Dollarocracy (64 page)

161
. Alina Selyukh, “Storm of Anti-Obama Text Messages Linked to Virginia Firm,”
chicagotribune.com
, October 31, 2012.

162
. Goodstein is the founder of Revolution Messaging, LLC, and he served as external online director for Obama for America. You can learn more about him at
http://revolutionmessaging.com/about-us/
.

163
. Scott Goodstein, “An Open Letter to FCC Chairman Genachowski—Take Action and Stop Political Text Spam,” Huffington Post, May 31, 2012.

164
. Ibid.

165
. Dave Nyczepir, “FCC Takes Up Text Message Spam: The Legality of Text Message Spam Depends on Who You Ask,”
Campaigns & Elections
, October 25 2012,
http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/333042/fcc-takes-up-text-message-spam.thtml
.

166
. Ibid.

167
. Turow et al., “Americans Roundly Reject Tailored Political Advertising,” 27.

168
. Beckett, “Dark Money Political Groups.”

169
. Peha, “Making Political Ads Personal.”

170
. Turow et al., “Americans Roundly Reject Tailored Political Advertising,” 26.

171
. Margaret Rock, “ITTO: How Political Ads Target You,”
mobiledia.com
, August 8, 2012.

172
. Mason, “What's the Future?”

173
. Mike Farrell, “Advanced Advertising: Data Will Drive Addressable Market,”
multichannel.com
, November 13, 2012.

174
. Turow et al., “Americans Roundly Reject Tailored Political Advertising,” 26.

175
. Quoted in Wells, “Microtargeting.”

176
. Turow et al., “Americans Roundly Reject Tailored Political Advertising,” 4.

177
. Kate Kaye, “Obama's Approach to Big Data: Do as I Say, Not as I Do,”
adage.com
, November 16, 2012.

1
. Irving Dilliard, ed.,
Mr. Justice Brandeis, Great American
(St. Louis: Modern View Press, 1941), 42.

2
. John Evan Seery,
A Political Companion to Walt Whitman
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011), 298.

3
. Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Randolph, 1799, ME 10:126. This letter is found in
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
, Memorial Edition (Andrew Adgate Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds.), published in 20 volumes in 1903–1904. Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States.

4
. Alexander Keyssar,
The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
(New York: Basic Books, rev. ed. published in 2009).

5
. Garrett Epps, “Voting: Right or Privilege?,”
The Atlantic
, September 18, 2012.

6
. Ibid.

7
. See Robert W. McChesney,
Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
(New York: New Press, 2013), chap. 3.

8
. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Cycles of American History
(New York: Mariner Books, 1999).

9
. Ibid., 24.

10
. Thurgood Marshall, “Remarks at the Annual Seminar of the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Law Association,” Maui, Hawaii, May 6, 1987,
http://www.thurgoodmarshall.com/speeches/constitutional_speech.htm
.

11
. To understand the scope and significance of Shays' Rebellion, a 1786–1787 revolt by Revolutionary War soldiers in Massachusetts, reread Gore Vidal, “Homage to Daniel Shays,”
New York Review of Books
, August 10, 1972; and Howard Zinn,
A People's History of the United States
(New York: HarperCollins, 2005).

12
. Darren Staloff,
Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2005). The core discussion of the exchanges can be found on 305–309.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Brad Plumer, “‘We Have to Fix That,' but Will We?,”
Washington Post
, November 8, 2012.

15
. Teddy Roosevelt, “The New Nationalism,” August 31, 1910,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/archives-president-teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism-speech
.

16
. Paul Steinhauser et al., “CNN Poll: Majority Think Government Is Broken,” CNN, February 21, 2010.

17
. Frank Newport, “Debt, Gov't Dysfunction Rise to Top of Americans' Issue List: Fewer Americans Now Cite Unemployment as Most Important Problem,” Gallup Politics, January 14, 2013.

18
. Steinhauser et al., “CNN Poll.”

19
. It is important to note the deep democracy component of the Occupy movement. Though undercovered by much of the media, the Occupy Wall Street activism that took form in September 2011 advanced a steady and serious critique of campaign finance and election issues. Occupy activists linked this critique
to the economic concerns that the movement discussed, making the critical point that giving more power to the people is one of the best ways to assure that economic choices are made with an eye toward the needs of all Americans. See William Greider, “The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street,”
The Nation
, November 22, 2011.

20
. John Nichols, “Feingold Fears ‘Lawless' Court Ruling on Corporate Campaigning,”
The Nation
, January 13, 2010.

21
. Rachel Weiner, “Obama Suggests Constitutional Amendment in Reddit Chat,”
Washington Post
, August 29, 2012.

22
. John Bonifaz, Steve Cobble, and other coordinators of the Free Speech for People movement spoke regularly with John Nichols about these changes during the period from 2010 to 2013. Bonifaz also addressed the evolution in a fine interview published January 1, 2013, by the Wisdom Voices project. The interview can be found at
http://wisdomvoices.com/john-bonifaz-the-face-of-democracy-2013/
.

23
. Free Speech for People, “Analysis: America Is Now One Quarter of the Way to Amending the Constitution to Overturn Citizens United,” November 7, 2012,
http://freespeechforpeople.org/sites/default/files/StateProgessPressRelease.pdf
.

