On Sunday, thousands of activists from around the country arrived right here in Washington, D.C. after a 10-day-long, 140 mile march from Philadelphia.

The marchers are part of a movement called Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening, and today they staged a sit-in at the Capitol Building. They plan on camping out there through the end of the week.

All of this is part of a massive, non-violent campaign to save our democracy from oligarchy.

Democracy Spring activists are calling on Congress to take action right now on a group of different bills that would take money out of politics once-and-for-all.

Kai Newkirk, one of the organizers of the march, appeared on this program and told me about its goals.

This fight, the fight against corporate control over our democracy, is, of course, the same fight that Bernie Sanders is fighting right now in his presidential campaign.

But it's also the same fight that the Founders fought more than 200 years ago when they rebelled against the British Empire and created our constitutional republic.

They just called it something different -- they called it the fight against "faction."

James Madison, the author of the Constitution, talked at length about the dangers of faction in Federalist Paper Number 10.

First defining faction as, "[A] number of citizens ... who are united and ... adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community," he then warned that, "The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced [by faction] into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished."

Many historians have interpreted Madison's words as a warning about the dangers posed by political parties. And while that's probably partially true, it's not the whole story.

A faction, as Madison understood the term, was any special interest that was "adverse [in opposition to] to the... interests of the community."

This could mean a political party that cared about its own success more than the success of the republic as a whole, but it could also mean a pressure group like the shipping industry or, to pick a more modern example, the fossil fuel industry.

This fear of faction was well-grounded in historical fact.

Madison was a student of history, and he didn't want our fledgling republic to go down the road of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, which both collapsed after being taken over by powerful special interests.

He knew, as did the other Founders, that if democracy had a fatal flaw, it was that it was susceptible to the influence of factions that could hijack public institutions and use them to their advantage.

This is why, of course, Madison and the other Founders created this thing we call our government - to protect against the power of factions with laws and regulations.

Today, though, the Founders' worst fears have been realized and factions have taken control of our political system.

They've infiltrated and largely taken over our political parties, themselves a kind of faction, and divided themselves accordingly.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Democracy Spring Is Not Being Televised... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

    

Tuesday's Daily Stack 

Article: "Media Silent as Massive Protest in D.C. Fills Jails Beyond Capacity" by Nathan Wellman.

Twitter: "#democracyspring".

Article: ""Unequal Protection": The Boston Tea Party Revealed" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Unequal Protection: The Battle to Save Democracy" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Article: "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" by Thomas Jefferson.

Event: April 2 2016 DC: "Democracy Spring".

Event: April 16-18 2016 DC: "Democracy Awakening".

Article: "100+ arrested at 'Democracy Spring' sit-in at US Capitol (VIDEO)" by RT.

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Twitter: "#democracyspring".

Bill: "Government by the People Act".

Bill: "Fair Elections now Act".

Bill: "Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015".

Bill: "Democracy for All Amendment".

Video: Cenk Uygur ARRESTED At Democracy Spring Protest In Washington D.C..

Article: "Aetna Hires Tom Daschle, Other Former Government Officials, As Feds Consider Its Merger With Humana" by David Sirota, Clark Mindock.

Article: "The Alarm, October 27, 1773" by Hampden.

Article: "Protesting 'Shameful' Greed, 40,000 Verizon Workers Set to Strike Wednesday" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "Republicans Finally Confirmed A Judge. Is This Obama's Last One?" by Jennifer Bendery.

Article: "The Vampire Chronicles" by Wikipedia.

Article: "How to Hack an Election" by Jordan Robertson, Michael Riley, and Andrew Willis.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine " by Wikipedia.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Site: "Deutsche Welle".

Site: "France 24".

Site: Free Speech TV

Site: theyrule.net

Article: "Obama can appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court if the Senate does nothing" by Gregory L. Diskant.

Article: "The Hunger Games" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 'right-to-work' law struck down" by Reuters.

Article: "Iran Hostage Crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Lebanon Hostage Crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Anita Hill" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Case: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution" .

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Case: "District of Columbia v. Heller", 2008.

Letter: "Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane", 6 Sept. 1819 "The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please."

Article: "April 13: Million Student March for Debt Reduction. Politicians Better Have Some Solutions" by Roger Hickey, Mary Green Swig, Steven Swig.

Article: "Jubilee (biblical)" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act" by Wikipedia.

Site: Down With Tyranny.

Article: "10th Amendment" "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people".

Law: "G.I. Bill" (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944) by Wikipedia.

Article: "10th Amendment" "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people".

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8. "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States".

Law: "Sarbanes-Oxley Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Redlining" by Wikipedia.

Book: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Book: "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell.

Article: "Poll: Concern About Race Relations in U.S. at New All Time High" by Caroline May.

Book: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief 

Article: "What Paul Ryan's House budget woes tell us about the continued crack-up of the Republican Party" by Lee Drutman.

Article: "Boko Haram increasingly using children in 'suicide' attacks, UNICEF says" by TMN.

Article: "With new monument, Obama and Dems seize on Equal Pay Day" by AP.

Article: "Top Democrat, in letter, blasts Valeant CEO for lack of cooperation" by Susan Heavey.

Article: "Kasich: Cruz, Trump's 'Path to Darkness' Is 'Not Worthy of the Office' They Seek" by Pam Key.

Article: "After meeting, Grassley firm that Garland won't move this year" by Seung Min Kim.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Quick Morning News - Trump rails: 'Disgusting' delegate rules / Navy officer: Spying charges / Zika: "Bit scarier" - April 12, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Quick Morning News - Delegate dash: 2016ers / Trump's "charitable" giving - not / Senate: Budget crunch time - April 11, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Paul Ryan Sorry for Calling Americans Takers, But Who Are the Real Takers?" by Lynn Parramore.

Article: "Exclusive: President Barack Obama on 'Fox News Sunday'" April 10, 2016.

Book: Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business by Rana Foroohar.

Article: "Fifteen (of Many) Reasons Why We Need Corporate Tax Reform: Companies From Various Sectors Use Legal Tax Dodges to Avoid Taxes" by Citizens for Tax Justice.

Article: "Hillary Clinton Was the 11th Most Liberal Member of the Senate" by phenry.

Article: "Port Huron Statement" by Tom Hayden (1962).

Site: Feel the Bern.

Quote: "Less government in business and more business in government" - Warren Harding.

Article: "Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Democrats Are Using Social Security As A Weapon - Against Other Democrats" by Daniel Marans.

Tweet: "I refuse to believe Paul Ryan is not running for president until Dick Morris says he is a lock to be the nominee" by Jamie Weinstein.

Article: "Land-grant university" by Wikipedia.

 

Article: "Ohio Forces Customers to Bail Out Aging Coal Plants" by Earthjustice.

Article: "Corporate And Political Corruption: The Lessons Not Learned From The Deepwater Horizon Disaster" by Farron Cousins.

Article: "This microbe makes a meal of plastic" by Sarah Schwartz.

Article: "Report: Health Impacts from Climate Change a 'New Kind of Threat' (with No Easy Cure)" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "Tapeworms and Other Parasites Can Make Good Guests" by Carl Zimmer.

Article: "Organic Food, Not Just for Hippies Anymore: How the U.S. Is Dealing With Growing Demand" by Ken Roseboro.

 

Do you have all the info you need to vote for @BernieSanders? Find it here.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

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