A whopping 16 billion dollars were spent on the 2024 election cycle this past year. Our previous election laws served as little more than cruel jokes as wealthy megadonors such as Elon Musk were able to curry favor and openly buy influence by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Super PACs and other forms of dark money.

It is genuinely difficult for the average person to imagine just how much money 16 billion dollars is - and for what? Are we as a country better off for spending all that money? Did our donations "save democracy" as DNC fundraisers were to have you believe? Considering where we are now, the better question may be - isn't it time we put a stop to this nonsense?

You know as well as I do - our democracy (or what we call our democracy) is far worse off now because of all this money. 

Growing up, I was raised on understanding the value of a dollar. I got started down the path of campaign finance reform and working for Move to Amend because, as a young man, I was shocked by the exorbitant amounts of money that were, in my mind, effectively wasted on elections. Where did all that money go? It didn't seem to stimulate the economy beyond the pockets of a couple political strategists and television advertisers. Wasn't someone going to win regardless of how much money was spent? 

Times are tougher now than they were then for the average American. Largely as the result of Citizens United and the influx of dark money in politics, the value of that dollar has gone down as corporate influence, price gouging, and general brazenness have all gone up. Meanwhile, our ruling class politicians sit on their hands and play their little political games, worrying not about the real issues facing their constituents but about the minor inconveniences facing their rich donors.

Enough is enough. Again, I ask, is there not something better we can be spending this money on? It's time we stopped investing in elections and started investing in fundamental change.

With that in mind, I hope you'll consider investing in real change this holiday season and making a donation to Move to Amend so that we can continue doing the work of getting money out of politics.

As an entirely grassroots funded organization, I assure you we'll stretch those dollars much further than any Super PAC or political party will. Unlike our elections, a little goes a long way - you need not be a billionaire megadonor in order to make a difference.