They Died for
Democracy.
Not Dark Money.
On this Memorial Day, we honor those who gave their lives defending the right of every citizen to have a voice in their government — not just those wealthy enough to fund anonymous political machines
They stormed beaches at Normandy. They marched through jungles in Vietnam. They stood watch in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. They died — not for a party, not for a donor, not for a PAC — but for the principle that in America, every citizen's voice counts equally.
This Memorial Day, as we place flags on graves and pause to remember the fallen, it is worth asking a question they cannot answer for themselves: Is the democracy they died to protect still the one we have?
Because today, anonymous billionaires can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to shape elections without disclosing their names. Dark money groups with patriotic-sounding names — Last Frontier Action, One Nation, Majority Forward — flood the airwaves of states like Alaska with messages paid for by donors the public will never know. The system those donors built is legal. It is bipartisan. And it is a direct assault on the democratic principle that the men and women we honor today gave their lives to defend.
What They Actually Fought For
The men and women of the United States Armed Forces take an oath to defend the Constitution — not any politician, not any party, not any donor. The Constitution they swear to protect guarantees equal citizenship. One person. One vote. Government of, by, and for the people.
That principle has never been perfectly realized — but every generation has fought to bring it closer. The soldiers of World War II fought fascism, which held that powerful elites should rule over ordinary citizens. The soldiers of the Civil Rights era served alongside a movement demanding that Black Americans receive the equal democratic voice the Constitution promised. Veterans of every conflict have returned home to fight — through voting, organizing, and civic engagement — for a government that actually represents them.
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
— Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863Dark money is not a small procedural footnote in campaign finance law. It is a structural attack on that principle. When anonymous donors can spend unlimited sums to shape elections, government becomes — to the extent it responds to that money — government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy. The names on the headstones at Arlington did not die for that.
How Dark Money Dishonors the Fallen
Consider what the dark money system actually does:
A soldier earning $30,000 a year has one vote. An anonymous billionaire funding a dark money group has $33 million in anonymous political speech. The Constitution says they are equal citizens. The dark money system says otherwise.
Democracy requires an informed citizenry. When voters cannot identify who is funding the messages shaping their views, they cannot evaluate the credibility or motives of those messages. Darkness is not a side effect of dark money — it is the product.
Last Frontier Action. One Nation. American Crossroads. Majority Forward. These names invoke shared democratic values — and then operate in direct defiance of democratic transparency. The branding is deliberate. It is designed to make anonymous influence campaigns sound like civic engagement.
Republicans built the architecture. Democrats adopted it. Both parties now use 501(c)(4) dark money groups to influence elections while publicly decrying the system. The veterans buried at Arlington did not die for a system where both parties serve their anonymous donors first and the public second.
Tribalism: The Force That Makes Dark Money Work
Dark money alone cannot corrupt a democracy. It needs a delivery mechanism — a way to ensure that anonymous messages bypass critical thinking and land directly in the gut. That mechanism is political tribalism.
Tribalism begins, as researchers at Northwestern's Kellogg School have documented, when citizens stop asking whether a proposal is sound and start asking only who proposed it. Once that shift takes hold, the anonymous donor behind a dark money ad doesn't need to make a persuasive argument. They only need to activate fear, disgust, or loyalty toward the tribe — and the message does the rest.
"Out-party hatred now exceeds in-group solidarity. Leaders beholden to extremist donors care more about partisan purity than actual constituents."
— Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern UniversityThis is not an accident. Dark money doubled from 2020 to 2024 — reaching nearly $2 billion — precisely as political polarization in America hit historic highs. The two trends feed each other. Tribalism makes voters easier to manipulate with fear-based anonymous ads. Fear-based anonymous ads deepen tribalism. The cycle is self-reinforcing and enormously profitable — for the platforms that carry the ads, for the operatives who produce them, and for the anonymous donors who fund them.
Dark money groups use micro-targeted digital advertising to identify voters by tribal identity — party, religion, region, race, cultural markers. The anonymous donor doesn't need to persuade everyone. They only need to inflame the already-convinced.
