Two more hacking at the root
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
At least two more people joined the ranks of the public funding movement full-time last month. One of them you may have heard of, and the other you definitely have not.
The first is Lawrence Lessig, renowned thought leader and the only man I know of who could make copyright reform feel fun and easy. He has turned his attention and unique skillset to the pressing issue of the corrupting influence of money in our government. Lessig has launched a bipartisan group called Change Congress. It's based on a simple, four plank platform to end corruption in Congress. As you might have guessed, plank #4 is Support publicly-financed campaigns:
Publicly-financed campaigns will stop the cycle of campaign finance reform loopholes and ensure that big money stays out of Congress forever. Public financing has been supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
Lessig didn't join this movement by spinning the Current Events wheel. He saw the corrupting influence of money as the main roadblock to creating meaningful change within the system. Copyright reform, for example, is never going to happen as long as those with the most money can fund the laws that are best for them.
The second person is me, Matt Stempeck. I've studied government and politics because I believe that the best answers to our problems lie within the system, not outside of it. And I believe that our system desperately needs the energy, talent and passion of the very same people it so often repulses. We cannot give up and leave it to rot -- it's simply too important.
I've long seen publicly funded elections as a relatively easy solution to the root cause of so many of the problems we face. The Just $6 campaign sums it up quite concisely. It would cost us next to nothing to eliminate the need for candidates and elected officials to spend huge amounts of their time fundraising. Qualified public funding makes our races more competitive and encourages great leaders to run for public office. And finally, we can prevent the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise when our lawmakers owe favors to donors.
The outlook is bright. We're building strong bipartisan support for meaningful legislation. To risk a cliche, we're at the tipping point. If we can win this victory, it will spill over into the many, many other areas.
Join us today - put your email address in the box in the top right corner of this page. It's time to hack at the roots.
