A "rapid response" protest today here in Syracuse against the horrible McCutcheon decision should have been a moment for broad movement-building but ended up alienating me, for one. A coalition of groups had organized the events across the country, but ours appeared to have been solely a Green Party event. After a speaker argued that this would galvanize opposition across all kinds of interest groups, the crowd started chanting, "Mr. President 1%, Who do you represent?" I'm not a knee-jerk apologist for Obama, but I'm a pretty loyal, progressive Democrat, and I just couldn't see how he was the number one enemy in this instance. I mean, he opposed the decision, and his Court appointees did, too.
I would love to hear other people's positive stories about how to mobilize for real campaign finance reform without driving wedges between potential allies.