Democracy Matters
About Us
Democracy Matters informs and engages college students and communities in efforts to strengthen our democracy. With campus-based chapters throughout the country, we focus on the issue of private money in politics and other pro-democracy reforms. Democracy Matters in this way encourages the emergence of a new generation of reform-minded leaders.
Student activism is essential to achieving the political reform that our country so badly needs. Our national network of Campus Coordinators mobilizes student ideas and enthusiasm to energize the national movement for campaign finance and democratic reform.
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Democracy Matters emphasizes the importance of community activism. Socially conscious students and concerned citizens can create a powerful force for deepening democracy.
Democracy Matters works with faculty and students to bring issues of democracy into the classroom. We offer service learning models, course components, and an extensive list of resources for students and faculty interested in addressing issues of democracy in the classroom.
The organizing experience that students derive from participating in Democracy Matters programs nurtures a lifelong commitment to civic action and social change. It prepares students for political involvement and leadership in a wide range of movements-from campaign finance reform, to social justice, civil rights, workers rights, and environmental reform.
The Democracy Matters Institute is supported in part by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the East Bay Foundation, the General Service Foundation, and the Proteus Fund. We would also like to thank Adonal Foyle and our many individual donors for their generous support.
The Democracy Matters Institute, Inc. is organized and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The materials posted on this website are educational in purpose. The problems cited therein are with the electoral finance system. The Democracy Matters Institute does not intend to target any specific politician or party.
Election 2008: TV spending to reach 3 BILLION dollars
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Like, this isn't a waste of money at ALL...
A wide-open presidential race and a willingness by candidates, interest groups, unions and corporations to buy TV time will lead to historic spending for political and issue-advocacy advertising in the 2008 election cycle, an analysis shows.
Police Brutality (or, Sometimes the World Makes Me Want to Purge)
So this is probably getting around by now, but I want to post this anyways.
Very recently, a UF student-Andrew Meyer, was arrested and tasered by UF police at a John Kerry speech in Gainesville, FLorida. After having his mic cut, Meyer was dragged from the mic by the police, while yelling "why am I being arrested?!" and "help me!". As the police dragged him from the auditorium, he began to resist the officers (All 5 of them) and so they threw him to the ground and tasered him. I linked two videos below, and you can hear the taser go off, as well as Meyer's screams of pain.
Dig on This
So I just got this e-mail today. I think it poses a good question. What are everyone's thoughts?
"Dear activists, colleagues, and friends,
Well Fox News went to new lows in their analysis of Petraeus' testimony last week, when our friends at Media Matters let us know that they had 7 to 1 analysts in favor of escalation. It was hard to believe, even for FOX!
Friday Open Thread
The mood of the country (ahem...BAD)
White House: Gonzales controversy is Congress's fault. (the NERVE! of these people)
Gee. I wonder if these things are related.
Supreme Court poised to make another mistake--Campaign Finance Reform law challenged
McCain-Feingold, which was already a pitiful, pathetically weak attempt at finance reform, is in danger of being struck down by the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court justices yesterday expressed serious concerns about the legality of key portions of the McCain-Feingold Act, raising the possibility that the court may strike down or sharply limit part of the landmark campaign-finance law heading into the 2008 presidential election.