We Can Take Back Control of the Government

They Have the Money. We Have the Votes.

To make it happen, we need to spread the word.

(Chat GPT)

The people of this country are not outnumbered. They are outspent, out-amplified, and too often kept in the dark.

That is the real problem. The rich and the corporations do not control government because they are the majority. They control too much of it because they have money, lobbying power, institutional access, and a media structure that often has strong financial incentives to protect the existing order rather than seriously challenge it. Since Citizens United, wealthy interests have had far more room to pour money into politics, and in the 2024 federal cycle dark money reached a record $1.9 billion. 

That money does not just buy ads. It buys influence, repetition, and silence. It helps decide which ideas are treated as “serious,” which abuses are normalized, and which facts never break through to ordinary people. A system flooded with big money is a system in which donors and organized wealth can speak constantly, while working people are heard only in fragments. 

And corporate media are part of that problem.

The point is not that every reporter is corrupt or that every newsroom is part of a conspiracy. The point is structural. Large media companies are corporations. They answer to owners, investors, advertisers, ratings pressure, and merger logic. In such a system, there is a built-in tendency to defend the status quo, to soften criticism of concentrated wealth, to prefer spectacle over explanation, and to give far too little sustained attention to the machinery by which money rules. Research on media concentration notes rising ownership concentration in U.S. media markets; one recent overview says Gannett controls about one-sixth of U.S. local daily newspapers after its 2019 merger. 

That concentration matters because democracy depends on public knowledge. When ownership narrows and local reporting collapses, the public gets less of the information it needs to govern itself. Medill’s 2025 State of Local News report found that 212 U.S. counties had no local news source at all, 1,525 had only one remaining source, and about 50 million Americans lived with limited or no local news access. Pew found that 85% of Americans say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to their community’s well-being. 

So the answer is not to wait for corporate media to save the country from the forces corporate media are poorly designed to confront.

The answer is individual communication.

If powerful institutions have the money and much of the megaphone, then citizens have to become the messengers. The truth has to move from person to person: in conversations, emails, texts, flyers, meetings, posts, phone calls, letters, and direct messages to elected officials. Facts that stay trapped in reports do not defend democracy. Facts become powerful only when ordinary people carry them into ordinary life.

That is not wishful thinking. Research in political science has long found that interpersonal communication and social influence can shape participation. One major field experiment found that social pressure substantially increased turnout, and another found strong spillover effects within households, with about 60% of the propensity to vote passing to the other member of the household. A broader comparative study likewise found that social influence works independently of formal mobilization. 

In other words: individual communication is not a side issue. It is one of the main ways democratic energy spreads.

That matters especially now, because the public is often overwhelmed with noise and starved of explanation. Many people know that something is wrong, but they do not always know how to name it. They see corruption, inequality, unaffordable care, weak labor protections, monopolies, and political paralysis. But unless someone connects the dots, those problems remain isolated frustrations instead of a shared public understanding. Person-to-person communication is how scattered anger becomes common knowledge, and common knowledge is how a majority begins to act like one.

This is why the truth has to be repeated clearly and relentlessly. The public needs to hear that the country is rich, but its wealth has been steered upward. The public needs to hear that concentrated money has distorted elections. The public needs to hear that corporate media have incentives to normalize the system that benefits corporate power. The public needs to hear that this arrangement is not natural, not permanent, and not beyond democratic repair. 

They have the money. We have the votes.

But votes matter only when people understand what they are voting against, what they are voting for, and how badly they are being misled. If the public sees clearly, money loses some of its disguise. If citizens start telling one another the truth at scale, the silence begins to break. And when the silence breaks, the grip of wealth on government can break with it.

Printable references

1. Brennan Center for Justice, “Citizens United, Explained” (updated January 29, 2025). Explains how the ruling expanded the political power of wealthy donors and outside spending. 
2. Brennan Center for Justice, “Dark Money Hit a Record High of $1.9 Billion in 2024 Federal Races” (May 7, 2025). Documents record secretive election spending in the 2024 cycle. 
3. Northwestern Medill, “The State of Local News 2025” (October 20, 2025). Reports 212 counties with no local news source, 1,525 with only one, and about 50 million Americans with limited or no local news access. 
4. Pew Research Center, “How Americans view their local news media” (May 7, 2024). Finds that 85% of Americans say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to community well-being. 
5. Gregory J. Martin, “Media Consolidation” (working paper, 2024 version surfaced in 2026). Reviews increasing ownership concentration in U.S. media markets; notes Gannett’s large share of local daily newspapers. 
6. Gerber, Green, and Larimer, “Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment” (American Political Science Review, 2008). Shows that social pressure can substantially increase turnout. 
7. Nickerson, “Is Voting Contagious? Evidence from Two Field Experiments” (American Political Science Review, 2008). Finds strong household spillover effects from voter mobilization. 
8. Bimber and Stockmann, “Social influence and political participation around the world” (European Political Science Review, 2022). Finds social influence operates independently of formal mobilizing communication. 

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