Money in Politics is The Biggest Problem Our Republic Has
When I read or hear about the problems that government has that come from it being unresponsive to voters, I remember a line from one of my favorite movies, a line that is the most instructive to anyone to understand how politics have worked through out my life in the USA: Follow The Money.
It’s easy to do:
- Find one of your three legislators (two U.S. Senators or Representative) on FEC.gov
- Look at 3 PACs donating to their election campaigns.
- Follow those 3 PACs through the FEC database to other campaigns.
- Look at those other legislators - do you find a legislator that is a memeber of the other side of the political Pushme-Pullyou? Which end got more money - the D or the R? Is the D or R a bastard?
This segment of video is a great illustration of how we are penned in by the campaign donation:
Get Money Out is the best solution that I’ve seen to this problem. If you don’t have to get on a plane to go visit your Mad Money, I can’t urge you strongly enough to sign this petition. I’ve come accross some sceptisism/critisizm of the site because it was started by Dylan Ratigan, citing his past work on CNBC as a stock market cheerleader. That comes across to me as purity standing in the way of progress. I’m interested in getting something mostly good done, I’m interested in the idea here, not the history of a guy who was doing really well along most everyone else and is worried because other are not any more.
Take Your Votes Off the Auction Block
getmoneyout.comCorporations are People? Money is Speech? Dollars have more votes than Souls?
All grievances and no demands make OWS a lengthy movement?
“In its first official declaration, the movement did not so much list demands as it did list its grievances: “no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power,” the declaration said, blaming corporations for a long list of perceived injustices, including corporate support for mortgage foreclosures, public bailouts, “colonialism,” the “torture” of “nonhuman animals” and “poison[ing] the food supply.” - Politico, Tim Mak
As South Carolina announces a schedule move to Jan. 21, the headline remains Occupy Wall Street. The highlighted grievance seems to be the easiest to agree upon from any side When money is injected into politics, corruption is the primary side effect.
This ideal is looking to be the next political point to take position on. And the talking heads/pundits are actually stepping in to take sides. Dylan Ratigan has started the “Get Money Out” campaign with over 80,000 signatures to the petition at the time of this writing.
But how do you get money out? That’s where publiccampaign.org comes in. There is legislature introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.), Walter Jones (R-N.C) and Chellie Pingree (D-Miane), called Fair Elections Now Act that would push campaign financing from the private to public sector.
This movement needs more attention. And if I were the Senators, I would take a trip to Wall Street to help push this bill further.
this bitch attacking john's twitter needs to calm her tits. dear lord.
just because you’re not an expert at something, that doesn’t mean you can’t have opinion and speak your mind.
i mean, imagine if we lived in a world where the only ideas we ever came up with were from people who were experts at it? then where would new minds come from, ya know?
i just think it’s ridiculous what she’s saying. she’s basically telling him he’s not capable of understanding things outside of music.
people sometimes..
Get Money Out: Goo Goo Dolls, Dylan Ratigan discuss eliminating corporate money from the election process.
This may be old news for most people, as this interview was from October 8th, but it was brought to my attention last night by the Goos themselves. At their concert in Ithaca, New York on Wednesday, October 19th, frontman John Rzeznik mentioned a petition that would be available to sign after the show: Get Money Out.
As Rzeznik and Ratigan discuss in the interview, the petition is doing well, but how will it work? What can be done to eliminate corporate money from elections? Well, the petition calls for a Constitutional Amendment. Read more and/or sign the petition here, if you’d like.
Dylan Ratigan Wants to Get Money Out
getmoneyout.com”No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office.”
au courant attitudes crusades to reverse "Citizens United"
CED (Committee for Economic Development) presided by Charles Kolb (google him) seems to be in sync with www.getmoneyout.com and Occupy Wall Street movement that is branching out to other communities throughout the US. Return democracy to the People seems to be the chant they have in common. Get on board with keeping private money out of the electoral process, and ensuring transparency and judicial integrity. Secret donations from corporations elect judges in many states. Think about it. Sign the petition on the website mentioned above. Join the crusade to reverse the 5/4 “Citizens United” case that has tainted the political process.
The Occupy Wall Street movement and its offshoots have given new hope to the disenfranchised, and has spread fear among those who favor big money interests that have outsourced jobs, cut worker’s health-care and pay, and left thousands—including too many university graduates—unemployed and in serious debt. People who have lost their jobs or cannot find work due to the scarcity of available jobs cannot purchase from businesses; therefore, it behooves all of us to support The American Jobs Act. Congress needs to put people to work fixing what’s out-of-date and/or broken now. Serious tax reform needs to be tackled too. Congress is dysfunctional because of electoral politics and IOU’s to big money interests.
