Campaign Finance Reform and Economic Justice. What we now know.

[cali]

We know that democrats can divorce big money and still raise enough to compete.

That is a big deal.

Until the past year, the assumption, across the board, was that it was impossible to do.

You can say that this is unimportant or that corporate/big money has no or minimal impact on democratic politicians, while decrying it in republicans, but that's demonstrably untrue.

How campaigns are funded is a substantial part of the fight for economic justice, something I wish we could all agree, is important. I've said it repeatedly and I'll say it again: Economic justice is inextricably linked to social justice. For example, you can't achieve racial justice if schools in poor minority communities remain so woefully underfunded. Environmental degradation impacts poor and minority communities, far, far more than it does middle class white communities, let alone in wealthy communities. This isn't merely opinion, it is easily verifiable FACT. I have provided links because this isn't something that can be argued.

To forestall the inevitable, let me make it clear that I'm not saying that all racial injustice can be fixed via economic means. But I will say this: Some shop clerk wondering if Oprah could afford some astronomically priced handbag, is not on the same level as millions of minority children getting a subpar education in crumbling buildings. I don't take lightly the horrific practices of institutional racism that are not connected to economic justice. I don't discount for a minute the struggles of LGBT folks that have had little to do with economic issues (and some LGBT issues certainly are connected to economic injustice), but most social justice issues are linked to economic justice.

Reducing the impact on policy that the wealthy and corporations have on Democrats is something I wish we could all agree on. And it starts with campaign finance reform.

My intent in writing this is not inflame, but to keep in the forefront an issue I believe is critical. Economic injustice is crushing tens of millions of Americans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/public-school-funding-and-the-role-of-race/408085/

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2014/02/22/let-eat-cake-inequality-school-finance/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-poor-neighborhoods-breate-more-hazardous-particles/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/15/pollution-is-substantially-worse-in-minority-neighborhoods-across-the-u-s/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/1/racism-environmentchemical.html

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy