The 1% of the 1%
Last week, we told you about how mega-donors are drowning out the voices of everyday folks in the presidential campaign. A small handful of people with the deepest of pockets have been shelling out more cash on this election than most of us will even see in our lifetime.
Via The Fix , we see that the Sunlight Foundation has a revealing, shocking analysis . As The Fix summarized, “One-hundredth of one percent of the American public is responsible for one-quarter of all the cash given to political campaigns.”
That’s right. The 1% of the top 1% of donors (political donors who give $10,000 or more a year) is pouring money into elections for everything from school board members to the president, in an attempt to override our democracy and tilt the system even more toward the interests of the wealthy. In fact, “[ in] the 2010 election cycle , the average One Percent of One Percenter spent $28,913, more than the median individual income of $26,364 .”
Most of these donors listed themselves on disclosure forms as corporate executives and live in high-income areas of major cities like New York City, home of the U.S. financial industry.
And this is just what we can see. Giving to 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations—that are not required to disclose the source of their funds—is the favored playground for the mega-rich and their corporations when trying to buy elections.
The article also points out that in 2010 super PACs were just getting started. That means we’re going to see even more money enter politics from the upper crust this year than ever before, as the richest of the rich try to control everything from the state house to the White House for their own interests.
But you and I still have the most important tool of all—our vote. No matter how many millions of dollars the 1% gives to candidates, political parties or super PACs, they only get one vote, just like you and me.
And if you join the union movement’s ground game and take to social media to influence your entire personal network, then you can multiply your voice in a much more heartening way than rich people like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson.
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You can stand up to the money avalanche by volunteering with your local union, central labor council or Workers’ Voice for neighborhood canvasses, phone banks and other actions—and you can help make sure voting rights are protected for all by visiting the AFL-CIO's My Vote, My Right site here .