The message frames the opponent not as a political adversary with different views, but as an existential threat to the tribe. "DC liberals are shutting down Homeland Security." "Big Oil is buying your senator." The goal is not information — it is alarm.
Research shows that tribalized partisans acquire, perceive, and evaluate political information in a biased manner — meaning they are far less likely to ask who paid for the message or whether it is true. Tribal loyalty shields the anonymous donor from scrutiny.
Corruption becomes intolerable when committed by rivals but somehow manageable when committed by allies. Standards shift with political identity. This is dark money's ultimate goal: a polarized electorate so consumed by hatred of the other side that it will never hold its own side accountable — including for accepting anonymous funding.
The veterans we honor today served alongside Americans of every political stripe. They ate together, bled together, and buried each other regardless of how they voted back home. The tribal politics dark money manufactures — the idea that your fellow citizen who votes differently is your enemy — is a direct betrayal of what those shared sacrifices meant.
Serious national problems cannot be solved in a climate of blind loyalty. Poverty, insecurity, and institutional decline do not yield to slogans. They require evidence, honesty, and the willingness to admit that one's own side can be wrong. Dark money profits from ensuring that never happens.
What Dark Money Looks Like in the Last Frontier
Alaska has more veterans per capita than almost any other state. The men and women who served — from Anchorage to Fairbanks to the smallest villages — understand sacrifice for a principle better than most. They deserve to know who is funding the political messages being aimed at them.
Alabama-registered 501(c)(4). DC-based operatives. Former Sullivan staffers. Six-figure ad buy. Zero donor disclosure. Local branding, anonymous national funding.
DC-linked Democratic 501(c)(4). $1M+ health care ad buy. Mid-six-figure gas prices campaign. Same anonymous structure. Different branding. Same lack of transparency.
Rove-McConnell network. $146.5M spent in 2022 without a single FEC disclosure. Now running Twitter/X ads targeting Peltola in Alaska with border security messaging.
$10.6M in TV time reserved for Alaska. Must disclose donors as a super PAC — but the 501(c)(4) feeder groups that fund it do not.
Alaska voters: none of these groups are required to tell you who is actually paying for their messages.
What Honoring the Fallen Actually Requires
Placing a flag on a grave is a beautiful act of remembrance. But it is not enough. The people who died for this democracy are owed more than ceremony. They are owed a country that continues to fight for the principles they believed in enough to die for.
That means demanding what three-quarters of Americans — Republican, Democrat, and independent — already say they want: disclosure. The simple, radical idea that when someone spends money to influence your vote, you have the right to know who they are.
Ask the question every time. When you see a political ad — on TV, on Facebook, on Twitter/X — ask: who actually paid for this? If you can't find out, that's the system working as designed.
Support the DISCLOSE Act. It would require organizations spending on elections to publicly report donations over $10,000. It has never passed. Ask your senators why.
Follow the partial trail. OpenSecrets.org and FollowTheMoney.org track what can be tracked. The disclosed money often points toward the undisclosed sources.
Hold candidates accountable — on both sides. Ask every candidate: do you support donor disclosure? Will you return dark money support? What they say — and what they do — are the test.
"The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude."
— Jeff MillerThis Memorial Day, the most fitting tribute to those who died for democracy is not silence — it is the demand that their sacrifice meant something. That the government they fought for still belongs to its citizens. That the vote they protected still counts equally, regardless of how many millions are spent trying to drown it out.
In Alaska, in every state, in every race — the dark money machine is running. It is legal. It is deliberate. And it will keep running until enough people decide that the men and women buried under those flags deserved better than this.
They gave everything for a democracy that belongs to everyone. The least we can do is fight to keep it that way.
In memory of all who served · Memorial Day 2026
Sources: OpenSecrets · Brennan Center · Campaign Legal Center · ProPublica · FollowTheMoney.org
Thomas Lamb · Analyzing Politics That Control Our Lives · thomasalamb.blogspot.com · May 2026
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