It’s time the Democratic Party stops taking money from Wall Street and the mega-rich, it’s time to run campaigns fueled by the small contributions of individual donors.
In order for the Democratic Party to not be “owned” by Wall Street and the ultra-wealthy, candidates within the party need to makes pledges and not take over a certain amount from one person. When you do not take massive amounts of money, the opposing party cannot make the claim that somebody or a industry “owns” you and influences the way you vote on legislation.
To those saying this is impossible, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ran his 2016 campaign without taking money from a Super-PAC (PAC is Political Action Committee) and kept Secretary Clinton on her heels throughout the primary. In 1998, former Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin made a pledge to not spend more than $3.8 million dollars in his re-election campaign and refused outside groups to run ads on his behalf. Guess what happened? Russ narrowly won re-election to a second term, showing it’s possible.
How do we do this? Democratic Candidates, on the state, local, and federal levels must put a cap on the amount that can be given to one certain candidate from a group, union, etc. When Democrats no longer accept large amounts of money, they won’t have to kiss up to Wall Street and the mega-rich, which would lead to more Progressive policy from many in the party. Then it’s on to overturning Citizens United and re-instating all of McCain-Feingold.