Building Coalitions Against Extraction: How Bipartisan Reform Defeats Special Interests
This concluding article in the Money in Politics series explores the essential ingredient for lasting reform: broad coalitions that transcend partisan divides. Earlier parts traced how wealth captures democracy and highlighted solutions from clean elections to constitutional change. Now we turn to the power of coalition—Americans joining together around shared constitutional principles to defeat extraction and strengthen democracy.
In 1906, the most unlikely political alliance in American history formed to destroy the most powerful extraction machine ever built.
Republican trust-buster Theodore Roosevelt joined forces with Democratic populist William Jennings Bryan. Progressive firebrand Robert La Follette allied with conservative business leaders. Farmers, manufacturers, and urban workers—groups that usually fought each other—united against a common enemy: the railroad monopolies that had purchased American democracy.
The railroads owned the Senate. They literally owned it. Senators were chosen by state legislatures, and railroad money controlled those legislatures. Railroad barons didn’t just influence policy—they wrote it. They set shipping rates that could destroy any business that opposed them. They crushed competitors through purchased politicians, not better service.
The coalition that formed against them seemed impossible. Conservatives and progressives agreed on almost nothing. Urban manufacturers and rural farmers had opposing interests. Republicans and Democrats fought bitterly over every issue.
Except one: political power shouldn’t be for sale.
The Hepburn Act of 1906 shattered railroad control over American commerce. The coalition achieved what seemed impossible: they broke the most powerful monopoly in American history. Not through revolution or violence, but through democratic action by citizens who refused to let wealth own their government.
Today’s extraction system operates the same way. Corporations purchase politicians. Industries write their own regulations. Wealth translates directly into political power. The solution requires the same approach that worked in 1906: Americans across every divide uniting around the simple principle that democracy can’t be bought.
The Architecture of Successful Reform
Focus on Process, Not Policy
The most powerful reform coalitions focus on how democracy works, not what policies it produces.
Process reforms unite people who disagree on everything else. Conservatives who want limited government and progressives who want expanded programs both need a functioning democracy. Business owners who want less regulation and workers who want more protection both need representatives who listen to them, not donors.
Connecticut’s Citizens’ Election Program succeeded because it focused on process. Republicans and Democrats both hated the corruption that infected their state. They disagreed on taxes, spending, and regulation. But they agreed that politicians shouldn’t be bought.
When coalitions focus on specific policies, they fracture. When they focus on democratic process, they endure. Public financing doesn’t predetermine whether conservative or progressive policies win. It just ensures that voters, not donors, make that choice.
Distinguish Extraction from Enterprise
Reform succeeds when it carefully separates legitimate business from extraction systems.
Most business owners hate the current system. They want to compete through better products and services, not political connections. They’re tired of donation requests. They resent competitors who succeed through lobbying rather than innovation.
Small businesses especially suffer under extraction. They can’t afford lobbyists. They don’t have revolving door connections. They lose when big competitors purchase regulatory advantages. For them, reform means finally competing on merit.
Even many large businesses prefer fair rules consistently applied over special favors that might disappear. Predictable, transparent governance serves business planning better than corrupt favoritism that shifts with political winds.
The key is framing: this isn’t anti-business reform. It’s pro-competition reform. It’s about freeing markets from political manipulation. It’s about ensuring the best businesses win, not the most politically connected.
Build Structures That Survive Political Storms
Effective coalitions create organizational structures that maintain cooperation despite political turbulence.
Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus includes former officials from both parties. They disagree on most policies. But they agree on democratic reform. The organization provides space for that agreement while respecting disagreement on other issues.
RepresentUs bundles reforms that appeal to different constituencies. Transparency appeals to good government types. Lobbying restrictions appeal to populists. Ethics enforcement appeals to rule-of-law conservatives. Everyone gets something they want.
Common Cause maintains state chapters that adapt national reform goals to local contexts. Red state chapters emphasize constitutional governance. Blue state chapters emphasize democratic equality. Same reforms, different framing.
