The 7^th annual Campus Progress National Conference kicked off on July 6^th with a focus on how young people can build political power to overcome the corporate domination of our democracy. The opening panel was entitled “Reclaiming Democracy: Overcoming Special Interest Domination of Politics.” Panelists included Lee Fang, Researcher at ThinkProgress.org and the Center for American Progress Action Fund; Rob Weissman, President of Public Citizen; David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of Mother Jones; and Angela Peoples, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Campus Progress and panel moderator.

With the floodgates now open for unlimited corporate spending in our elections due to the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision, Weissman explained that incumbents are completely reliant on corporate money to keep them in power. And meanwhile, progressive candidates are up against endless special interest spending. Corn stated that institutional corruption has now been legalized and that political candidates are watched by corporate special interests more than their constituents.

Lee Fang pointed out the direct special interest influence on college campuses. The Koch brothers, for example, were mired in controversy when they bought out public university departments, hired and fired professors and commissioned university studies that conformed to their extreme ideological and political agenda.

But Weissman pointed out that 90% of the public already gets it – public sentiment is strongly in favor of ending the corporate domination of our political system. This issue hits close to home for young people and students in particular, who, as Lee pointed out, are most affected by the influence of corporate special interests on their future.

In his keynote address President Bill Clinton affirmed the widespread effort to drown out the voices of young people and other marginalized groups in the political process with the introduction of controversial Voter ID laws:

"There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today."

With over a thousand young leaders from across the country readily informed about the corporate takeover of our democracy, building a movement for fair and clean elections is now the clear solution to the challenge posed to this generation.

To learn more about Campus Progress go to their website here: www.campusprogress.com.

Check out Public Citizen’s initiative calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling and reclaim our democracy: www.DemocracyIsForPeople.org.

To mobilize your college campus against the corporate takeover, consider an organizing internship with www.democracymatters.org.