WELCOME…THE GOOD & THE BAD…MONEY ON MY MIND… IDEA & QUOTE OF THE MONTH…EXCITING NEWS…FACTS YOU CAN USE
WELCOME BACK!
I am excited that this Spring we will again have Democracy Matters students working on and off their campuses throughout the United States to get big money out of politics and people back in. Join us!
Adonal
THE GOOD & THE BAD
Just one day apart, January 20th and 21st, the good and the bad about American politics was demonstrated. The juxtaposition was striking!
The 20th was Martin Luther King’s Day – the celebration of a grassroots social movement of ordinary people that succeeded in changing the face of this country.
But on the 21st we remembered the terrible Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United, unleashing ever more money into the political system – enabling a wealthy elite (less than 1%) even more power to control the political process.
The lesson is obvious. It takes a grassroots social movement – like the one Democracy Matters is part of today – to solve the most pressing problems of our society. So honoring the civil rights, union, environmental, women’s, anti-war and LGBTQ movements, let’s celebrate the growth of our own movement to end the role of big money in politics. And let’s get to work!
Read Martin Luther King’s speech from August 1963.
Read about the fallout from Citizen’s United.
MONEY ON MY MIND
Congress is ignoring climate change and its threat to future generations. Jay Mandle explores explanations for this failure, concluding that, once again, it is the political power of wealth that is the villain.
Read the full article and explore other issues of MOMM.
ORGANIZING IDEA OF THE MONTH
Valentines for Politicians: We 
campaign finance reform!
Sending personal letters to elected officials is always important. But this month, DM chapters will really get their attention by making Valentines Day cards. Urge your representatives to support the public financing of campaigns – to get big money out of politics and people back in.
Send them hand-made Valentines with a message! Get creative, make up your own messages, and table with materials so others can send Valentines too!
See other Action Campaign ideas.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Rising inequality and declining mobility are bad for our democracy. Ordinary folks can’t write massive campaign checks or hire high-priced lobbyists and lawyers to secure policies that tilt the playing field in their favor at everyone else’s expense. And so people get the bad taste that the system is rigged, and that increases cynicism and polarization, and it decreases the political participation that is a requisite part of our system of self-government.” President Obama on Increasing Inequality, December 4, 2013.
Read Obama’s full speech here.
EXCITING NEWS: The Fight for Reform Heats Up
CONGRESS: Congressman John Sarbanes will introduce the “Government by the People Act” next week. The bill will create a small donor matching system of public funding for qualified candidates for the House of Representatives. Senator Dick Durbin is expected to introduce a similar bill in the U.S. Senate later this month.
NEW YORK: The fight to pass public campaign financing, “FAIR ELECTIONS” in New York State is alive and well. After losing last year by just one vote in the legislature, Governor Cuomo has again called for the public financing of campaigns and included it in his budget. And Senator Elizabeth Warren used her first speech in New York City to urge New Yorkers to get big money out of politics with campaign finance reform.
Democracy Matters is proud to be a key participant in both the national and state coalitions fighting for public financing of election campaigns.
Check out this cool 1 minute video about Fair Elections in New York.
FACTS YOU CAN USE: Politicians’ (legal) Sprees with Lobbyists
A front page article in the NY Times detailed vacation “sprees” that lobbyists and lawmakers go on together. From three day ski vacations at the upscale resort town of Vail Colorado to trips to Palm Beach Florida, lawmakers pay for expensive vacations for and with scores of DC lobbyists. “‘It’s become kind of the norm’ said Vic Fazio, a lobbyist and former Congressman.”
These are “destination” fundraisers for big donors and lobbyists, “50-100 of whom typically attend the event, [and] generally donate between $1,000 and $5,000 each to the politician.” This gives them hours of “face-time” with lawmakers, “time that would be impossible to arrange in Washington.” The sprees are paid for by politicians’ “Leadership PACs” using “the money collected from corporate executives and lobbyists who are indirectly footing the bill.”
Just two of the twenty “fancy getaways” detailed in the NY Times:
1. Republican Congressman Dave Camp of Michigan hosted a ski outing that cost his Leadership PAC $63,000 at the St. Regis Hotel in Deer Park, Utah.
2. Democratic Senator Steny Hoyer of Maryland invited lobbyists and donors to the Ritz-Carlton in Puerto Rico to the tune of $93,000.
“The shocking thing in Washington is not what is illegal – but what’s legal!” commented Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center.
Read the entire article here.
To honor our 2013 activists, we list ten Democracy Matters chapters in each E-News: Colgate University…Elmhurst College…Florida State University…Gettysburg College…Hamilton College…Harvard University…Iona College…Lehigh University…Marshall University…McDaniel College…
More Campus Chapters.