Lucas,
Here's something rather alarming to consider.
Forbes recently updated its list of billionaires.
Each of the notorious Koch Brothers — Charles and David, the 6th and 7th richest men alive — are now estimated to be worth $40 billion.
That's up $6 billion each from just a year earlier, which was up $9 billion each from just a year before that.
I guess it really does take money to make money. If you have billions to begin with.
But wait, there's more.
Total spending in the 2012 federal election — for the White House and every open seat in Congress — was $6.3 billion.
It was the most expensive election ever.
Yet the Koch Brothers could have easily covered that record-smashing tab all by themselves just with the amount their already vast wealth increased in a single year.
Let me say that again: The Koch Brothers alone could pretty much fund every candidate for federal office without even eating into their unimaginable fortunes.
Then there's casino magnate and funder of the far-right, Sheldon Adelson.
And Karl Rove's dark money Crossroads outfits.
And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
And Exxon Mobil, Goldman Sachs, Comcast and all the other mega-corporations that "are people too."
We face this basic choice: democracy or plutocracy.
I know where I come down, and where you do, too.
It's time to roll up our sleeves.
Nobody is doing more than Public Citizen — that's YOU — to defend democracy from billionaires and Big Business.
We ARE the front lines in the battle for the very heart and soul of this country.
I'd be a fool if I thought we could match wallets with the Koch Brothers.
Heck, their actual wallets probably cost more than what it takes to run this organization for a day.
But what we do together as Public Citizen — the victories we amass even though the odds are against us at every turn — demands a baseline level of financial resources.
That's why offers like the $100,000 Matching Gift Challenge on the table right now are so critical to our shared success.
By leveraging your support with that of thousands of other Public Citizens, our collective strength is orders of magnitude more than any of us would ever have individually.
So please — if you haven't yet, or if you can give a bit more — contribute right now while your donation will qualify for the $100,000 dollar-for-dollar match.
With the virtually infinite stockpiles of cash the Koch Brothers and other enemies of progress have at their disposal, we simply cannot afford to leave money unclaimed as we gear up for the fight of our lives.
Thank you for your support.
Onward,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen