It is troubling that Democrat Ann Ravel, a member of the Federal Elections Commission, is quitting because of what she terms gridlock that has left little hope to address campaign finance abuses. The demise of our democracy happens one voice at a time.

Since 2010 money has been flooding into our national and local elections, taking away the one voice, one vote principle of our Constitution. When corporations and high-net-worth individuals make large campaign contributions, they drown out the voice of the people and threaten our democracy. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.’’

I am a member of American Promise, a grass-roots organization that supports a 28th Amendment that would overturn Citizens United v. FEC. The 2010 Supreme Court decision gave human constitutional rights to corporations and struck down laws that provided limits on campaign spending, with increasingly frightening consequences.

Our democracy is tenuous at present, and we need all citizens to add their voices to push through the 28th Amendment to restore our democracy.

Deborah Scarff, Burlington