Thank you for the news about white nationalist Matthew Heimbach. His organization is dangerous and it is good to know that it poses little danger for now.

But something about the choices newspapers make on who and what to report about escapes me. This small, ostensibly moneyless organization warrants investigation and front-page placement. Yet the many democracy movements across the country are never talked about. Liberty Tree, Global Climate Convergence, Coffee Party, Move to Amend, Alliance for Democracy, Fix Democracy First, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and many churches are just a very few. Thousands, if not millions, of Americans belong to these groups, yet they are not mentioned in newspapers, NPR or on television. Why?

All due respect to volunteers recruited to work this season, election campaigns are the parties of democracy. The much-longer movement-building is what it takes to have a functioning democracy; that’s hard work. Hard work, but vital if it is democracy we want and not the illusion we live under.

"We have the best Congress money can buy," humorist Will Rogers quipped in the 1930s. More recent comedians have suggested that politicians wear NASCAR-like jumpsuits so citizens can see the logos of all of their sponsors.

Trouble is, the joke is no longer funny. Many of us think special-interest money and the corruption it creates are threatening the very future of American democracy.