These structures matter because coalitions face constant pressure to fracture. Every election creates winners and losers who might abandon reform. Every scandal creates opportunities for partisan advantage. Strong structures keep coalitions together through these pressures.
Conservative Arguments for Reform
Free Market Competition
True conservatives believe in market competition, not crony capitalism.
When businesses can purchase political favors, it destroys fair competition. Success should depend on innovation, efficiency, and customer service—not political donations. The current system rewards extraction over excellence.
The carried interest loophole exemplifies this corruption. Private equity managers pay lower tax rates than teachers because they purchase political protection. This isn’t free market capitalism—it’s rigged market extraction.
Small businesses make this argument viscerally. They can’t compete when larger rivals buy regulatory advantages. They lose not because they’re worse businesses, but because they can’t afford political influence.
Reform creates genuine competition. When politics can’t be purchased, businesses must compete on merit. The best companies win, not the most connected. That’s what free markets are supposed to deliver.
Constitutional Governance
The Founders explicitly warned against faction and corruption. They designed a system to prevent concentrated interests from capturing government.
Madison wrote in Federalist 10 about the dangers of faction. Hamilton warned about wealthy elites establishing dominion. The entire constitutional structure aims to prevent exactly what unlimited political spending creates: minority faction controlling majority governance.
Originalists should support reform. The Constitution explicitly gives Congress power to regulate elections. The Founders would be appalled by corporations—which didn’t even exist in their modern form—claiming constitutional rights to buy elections.
National Security
Foreign money in American politics threatens sovereignty. Current loopholes allow foreign interests to influence elections through corporate subsidiaries and dark money networks.
Security officials consistently warn about foreign political influence. Russia, China, and other adversaries use political spending to shape American policy. When elections can be bought, foreign powers will buy them.
Closing these loopholes isn’t partisan—it’s patriotic. Protecting American democracy from foreign manipulation should unite everyone who values national independence.
Anti-Corruption
Conservatives hate government waste and corruption. The current system institutionalizes both.
When politicians depend on donors, they make bad decisions. They support wasteful programs that benefit contributors. They create complicated regulations that advantage incumbents. They expand government in ways that serve special interests, not public needs.
Clean government is smaller government. When corruption decreases, so does waste. When special interests can’t purchase subsidies, spending decreases. When regulations serve public purposes rather than private interests, bureaucracy shrinks.
Progressive Arguments for Reform
Democratic Equality
Political equality is the foundation of all other equality. When wealth determines political power, every other form of equality becomes impossible.
The current system recreates aristocracy. A tiny wealthy elite makes political decisions for everyone else. This violates basic democratic principles that progressives have fought for since the founding.
Seattle’s democracy vouchers show the alternative. When everyone has equal political resources, diverse candidates emerge. Working-class communities gain representation. Democracy starts looking like the population it serves.
Without reform, progressive goals remain impossible. Single-payer healthcare can’t pass when insurance companies own politicians. Climate action can’t happen when fossil fuel money controls Congress. Worker rights can’t advance when corporations purchase labor policy.
Economic Justice
Economic inequality and political inequality reinforce each other. Breaking this cycle requires addressing both.
Wealthy elites use political power to increase economic advantages. They purchase tax cuts, regulatory favors, and subsidies. These economic advantages generate more wealth for more political spending. The cycle accelerates inequality.
Reform breaks this cycle. When political power can’t be purchased, economic policy serves broader interests. Progressive taxation becomes possible. Labor rights can advance. Environmental costs get internalized.
This isn’t about punishing success. It’s about ensuring success comes from productive work, not political manipulation. When extraction ends, genuine value creation gets rewarded.
Corporate Accountability
Corporations should serve stakeholders, not just executives. Political spending often serves executive interests at everyone else’s expense.
Workers suffer when their companies spend on politicians who oppose worker rights. Consumers pay higher prices when companies purchase monopoly protection. Communities suffer pollution when corporations buy environmental deregulation.
