalter from Oil Change International, and Aquene Freechild from Public Citizen.

The speakers joined Global Exchange to compare notes on how undue corporate influence impacts the ability of these groups to carry out their positive missions, and share inspiration about how people are standing up to protect and reclaim democracy.

Global Exchange convened a dedicated group of activists and members to strategize about challenging corporate money in politics beyond the issue silo in which our organizations often carry out much of our work.

By speaking openly and sharing stories, we can collectively gain a more full understanding of two things: a) what’s at stake with the increasingly corporate-dominated political atmosphere and b) what’s working to take the power back.

One new tool we’re excited to share with you is our just-released legislative scorecard.

Since the Elect Democracy campaign is focused on getting the F.I.R.E. money out of our democracy, we conducted extensive research to show how members of the Senate Banking, Senate Finance, and House Finance committees voted on key issues such as the bailout, Wall Street reform, healthcare, credit card regulation, and free trade.

We compiled not only an easy-to-reference voting record, but also included data that traces how much F.I.R.E money each Congressperson received in campaign contributions, and a percentage rate to the F.I.R.E sector lobby on each bill. It is stunning to see just how much money Wall Street is pumping into our political system. How much money are committee  legislators from your district taking from the F.I.R.E. sector? Find out.

During the panel, each of our speakers shared some of the raw numbers of corporate campaign donations and lobbying coming  from the F.I.R.E. sector, war profiteers, AIPAC, oil companies, fossil fuel industries, and other sectors to foster an environment in which regulation and even plain legal accountability are difficult to achieve.

The speakers also discussed how the revolving door of industry insiders rotating into political office and back out into industry have become the new norm. A panel attendee from Occupy Monsanto gave another example of revolving door politics in the January 2012 appointment of former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor to be Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Though the stakes are high and the corporate pockets deep, there are still many forms of resistance bubbling up all over the country.

Dozens of groups will be mobilizing at the upcoming conventions and other events to challenge corporate ‘sponsorship’ of Congress. Through organizing protests, boycotts, days of action, and non-violent direct action, organizers are taking strong, collective action to confront and stop everything from foreclosure evictions to fossil fuel subsidies.

This increasing rancor has significant political ramifications during and beyond election season.  Several states (including California) along with dozens of towns, cities, and counties are standing up in favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling and perhaps extend an amendment to further curb corporate abuse of our political system. That would be a good start!

Another lesson from the panel: it is increasingly important for our organizations to amplify our message and get our (shocking) facts and tools about money in politics as far out into the public sphere as we can. As the tentacles of greed squeeze tighter, the numbers of people ready to take action and stand up for real democracy increase proportionally. It’s going to be an exciting rest of the year.

Since we were in Washington DC, we decided to meet up with our friends from CODEPINK and do a mini ‘Reality Tour’ of Washington DC and follow the money around town. Below is a sampling of our photo album documenting what we found.

Note: Unfortunately, our panelist from 350.org couldn’t make it due to illness. Hope you feel better soon, Jason.

TAKE ACTION: Leave a comment or tweet to @ElectDemocracy about how much democracy is worth to you: be creative! There are no wrong answers except ones that start with a $….

Have you signed our petition yet telling Wall Street that our democracy is NOT for sale? For those who haven’t yet, please take 10 seconds today to stand up for democracy and tell Wall Street to back off! Our goal is to get 10,000 Signatures by July 4th.

Between 1998-2008, the finance sector spent $5,178,835,253 buying power and influence in DC. Once in office, bought-and-sold legislators support and approve corporate-drafted policies that whittle away at our country’s social safety nets and vital programs and instead fund big bank bailouts that end up as big boss bonuses.

The largest campaign contributions to Congressional candidates of both parties consistently come from the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate industry (the FIRE sector, which includes big banks).

These are the very corporations that promote deregulation in favor of casino capitalism, that foreclose on the homes of veterans and families, chain students to five-figure student debt, lobby against affordable healthcare, profit from war and push harmful international free trade agreements. We must sever the finance sector’s stranglehold over our own democracy.

FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) industry campaign contributions are consistently the largest of any US sector. Source: Center for Responsive Politics

This year’s election is in danger of being bought-and-sold by big banks once again. So far, the FIRE sector has spent $253,290,163 on the 2012 election, and we are just getting started. It is up to us to stop corporate money from drowning out the needs of the 99%.

TAKE ACTION

Visit our Take Action page: You can make a difference by joining us and taking action to Elect Democracy: various ways to get involved are listed on our Take Action page;

Sign and Share Petition: Tell top-contributing banks and FIRE-sector money mongers, “Our Democracy is NOT for Sale!” Please, sign and share this petition to help us reach 10,000 signatures by July 4th!

We will prepare ourselves to join a huge wave of progressive direct action nationwide this spring. All over America, the 99% movement is getting ready for 60 days of protests, sit-ins, rallies, marches, and more this spring—all aimed and confronting the power, greed, and influence of the 1%.

I jumped in to do this because I want to see the 99% Spring take off in a big way. We’d be joining a rich tradition in this country of non-violent direct action to make the change we know we need.

It’s exciting and I hope you can be part of it!

Sign up for a training here.

Sign up to host a training here.

Our movement will be holding huge rallies in every major city on Tax Day to call out the 1% who refuse to pay their fair share. We’ll be gathering massive crowds to confront CEOs and top executives at annual shareholder meetings of Wall Street banks, dirty energy polluters, and corporations that refuse to treat workers fairly. And we’ll be doing everything we can to call out the corrupting influence of corporate money on our elections. Global Exchange’s Occupy the Elections will be part of this campaign.

At the trainings we’ll be preparing ourselves to take part in these bold actions and to build connections with other progressives who want to see a 99% Spring in America.

Me, on the streets Jan 20, 2012, hope to see you on the streets soon!

We’ll practice telling the story of what happened to our economy and what a different future could look like, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll train and plan to take direct action ourselves—in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—to win change. We have an amazing shared history of everyday people using direct action to transform the political landscape in this country from the civil rights movement to Occupy Wall Street.

This spring, I want to you join us in becoming a part of that legacy right where you live. Find out more here.