We, the people are divided, seemingly on every issue. Abortion, birth control, taxes, education, labor, income inequality, military expenditures- these are the issues that will be debated during the 2012 presidential campaign and that millions of Americans are told to care about. Yet, there are very important issues that won't be debated as vigorously as birth control or taxes. Campaign finance reform and the corporate personhood issue will be dismissed by political insiders or the media as a fringe issue, something most Americans don't care about. There's only one problem.
They are wrong.
The vast majority of Americans believe that money is a corrupting influence in our political system. A poll conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice states: "77% of Americans agreed that members of Congress are more likely to act in the interest of a group that spent millions to elect them than to act in the public interest." If one reads the study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, they will notice that self-described Republicans and Democrats both agree on these issues with only a tiny fraction or percentage points separating their beliefs.
So where does this leave the average American disgusted by the levels of money and corruption in our government? The American people can do what is expected of them, to sit back and watch the foundation upon which the United States of America was founded upon crumble away... or we can do something.
I have decided to do something, which is why I have helped to organize a Rootstrikers Meetup in Chicago on June 23, 2012 and set up a facebook group to create a space to speak about these issues with others.
The task to get money out of the American political system and to end corruption will be a hard one, but it is a task worth doing. It is a task that individuals from across the political spectrum agree with. I know, because I have discussed these issues with them. This issue, in my humble opinion, is what will help restore democracy back to this great country of ours. I do not fight to change the system simply because I disagree, I fight to change our system because I love America.
We, the people, hold the power- not the career politicians.
Henry David Thoreau once wrote: "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." If we work together regardless of political ideology to strike the root of this corruption, we can restore and revive our representative democracy and strive to create the United States of America the founders of our great nation envisioned.
Join me.