Shareholder democracy would align corporate political activity with stakeholder interests. Workers should have input when companies take political positions. Communities should know which companies fund which causes.
This creates market-based accountability. When corporate political activities become transparent, market forces create discipline that regulation can’t achieve.
Movement Building
Campaign finance reform enables every progressive movement. It’s the reform that makes all other reforms possible.
Climate activists can’t win when fossil fuel money controls Congress. Healthcare reformers can’t succeed when insurance companies own committees. Civil rights advocates can’t advance when private prisons purchase politicians.
Every progressive movement eventually hits the same wall: money. The interests they challenge have billions to spend on political influence. Until that changes, progressive goals remain dreams.
Reform unites these movements. Environmental groups, labor unions, civil rights organizations—all need democracy that works. Together, they’re stronger than any special interest.
Coalition Success Stories
Connecticut: From Corruption to Reform
Governor Rowland’s conviction created unique conditions for reform. Both parties felt tainted by corruption. Public disgust ran deep. Business leaders worried about the state’s reputation.
The coalition that formed included strange bedfellows. Liberal unions joined conservative business groups. Good government organizations worked with partisan politicians. Everyone had different reasons, but all wanted corruption to end.
The Citizens’ Election Program they created survived because the coalition held. When Republicans tried to repeal it, Democrats defended it. When Democrats tried to weaken it, Republicans insisted on maintaining standards. The coalition protected reform from both parties.
Twenty years later, 85% of candidates use public funding [29]. The coalition’s success proves that bipartisan reform can endure partisan attacks.
Arizona: Citizens Override Politicians
Arizona’s clean elections came through ballot initiative, not legislative action. Politicians wouldn’t reform themselves, so citizens did it for them.
The 1998 campaign united diverse groups. The League of Women Voters provided organizational structure. Common Cause supplied policy expertise. Labor unions mobilized voters. Business reformers provided credibility.
Opposition came from predictable sources: incumbent politicians and their donors. They spent millions defeating reform. But the coalition had something money couldn’t buy: authentic grassroots support.
The initiative passed with healthy margins. It survived court challenges and repeal attempts. Even today, it maintains 70% public support despite constant attacks. The coalition proved that citizens can override corrupted politicians.
Maine: Persistence Pays Off
Maine’s reform took multiple attempts. The coalition lost before it won. But it learned from defeat and kept building.
The first attempt in 1995 failed narrowly. The coalition regrouped, expanded outreach, and refined messaging. Rural voters who initially opposed reform became supporters when they understood it would amplify their voices against urban money.
The second attempt in 1996 succeeded. But implementation faced obstacles. The legislature tried to underfund the program. The coalition had to return to voters with another initiative to secure funding.
This persistence created deep roots. Maine’s system survived because the coalition never stopped defending it. Reform isn’t a one-time victory—it requires sustained commitment.
International Proof That Reform Works
Canada: Conservative-Liberal Cooperation
Canada achieved comprehensive reform through genuine bipartisan cooperation. Conservative and Liberal parties both recognized that unlimited spending corrupted governance.
The key was focusing on shared values. Both parties wanted fair competition. Both opposed foreign influence. Both recognized that public cynicism threatened democratic legitimacy.
Their reforms work. Contribution limits keep influence accessible to ordinary citizens [39]. Corporate bans prevent business from dominating politics. Short campaigns reduce costs and focus attention.
Canadian conservatives don’t suffer from these limits. They win elections regularly. Canadian businesses thrive without purchasing politicians. The economy ranks among the world’s most competitive.
Germany: Constitutional Balance
Germany’s Constitutional Court consistently upholds campaign finance restrictions as compatible with free speech [42]. They recognize that unlimited spending undermines democratic discourse.
The German approach balances multiple values. Free expression matters, but so does democratic equality. Individual participation is protected while corporate influence is limited. Public and private funding complement each other.
