The Campaign Reform Initiative will protect the paychecks of working Californians against this system of involuntary extraction. It will end the shakedown and restore to union members the right of all other Americans to decide if and how they will spend their money for political purposes. The CRI requires simply that unions and employers get workers' permission in writing before money can be deducted from their paychecks to be spent on political activity. This right goes to the very heart of American democracy and what it means to be an American. In the United States, the legitimacy of all government action depends on the consent of the governed.
Citizens give their consent to be governed through elections.
By voting, we exercise our fundamental right to be part of the majority who decides how we are to be governed and by whom. But in an election campaign, massive spending by a special interest can deluge individuals with information, true or false, and in so doing deny them other information. By controlling the flow of information, the special interests can often mold and shape individual voters' beliefs and attitudes to create a majority to win the election. The power to amass money to build an election campaign war chest is the power to control the flow of information, and to elect public officials who share or will be responsive to the agenda of a generously supportive special interest. It is one thing if the war chest which brings such political power is amassed by voluntary contributions of numerous individuals.