Bullshit. It takes hard work, but ordinary people can get out there and do things just fine if they actively work at it rather than just whining on online forums.

Do you have examples of citizen-campaigning that has caused law changes?

I don't disagree with you, but I tend to think that politicans will use citizen campaigns if they're useful and ignore them otherwise.

I helped get a law passed here in Italy. Not the US, but not known for great politics either.

http://www.governo.it/Notizie/Presidenza/dettaglio.asp?d=690...

Most of the marijuana legalization stuff isn't being driven by huge corporations.

Gay marriage rights are not a campaign that some lobbyist cooked up.

In my home state of Oregon, they legalized euthanasia a number of years ago. That wasn't exactly something with massive corporate backing... "Wash down that lethal dose of barbiturates with a refreshing Coca Cola!"

Regardless of corporate backing, _all_ these movements are powered by millions of dollars. That's how it works here in the US.

So what you are saying is that even grass roots movements, led by fairly ordinary people, can raise millions of dollars for their causes?

If they want to get legislation passed, then yes, they have to. I have no idea if they can or not.

Gay marriage in multiple states.

Most initiatives in California.

Megan's Law and various other laws named for crime victims.

Gay marriage, pot legalization and crime-victim laws don't hurt anyone's profit (or, in case of crime-victim laws, the cost of opposing the law is higher than the cost of letting it pass) so there are no well-funded adversaries trying to kill these laws for profit.

This is the No True Scotsman fallacy. It's especially egregious given how well-funded opposition to gay marriage actually is. But even if we were in an alternate reality where the evangelical right (and the institutions that prey on them) weren't bankrolling enormous fights against gay marriage, the point you're trying to make would still be fallacious.

Most of the opponents of marijuana legalization are alcohol companies. Their profits are highly threatened indeed.

Hard work and a lot of time. Ordinary people putting in large numbers of unpaid hours of work competing against highly paid lobbyists that wine and dine with the elite.