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The OS, our democracy. A broken democracy threatens a free and open Internet.
Mayday!
Big money has broken America's democracy. And it will take the Internet down with it.
Democracy is America's operating system. If it doesn't work, nothing else will. Through a series of court decisions and a steady weakening of campaign finance laws that's given us things like Super PACs, big money has exposed a major vulnerability in American democracy, which has allowed a steady stream of threats and challenges to a free and open internet. These threats aren't isolated. They are systemic. They are a natural outcome of a root problem: the money problem.
In a money-driven system, threats to the Internet are features, not bugs.
In a democracy, the critical factor for a politician getting elected should be the support and approval of ordinary people. Keep them happy, and a politician gets the job. Sure, other things are important too (like money to spend on campaigns). But ordinary people's opinions have to be #1. That's what keeps the system working.
That's not how our democracy works now.
Today, the most important factor for a politician to get elected isn't support from the American public. It's big money from a small group of rich and powerful political donors — about 150,000 people, to be exact. That's less than the number of Americans named Lester.
Members of Congress spend up to 70 percent of their time courting these donors. If a politician wants to get elected, the most important thing for them to do is keep these people happy. And what makes them happy is not necessarily good for the rest of us. A Princeton study — the largest empirical study of American policy decisions ever in the history of political science — went so far as to say that, because our government pays so little attention to the preferences of ordinary citizens, America isn't much of a democracy anymore, but more of an oligarchy. Seriously.
MAYDAY: the Internet has a Super PAC.
We started as a small group of dedicated volunteers led by Harvard law professor and anti-corruption activist Lawrence Lessig. In May, we launched MAYDAY, a citizen-crowdfunded, kickstarted Super PAC to end all Super PACs. We set a seemingly impossible goal: to raise $1 Million from small donors in one month, and only keep the funds if the goal was met. With the help of the people, we met the goal in just two weeks. Then we got the $1 Million matched by a group of donors who, unlike most political donors, would like to level the playing field, even if it means seeing their influence decreased.
This month, we're doing it again, and the goal is even more impossible: to raise $5 Million by July 4th and declare independence from a broken system. And then get that amount matched. With $12 million total in hand, MAYDAY will take on five congressional races to make campaign finance reform THE issue in those races. And then, in 2016, MAYDAY will use those lessons and skills to elect a Congress committed to fundamental reform of this system.
Can a Super PAC really end the big money problem? We think it could (read this piece by Lessig for a deep dive). Ironic? Yes. But embrace the irony. Pledge what you can and join us.
Paid for by Mayday PAC. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. www.MAYDAY.US
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