The Role of Business in the Democracy Reform Movement
Since the 2010 Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision, corporations have become dominant political actors by donating billions of dollars to candidates and causes, influencing legislative agendas, and perpetuating a cycle of pay-to-play politics that favors their interests rather than those of regular Americans.
Not all business leaders, however, favor this system. Increasingly, business leaders who see the harm that pay-to-play does to American democracy — and its threat to our nation’s future — are calling for the business community to get behind the 28th Amendment and other campaign finance reforms.
Three of these visionary leaders spoke during the 2021 National Citizen Leadership Conference session, “C Suite Conversation: The Role of Business in the Democracy Reform Movement,” to share the many reasons unlimited money in politics isn’t just bad for our democracy, but is also harmful to the economy, innovation and free marketplace. The panel was moderated by Lisa Lewin, CEO of General Assembly.
Here are some highlights from the session:
Donnel Baird, Founder, BlocPower
“The country is not full of hyperpartisan warriors. Regular Americans — regardless of where they stand politically in terms of how they vote — they care about most of the same baseline things. Are their kids going to have a better life? Are their kids going to be properly educated? Is their family healthy and safe? Do they have work with a purpose and with dignity? We as Americans, we share that.”
“The only way to wrest control of our government from the oil and gas corporations is by passing legislation and amendments to create a habitable planet for my son. I don’t have any idealistic loyalties to the American dream; however, I do have loyalties to my son in trying to make sure that I do everything I can as a father to take control of this government away from the fossil fuel industry. That is why the work of American Promise is so important to me.”
Hear more from Donnel Baird on:
Peter Schwartz, internationally known futurist and business strategist; SVP, Strategic Planning, Salesforce; author, Art of the Long View; Co-Founder, Global Business Network
“I see two very different futures for America. One future — the future I think we’re talking about here, that we aspire to, and that I think the founders of this country aspired to, was to give people the right to control their own future. To see the future, to make decisions, to be part of a community that makes the important decisions that shape the future for themselves and for their children and their posterity. That is the kind of vision that founded this country. The other future is a plutocratic vision — a vision of wealth and power concentrated in the hands of relatively few individuals and a fairly large number of very powerful organizations.”
“With the growth of the federal government has come this vast enterprise of corporate lobbying to achieve corporate purposes, not public purposes: changes in regulation, new legislation, incentives, and so on. And this vast machinery has intermediated between the public and the government that serves them. And they are the dominant force now shaping the future of those agencies.”
Hear more from Peter Schwartz on:
- What America Will Look Like
- The Future of America
- The Corporate Influence on Government
- Corporate Activism
Neal Simon, Former CEO, Bronfman Rothschild, 2018 Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland; author, Contract to Unite America
“We have so many forces dividing us as a society right now. We have a bifurcated media that forces the American public to live in two different realities. We’ve got politicians that spend more time demonizing each other than they do actually working for the American public. We have these ecospheres of social media where everyone hears other people echoing what they’re saying. When I think about the involvement of American companies in our political systems, I feel like it should really be focused on things that bring us together.”
“At times corporate activism can be really constructive to our democracy, when you have companies getting behind nonpartisan reforms that improve the way our government works so that it better serves the American public.”
Hear more from Neal Simon on:
- Working Across the Political Spectrum
- The Involvement of Corporate America in Politics
- Should Americans Feel Hopeful
- Corporate Activism
- American Promise
Watch their full conversation.
