Mayday Anti-PAC On Its Second Round of Funding 247
wonkavader (605434) writes 'Lawrence Lessig's MAYDAY.US Super PAC to end all Super PACs (and more) is now on its second round of funding. The PAC has been reported on here before, but now the numbers are bigger. They hit their $1 million first goal easily, but now they aim to get another $5 million in the same time period. Lessig says that he's arranged for matching, again. It seems like the goals will be even higher in 2016: "For 2014, our goal is to raise $12 million and use it to make fundamental reform the key issue in five congressional races. And we'll apply what we learn then to 2016."'
Step in the right direction (Score:4, Interesting)
the naivety is painful (Score:4, Interesting)
Really? You're going to end the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics by out-fundraising them?
Having money is the one thing corporations are good at, and they're really, really good at it. If your strategy hinges on using money as influence, you're always going to lose, because they are FAR better and more practiced at that game than you are.
The only way to advance this particular agenda is to exploit the strengths that we have which corporations don't. We can fill the streets with real people, we can make disruptive spectacles and speak earnestly about social problems. Unlike corporations, we don't need to hide behind spokespeople and PACs, because we have authenticity. We are genuinely concerned about the future of our democracy, and though corporations can try hard to simulate that concern, it's never as authentic as the real thing.
The MAYDAY PAC is like David trying to beat Goliath in a fist fight. Don't fight on his terms, use the sling, idiot!
Re:May Day???? (Score:5, Interesting)
The issue is that the US has always been an oligarchy of the rich, realistically it came into being due to a tax revolt.
Money out of politics is not only possible, if you look else where in the world with functioning democracies and functioning electoral systems you can find examples:
In Germany
http://www.theatlantic.com/int... [theatlantic.com]
In Canada (with legislated limits)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic... [www.cbc.ca]
or see Frances new laws limiting funding
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/ca... [loc.gov]
If you believe that money is the only power then you have already been brainwashed to give up your democratic rights.
The average US Senate seat apparently costs ~ $7 million.
The entire Canadian Election spending per party ~ $21 million.
Obama spent well over $400 million for just his presidential campaign.
Think about what could be done with $379 million to address real problems in the US like education, healthcare etc....
The reason the rich are willing to waste their money is because they have too much of it (mainly because of tax law changes).
The average CEO salary in the US is now $10 million per year! Yet they pay less than 20% in taxes!
Even Warren Buffet thinks its time to tax the rich.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11... [nytimes.com]
If you did that the money that might otherwise be spent on political campaigns might actually do some good like funding education or public healthcare etc...
But then according to your brainwashing program the only power is money and any country that tries to democratically regulate the market (an artificial construct that only exists because of the enforcement of property laws) must a communist country (Canada) how else can we have publicly funded healthcare...
keep drinking the kool-aid, in the mean time we'll outlive you. Yes life expectancy is higher here, as is quality of life.
Re:interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
The Anti-Corruption Act [anticorruptionact.org] would go a long way towards helping. Lobbying is the major way that corporations influence legislation, and it needs to be completely stopped. It needs to be criminalized.
they must include implementing term limits on congress
I completely agree, that is long overdue. We have people currently in Congress who have been there for 40 or 50 years and have become millionaires because of it. That is not public service, that is a career. That needs to end also, there needs to be a strict limit of years of service covering both branches of Congress. If you've served 20 years in Congress, you are not eligible to get elected again. All the way back to the beginning, George Washington refused to run for a third term. A few others ran, but no one succeeded until FDR. After his death, the 22nd Amendment made the 2 term limit permanent instead of tradition. Term limits for Congress are long, long overdue.
The difficult thing about implementing any of this, whether it is banning lobbying or establishing term limits or banning corporate donations or whatever needs to happen in order to help, is that we are relying on Congress to limit themselves. Since the obvious goal for many of them is to remain in power, that's clearly an uphill battle.
I'm not waiting for a perfect solution. The Mayday PAC is a good start and I want to (and have) shown support. If it fails, and someone else decides to step up and take the leadership role, I'll support them too. If you're going to sit there and wait for a perfect solution then, well, you'll die before that happens. Many, many people want to see change, what we need is a good leader.