Disgruntled citizens no longer must feel they’re trees falling in the woods with no one around to hear them.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that when it comes to the 2016 presidential election, citizens are most worried about companies and wealthy individuals drowning out their voices and swaying the outcome at their expense, “more than any of the five other issues tested.”

And it’s not just The Wall Street Journal reporting that consensus.  

Reporting on a brand-new New York Times/CBS poll, the first line of Sunday’s Times article says it all: “Americans of both parties fundamentally reject the regime of untrammeled money in elections.”

If so many Americans agree that meaningful changes to campaign finance laws are needed, what’s the hold up?

We’ve been saying for a long time that reform isn’t left side vs. right side.  It’s inside vs. outside. Or as The New York Times puts it, the concern about “the divide between Washington elites and the rest of the country.”  We are outsiders, and no matter how loud we are, we feel stuck in the woods where no one can hear us.

But we can be heard if we all speak with one voice.  The only way to overcome cynicism and the status quo is to turn the frustration in the polls into progress in the halls of Congress and the ballot box.  By working with our fellow citizens to record messages for members Congress, write letters to the editor in our communities, and meet with Congressional staff, they will get our message.  

And it’s easy to get involved - you can just go to mayday.us/local-action to tell us what you want to do.

The trees are falling, and the status quo is changing.  Make sure Congress listens, in Washington and back home at the ballot box. Go to mayday.us/local-action right now to let us know how you want to be heard even more.

Written by Dylan Schaffer, MAYDAY.US Summer Democracy Fellow