This balance serves both democracy and capitalism. Germany maintains Europe’s strongest economy alongside robust democratic participation. Businesses compete through innovation, not political manipulation.
The Common Thread
Successful reforms worldwide share characteristics:
- Broad coalitions that transcend partisan divisions
- Focus on democratic process over policy outcomes
- Distinction between legitimate business and extraction
- Sustained commitment beyond initial victory
These patterns prove that reform isn’t just possible—it’s normal. Most democracies limit money in politics. The American system is the aberration.
Building Tomorrow’s Coalition
Finding Common Ground
Americans agree on more than media coverage suggests. Polls consistently show:
- 85% want money out of politics [51]
- 72% support public campaign financing [54]
- 94% believe politicians listen to donors over voters
- 66% of Republicans want Citizens United overturned [51]
This consensus crosses every divide. Rural and urban, conservative and progressive, rich and poor—all recognize that money corrupts democracy.
The challenge isn’t building agreement. It’s translating agreement into action. That requires coalition structures that survive political tribalism.
Organizational Architecture
Successful coalitions need:
Bipartisan Leadership: Co-chairs from different parties provide credibility and prevent partisan capture. When both sides have skin in the game, both protect reform.
Diverse Membership: Business groups, unions, faith organizations, and civic associations all bring different strengths. Diversity creates resilience.
Clear Principles: Agreement on core principles while allowing disagreement on specifics. Everyone supports clean elections even if they differ on implementation.
Local Chapters: National coordination with local autonomy. Different regions need different approaches and messages.
Sustained Funding: Reform takes time. Coalitions need resources for the long haul, not just election cycles.
Message Discipline
Effective coalitions maintain message discipline:
- Anti-corruption, not anti-business: Focus on extraction, not enterprise
- Process, not policy: How democracy works, not what it produces
- Constitutional, not radical: Restoring founding principles, not revolution
- Practical, not theoretical: Proven solutions, not untested theories
- Hopeful, not cynical: Change is possible, has happened before
This messaging attracts rather than repels. It invites participation rather than demanding ideological purity.
The Path from Here
The railroad barons seemed invincible in 1900. They owned legislatures. They controlled commerce. They crushed opposition. Six years later, they were broken.
Today’s extraction system seems similarly invincible. Corporations own Congress. Dark money controls information. The Supreme Court protects corruption. But history shows that extraction systems fall when citizens unite against them.
The elements for successful reform exist:
- Proven solutions that work in practice
- Growing public disgust with corruption
- Business leaders tired of extortion
- Politicians exhausted by fundraising
- International examples showing alternatives
What’s missing is the coalition to connect these elements. That’s where citizens come in.
Join organizations fighting for reform. Support clean elections candidates regardless of party. Pressure businesses to support reform. Make campaign finance a voting issue.
Most importantly, build bridges across divides. Find conservatives who hate crony capitalism. Find progressives who want democratic equality. Find business owners who want fair competition. Find workers who want representation.
The coalition that breaks extraction won’t agree on everything. It doesn’t need to. It just needs to agree on one thing: democracy shouldn’t be for sale.
The founders gave us a Constitution. The progressives gave us antitrust. The civil rights movement gave us voting rights. Each generation must defend democracy from its era’s threats.
Our threat is money. Our task is clear. Our coalition is forming.
Join it.
Sources
All sources cited in this article are available in the comprehensive bibliography for this series: Bibliography – Money in Politics Series
The Complete Series
- Part 1: The Auction Block Democracy – How the fundraising treadmill corrupts representation
- Part 2: The Shadow System – The influence infrastructure beyond campaign contributions
- Part 3: Clean Elections – Proven solutions that actually work
- Part 4: Constitutional Reform – Structural changes democracy requires
- Part 5: Building Coalitions Against Extraction – How bipartisan reform defeats special interests
Each article stands alone, but together they provide a comprehensive roadmap for freeing democracy from wealth capture.