24
. Move to Amend, “Election Results: Move to Amend Initiative Resolutions Win Big,” November 7, 2012,
https://movetoamend.org/election-results-move-amend-initiative-resolutions-win-big
.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Interview with Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, January 23, 2013. Weissman provided details regarding many of the grassroots campaigns described in this section and discussed strategies for advancing constitutional reform and a variety of related initiatives.

27
. Move to Amend, “Election Results.”

28
. Memo prepared by Public Campaign's Nick Nyhart, shared with authors, January 18, 2013. John Nichols wrote about the memo and many of the campaign-finance reforms outlined in this section in “The Election Reform Moment?,”
The Nation
, January 30, 2013.

29
. Interview with Weissman.

30
. Timothy Karr, “Left in the Dark: Local Election Coverage in the Age of Big-Money Politics,”
Free Press
, September 2012. We have spoken regularly to Copps about this issue, as he has worked with Free Press and Common Cause in his post-FCC years.

31
. Dave Boyer, “Softer Campaign-Finance Bill Offered by McCain, Feingold: McConnell Promises to Defeat Measure Again,”
Washington Times
, September 17, 1999.

32
. Jaron Lanier, “The False Ideals of the Web,”
New York Times
, January 18, 2012.

33
. Andy Kroll, “The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics: A Month After President Obama Won Reelection, America's Most Powerful Liberal Groups Met to Plan Their Next Moves. Here's What They Talked About,”
Mother Jones
, January 9, 2013.

34
. Formed by Josh Silver, with whom we worked to create and develop Free Press, United Republic is online at
http://unitedrepublic.org
.

35
. Free Speech for People, “Analysis.”

36
. John Bonifaz interview with John Nichols, May 22, 2011.

37
. John F. Kennedy, “Remarks in Nashville at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University,” May 18, 1963. Accessed March 11, 2013, at:
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-in-Nashville-at-the-90th-Anniversary-Convocation-of-Vanderbilt-University-May-18-1963.aspx
.

38
. John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, “After ‘Citizens United': The Attack of the Super PACs,”
The Nation
, February 6, 2012.

39
. For a detailed assessment of how different countries approach campaign-finance rules and regulations, public financing, and free-airtime issues, see Reginald Austin and Maja Tjernström, eds.,
Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns
(Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2003). The information in the handbook is regularly updated online at
www.idea.int/
.

40
. Ralph Negrine, Party Election Broadcasts, Sheffield University,
http://pebs.group.shef.ac.uk/
(accessed February 8, 2013).

41
. Adlai Stevenson, “Speech at the Democratic National Convention,” August 18, 1956,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=75172
.

42
. The original McCain-Feingold legislation, as advanced in the mid-1990s, featured a plan for free airtime. Compromises to advance the legislation scrapped the plan. But McCain and Feingold returned with a new proposal in 2002. Here's a link to background on the “Our Democracy Our Airwaves” campaign that sought to promote it:
http://www.wisdc.org/freeair.php
.

43
. Quoted in Herbert Joseph Muller,
Adlai Stevenson: A Study in Values
(New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 174.

44
. See Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols,
The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again
(New York: Nation Books, 2011).

45
. Ibid.

46
. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the OAS (Organization of American States) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and the ACHPR (African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, “Joint Declaration on the Media and Elections,” May 15, 2009,
http://www.osce.org/
.

47
. Thomas Jefferson letter to Littleton Waller Tazewell, January 5, 1805. Accessed March 9, 2013, from Jefferson, Thomas, and others. Sixty-eight letters to and from Jefferson, 1805–1817, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.

48
. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President at Hampton University Commencement,” May 9, 2010.

49
. Chris Hogg, “Japan's Old-Fashioned Campaigning,” BBC, July 12, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6292602.stm
; and Coco Masters, “Japan's Twitter-Free Election Campaign,”
Time
, August 18, 2009.

50
. Masters, “Japan's Twitter-Free Election Campaign.”

51
. Randolph T. Stevenson and Lynn Vavreck, “Does Campaign Length Matter? Testing for Cross-National Effects,” paper delivered at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting, held in Chicago, April 18–20, 1996. A longer version of the argument is found at
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/vavreck/bjps.pdf
. We differ with some of the conclusions of this paper, but we respect its review of the arguments for and against short campaigns, the literature on various sides of the issue, and the comparisons provided in terrific charts.

52
. Ibid.

53
. In regard to direct observation, John Nichols, a commentator for the BBC, RTE-Irish Radio, and Al Jazeera English, has covered politics and elections in more than a dozen countries around the world, with particular focus on Britain, Canada, Ireland, India, Israel, Italy, and South Africa. For statistical measures of political engagement, see Judith Torney-Purta, Carolyn Henry Barber, and Wendy Klandl Richardson, “Trust in Government-Related Institutions and Political Engagement Among Adolescents in Six Countries,”
Acta Politica
39, no. 4 (December 2004): 380–406.

54
. International IDEA, Voter Turnout survey,
http://www.idea.int/vt/index.cfm
. The International IDEA Voter Turnout Website contains the most comprehensive global collection of voter turnout statistics available. Regularly updated voter turnout figures for national presidential and parliamentary elections since 1945, as well as European Parliament elections, are presented country by country using both the number of registered voters and voting age population (VAP) as indicators. Accessed March 9, 2013.