A lucky day for democracy
Today is a lucky day for those who believe democracy, by definition, is government for the people, not corporations, because yesterday, well — it was an unlucky day for corporate lobbyists and the Wisconsin representatives they flew in to feature at a $1,000-a-head fundraiser.
Yesterday evening the Washington Examiner’s “Beltway Confidential” wrote, “An employee on the scene said that the crowd numbered about 2,000 people, and they’d taken over the building’s lobby.”
The connection is clear between the ridiculous fundraising efforts to bolster the campaign coffers of the Wisconsin representatives who, along with Koch brother darling Gov. Scott Walker, pushed to end collective bargaining against the opinion of the majority and the dangerous state we find ourselves in. As Public Citizen’s own Lisa Gilbert said in a piece in The Hill entitled, “License to Spend”
:
Thanks to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission decision, it’s a whole new world for corporate power.
Public Citizen helped promote yesterday’s protest to the media and our activist networks and, of course, joined the actual demonstration, which shut down streets and seemed to come as a surprise to many suited folks in the building.
While BGR Group, the lobbying firm hosting the campaign fundraiser bash, tried to spin the uprising as pure folly, ABC News’ Arlette Saenz captured the sentiment of the crowd when she spoke with protester Jonathan Backer who, like many others, had traveled from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate:
“It’s such a good
representation of what’s wrong with our democracy right now. There’s so much corporate power in our democracy where literally seconds after one of the worst anti-labor decisions that’s ever happened in the Midwest, you’ve got a big fundraiser going on here, right here in D.C.,” Backer told ABC News.
Please join our online community and check out our new website www.democracyisforpeople.org for more about yesterday’s protest and to learn how you can help Public Citizen pass a constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United v. FEC ruling.