In a Huffington Post op-ed last week, Christina Gagnier, who is running for Congress in California’s 35th district, hit the nail on the head about the impact that big money in politics is having on the millennial generation. Gagnier writes,
They are exposed to a political system for the first time that seems like now more than ever, money is the primary driver of any action. Since this generation is not in the position to vote with their dollars, they are having a hard time finding or even justifying having a place in our democracy.
Gagnier says that she asks college students working with her campaign what they think would make different about politics today, if they could change one thing. The answer is almost always the same: money in politics. One young person said:
If I could change one thing about politics, I would change how corrupt the whole political process is. At present, a lot of corporations and unions donate to politicians and political candidates in order to sway votes. The amount of power a person has in the political realm really depends on how much money they have, which is unacceptable.
Decisions like Citizens United have created a world in which special interests and billionaires can hijack the political process and where the policy agenda is not focused on the issues that the millennial generation, or the American people care the most about. It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that Americans prefer cockroaches and traffic jams to Congress. And it is why a poll released yesterday found that 73 percent of likely voters support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. We need more candidates, like Gagnier, to put money in politics issues at the center of their campaigns.