We Need to Meet this Moment: Democracy Must Conquer Fascism

Billionaires and giant corporations use large amounts of money to buy elected officials, then use that public power to make more money and more power. Solving this basic structural problem in our society is MarchOnHarrisburg’s reason for being. We exist to make corruption illegal and to build a democracy of, by, and for the people.

In this last election, the ultra-rich once again used the mechanics of legal corruption, including campaign financing and secret Super PAC spending, to buy elections and power at every level of elected office, from the White House to the State Legislature to local School Boards. The richest man on Earth, Elon Musk, won the White House by focusing on Pennsylvania. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and he effectively purchased the presidency. Now, alongside a team of billionaires, he is restructuring the federal government according to his billionaire interests.

In our nation’s greatest moments of democracy, we the people have won tremendous gains.

Through Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Civil Rights Movement, and so many other sustained popular uprisings, we earned and built great social institutions like social security, public education, labor laws, environmental and public safety protections, medicare, and more. When democracy is strong, we are organizing and winning great things.

But with every major advance in our history, a reactionary movement rises up and seeks to undo those wins and further consolidate money and power in the ultra rich. 

Project 2025 is the culmination of a reactionary movement that started in 1971 to push back against what US Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell then called, “An excess of democracy.” A necessary goal of this anti-democracy movement is to legalize political bribery. People-powered movements were doing democracy and changing the laws of our society for the better. To consolidate power and further enrich the rich, ‘One person, one vote’ needed to be crushed and replaced by the principle of ‘One dollar, one vote.’ Through Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo, and many other court rulings, executive actions, and legislative (in)actions, bribery became more and more legal over the last 50 years. The billionaire class constantly battles against democracy, and it just won another victory against democracy and the working class. Heaping plagues upon plagues, they are openly destroying parts of the federal government that constrain their power and help people, all under the sarcastic and sneering guise of ‘efficiency.’

Illustration by Ben Clarkson

It was written 1500 years ago in the Talmud that “Whoever takes a bribe brings fierce wrath into this world.”

We are living through wrath brought on by systemic corruption, whether it be the dismantling of the federal government, the ongoing denial of healthcare, low wages and high prices, the war economy, the cost of raising a family, housing shortages, systemic racism and cruelty toward immigrants, climate change, and more. Mussolini’s definition of fascism was when the state and big corporations merge into one functional unit. Big business acquired our government in a hostile corporate takeover fueled by legalized bribery. 

We have reached this point of overt corporate-state fascism and deep social crisis largely because of the power of scapegoating and being conditioned to turn on one another and punch down at our neighbors instead of orienting our fight upwards, at the corrupt death-grip that the billionaire class has on our political system. 

The way out of wrath and toward peace is through democracy.

We will only achieve peace by chasing bribe-toting big money special interests out of our elections and our halls of power. And so we continue our long march to democracy together.

We encourage everyone to work to heal the wounded and slow the wreckage from the federal level. MarchOnHarrisburg is part of the Declaration for American Democracy and the Poor People’s Campaign. We work through these coalitions and our various allies to take nationally coordinated action together, as well as statewide action across our various issue fronts (immigration, healthcare, debt, democracy, and more). Please join the #anti-fascist channel in our Slack to stay up to date on protests, calls to action, and other actions to slow the ongoing take-over.

At the same time, we are a state-based movement and our basic mission does not change with any election (click here to read our latest organizational update).

Our mission is to reorient our entire political system away from big money and toward the people. To end the billionaire takeover and build the democracy we deserve, we must build our statewide power and win concrete anti-corruption laws. For our country, we must do our part in Pennsylvania (the Keystone State) to make it illegal for billionaires to buy elections here, and we must make our ballot box into the meaningful accountability tool that it is supposed to be. The need has never been greater for us to pass our Money Out, People In agenda into law: Ranked Choice Voting, Campaign Finance Reform, the Gift Ban, Multinational Corporate Super PAC Ban, Ending Gerrymandering, and more.

We can offer you several immediate actions to take (go to Giftban.org to take action now!), but the truth is that winning requires many actions taken by many people sustained over time. Right now, just like in 2017, there is a lot of activist energy and enthusiasm. This is an incredible thing. 

Illustration by Monica Trinidad

If you are new to activism or reengaging for the first time in a while, welcome!!!

We strongly encourage you to keep doing what you are doing, and to also get organized for the long haul so your energy can be as focused and productive as possible. Please join us and sign up at www.MarchOnHarrisburg.org, email us at info@mohpa.org, or send us a message on Slack or social media. We will then meet with you one-on-one to figure out how you want to get involved (or deepen your involvement). We will plug you into the work, connect you to the proper resources and training that you need to do the work, and then you are in MarchOnHarrisburg actively fighting for democracy!

To organize people into collective action, we must also organize our resources, including money. Please make a donation to sustain MarchOnHarrisburg. (And we also accept donated teslas…)

The suffering of our times is immense, and the work is daunting. We have to win democracy or we further collapse into fascism, oligarchy, and suffering. Do not feel stuck, the absolute worst thing we can do is nothing. 

When feeling overwhelmed by the suffering, I often turn to this Kafka quote to energize me to dive back into the work: "You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world. That is something you are free to do... But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid."

We need to organize today, tomorrow, and for years to come. That is what this moment demands of us.

History constantly moves forward, and we must steer it towards a democracy that values humanity.

For Love and Democracy,

Rabbi Michael Pollack

Executive Director of MarchOnHarrisburg and Statewide Tri-Chair of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign

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