The Other Half of Our Democracy We Must Fix

All eyes are on the Presidential race, and that’s good. But the fight to #fixdemocracy relies just as much on how we change Congress — and it starts with every one of us.

With the recent activity around money in politics and the presidential election, it’s easy to forget that the campaign to #FixDemocracy has another important part: Congress.

Why? For one, Congressional races are where dirty and dark money is flowing now that Republicans have failed to stop Trump. That includes the Koch brothers, with their almost $900 million locked and loaded for the election cycle.

That flow of money isn’t just dark and dirty, much of it is also out-of-state. In fact, data compiled by Open Secrets shows that even House members who rank in the top ten for amount of money taken from in their state still receive an average of one out of every three dollars from out of their state. When looking at Senators, the best ten still get two out of five dollars out-of-state.

That matters, because we elect our congressional candidates in both the Senate and the House to represent our state and local interests. A Congress member’s ability to do that is compromised when out-of-state interests are getting in the way.

Money also makes it harder to access your Congress member. One study found that your Congress member is four times more likely to meet with you if you have money to donate than if you don’t.

Congress Also Holds the Keys to Our Issues

To be sure, the next president will have a load of important powers, from stopping fossil fuel extraction on public lands, to seeing through President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. But for all the power the next president will have, the collective power of Congress matters just as much.

It will be Congress that will need to approve future UN climate treaties. It will be Congress that will need to pass federal climate legislation. And it will be Congress that will need to work with administrative actions like Clean Power Plan. Today’s Congress hasn’t come near that kind of functionality, and fossil fuel money — both in-state and out-of-state — hasn’t helped.

The issues go beyond climate and the environment, since all progressive campaigns — from voting rights to women’s rights to immigration rights — depend on an uncorrupted and functioning Congress. Just ask Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court has been blocked by Congress members under the Koch network.

What You Can Do

There may be 535 members of Congress, but your Senators and House member should be uniquely beholden to you. And while money from industries like fossil fuel industry has been getting in the way, politicians know they can’t ignore pressure from voters.

What can you do?

• Start a petition through our website and ask your candidates to sign our #fixdemocracy pledge.
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, highlighting the issue of money in politics and asking candidates to the sign the pledge.
• And yes, like Greenpeace organizer Eva Resnick-Day, engage with your candidate one-on-one.

Want to tell Washington exactly what you think? Join the Democracy Awakening, April 16–18, for a rally around Congress, lobby day, and non-violent direct action at the Capitol. Details on how to get there and where to stay included.

Already, ten House and Senate candidates have signed the pledge, including:

• Jamie Raskin (MD-08)
• Zephyr Teachout (NY-19)
• Kevin Stine (Senate, OR)
• Ana Sol-Gutierrez (MD-08)
• Jeff Jones (MD-08)
• Joe DeMare (Senate, OH)
• George Gluck (MD-06)
• Alan Grayson (Senate, FL)
• Von Hougo (Senate, CA)
• David McDevitt (WA-03)

It’s a cause that can go farther than you may think. Just ask Ananya Singh of New Jersey, a volunteer with Greenpeace’s National Activist Network, whose campaign on local Congressman Leonard Lance to sign the #fixdemocracy pledge was recently covered by her town paper.

Democrat or Republican, environmentalist or not, cleaning up our democracy matters to all of us. The movement to #fixdemocracy is already heating up around the presidential race. Let’s bring the heat to our Congressional candidates too.

Engage you Congress member by visiting the Democracy Pledge website.

Originally published at www.greenpeace.org on April 12, 2016.