People For the American Way
Mission: “To promote the American Way and defend it from attack, to build and nurture communities of support for our values, and to equip those communities to promote progressive policies, elect progressive candidates, and hold public officials accountable.”
Able to boast a long history of defending the “American way,” People for the American Way (PFAW) has been working for more than three decades to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy. PFAW was co-founded by TV producer and activist Norman Lear, the late Rep. Barbara Jordan, and a host of other civic, religious, and business leaders.
Current Democracy Work
Money-out-of-politics is one of the group’s focus areas. Its website provides a wealth of informational resources on the policies it supports and encourages readers to sign on to a petition demanding action on campaign finance reform. The group supports a constitutional amendment to overturn decisions like Citizens United and works to grow a grassroots movement in support of a range of legislative fixes to our campaign finance system.
Recent Successes
Working with partners across the country, PFAW has played a major role in gathering over 5 million signatures supporting a constitutional amendment to repair the damage done by Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United. In addition, the recent “Democracy for All” Video Challenge inspired more than 150 videos by Americans concerned about money in politics. PFAW is also part of a group of 13 organizations that recently released “Fighting Big Money, Empowering People: A 21st Century Democracy Agenda,” a money-in-politics reform agenda for 2016 presidential candidates.
Your Entry Points
Apply for an internship opportunity or sign on as a PFAW member to support its current money-out-of-politics campaign and read its many resources to learn about the policies and ideas it supports.