[Peace] Opportunity to support meaningful campaign finance reform

[Ben Galewsky]

For several years now, I've been reading about the insidious role 
campaign finance has played in corrupting our entire political process. 
Until recently it's seemed as if the /Citizens United/ decision was the 
only direction this was headed.

My favorite legal egghead, Lawrence Lessig, has created an organization 
that is bringing together Republicans and Democrats, Tea Party and 
Occupy. It is called Represent.us and I believe they have finally 
created a credible plan to end this corrosive process.

They are looking to gather 1 million citizen co-sponsors of /The 
American Anti-Corruption Act/ via their website:
     http://represent.us/cosponsor/9516

The Act was crafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman 
Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy 
reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political 
spectrum.

The Act would transform how elections are financed, how lobbyists 
influence politics, and how political money is disclosed. It's a 
sweeping proposal that would reshape the rules of American politics, and 
restore ordinary Americans as the most important stakeholders instead of 
major donors.

Their plan is to bypass the current, corrupt system and take the act 
directly to the voters. They intend to mobilize constituents in each of 
the 435 congressional districts to demand that their representative 
support the act in its entirety, without amendments.

As progressives, I believe that we have become accustomed to hacking 
away at the branches of specific issues. By cutting off the influence of 
corporations and the wealthy, I think we have a unique chance to address 
a root cause of injustice from the NRA to big oil, from the military to 
the pharmaceutical giants. I think this represent the greatest 
opportunity of our generation to stop begging for crumbs and finally 
bend the system towards justice and equal representation.

What can you do?

 1. Take a look at this excellent website to read about the details:
    http://anticorruptionact.org/

 2. Sign on to be a cosponsor of the act:
    http://represent.us/cosponsor/9516

 3. Share this with your contacts

 4. Start a discussion of how we can mobilize East Central Illinois
    across the political spectrum in support of this act.


Thank you for your kind attention.

Ben
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