Dear Friends,

This pivotal time in our country requires bold action – a Democracy Movement.

Real change in the United States occurs when Americans come together and demand it. Whether it was women’s suffrage or labor or civil rights or marriage equality, grassroots movements were necessary to compel our nation to address these issues. Now a Democracy Movement is required to break Big Money’s grip on America so that we can form a government of, by and for the people that will effectively deal with today’s critical issues: climate change, affordable healthcare, money in politics, gun violence, international terrorism and immigration reform, to name a few.

Therefore, I would like to invite you to the first planning meeting of the Santa Fe Democracy Organizing Committee (DOC) at 6:30 pm on Monday, August 8, in the Community Room of La Farge Library on Llano Street in Santa Fe, where we can begin working together to make a real difference.

As my new book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America: Working Together To Revive Our Democracy, demonstrates, the dominance of Big Money not only corrupts government itself but also blocks effective action on virtually every major issue Americans care about. It then illustrates that the only force capable of challenging Big Money’s corrupt and powerful hegemony is a diverse, nonpartisan, nationwide, grassroots movement for democracy.

Democracy Organizing Committees (DOC)

Creating local DOCs in communities across the country is a realistic strategy for building such a movement. It is a viable vehicle for mobilizing Americans of all persuasions whose primary political concerns are eliminating the corrupting influence of money in politics, developing political equity so every citizen’s voice counts, and creating a political process in which our policymakers are accountable to the people and the public interest. (See www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com for more information about DOCs and building a Democracy Movement.)

If we really want a government of, by and for the people, it is up to us to make it happen. We have seen time and time again that our political leaders are too beholden to special interests and their corporate sponsors to truly serve our needs.

I urge you to attend this organizing meeting on August 8. Bring your friends and colleagues along with you. After introductions, we will discuss what a Santa Fe DOC might look like, what it could do and how it might align, or not, with other political efforts. Then we will begin planning how we can work together to revive our democracy by building a strong Santa Fe DOC in the coming months. We will end by 7:50 pm.

If you have questions about the meeting or can’t make the meeting and want to be involved in this effort, you can email breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com. I hope to see you at La Farge on August 8.

Best regards,

Bruce Berlin